ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JULY 9, 1965
TRAIN robber Ronald Arthur Biggs was sprung from Wandsworth Prison yesterday in an operation that made nonsense of top- security. The plotters used a removal van converted to a tailor-made escape machine, with sliding roof panel and rope ladders. Biggs was serving 30 years for his part in the £2.6 million raid two years ago.
JULY 9, 1966
BRITAIN and France have agreed that the Channel Tunnel should be built, it was announced from Downing Street yesterday at the close of Mr Harold Wilson’s talks with the French Prime Minister, M Georges Pompidou. The proposed tunnel will be 32 miles long — 23 miles under the sea.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KeLLy McGILLIS, 61. The American actress starred in eighties films Top Gun, Witness and The Accused. Having hit the big time, she retreated to Florida to run a Caribbean restaurant, Kelly’s Bar & Grill. During filming for Top Gun, 5ft 10in McGillis said she had to stoop so as not to appear taller than co-star Tom Cruise. ‘I towered over him,’ she said. TOM HANKS, 62. The star of Saving Private Ryan and Big is the only person, apart from Spencer Tracy, to have won two Best Actor Oscars in consecutive years (Philadelphia and Forrest Gump). He has been voted the most beloved actor in the U.S. five times. He has a collection of more than 150 typewriters and wrote a book about his love of the devices.
BORN ON THIS DAY
MeRvyN PeAKe (1911-1968). The english author and illustrator, who was born in China, is best known for the Gormenghast trilogy of novels. After suffering ill health, it took 12 years for him to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, during which time he underwent electric shock treatments and an operation on his brain. DAMe Barbara Cartland (1901-2000). The novelist from Birmingham, the ‘Queen of Romance’, wrote more than 700 titles and sold over a billion copies. She penned an average of a book a fortnight, earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most prolific author. Dame Barbara, stepgrandmother to Princess Diana, sent her own obituary, bound in pink ribbon, to newspapers a decade before her death.
ON JULY 9…
IN 1982, Michael Fagan, 31, broke into Buckingham Palace and chatted to the Queen for ten minutes in her bedroom.
IN 1997, boxer Mike Tyson was banned from the ring and fined $3million after biting the ear of opponent evander Holyfield.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Vexillology (1950s) A) The study of flags. B) Study of magic. C) Study of weapons. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Glass ceiling — meaning an unseen barrier to getting on in the workplace, principally in regard to women or minorities. It was first used in a 1984 article, and Hillary Clinton referred to it on losing the U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
It Is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all