ON THIS DAY Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 25, 1945

JAPAN, banned from the production of all instruments of war, hopes to convert itself into an international holiday destination. A month ago, the Allied Occupation Army stepped ashore in Japan carrying rifles, machine guns and flame-throwers — today they are clutching travel guide books.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1963

THE pop music world was shaken yesterday by the news that The Springfields, acknowledged as Britain’s top vocal trio, are splitting up to concentrate on individual careers in showbiz. Dusty Springfield, 23- year- old blonde ex- salesgirl, has her first solo record released next month.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

WIll SMITH, 50. The Oscar-nominated star of Men In Black and Ali was once ranked the most bankable star in the world (his films have made more than $7.5 billion globally). Smith was the first winner of a Grammy award for a rap performance — and can solve a Rubik’s Cube puzzle in less than a minute. CATHERINE ZETAJONES, CBE, 49. The Welsh actress, right, shares a birthday with husband and Hollywood star Michael Douglas, 74. Her father David owned a sweet factory and mother Patricia was a seamstress. The family’s modest fortunes improved when they won £100,000 in a bingo competition. The cash helped them to pay for the dance lessons that set Catherine on a path to fame.

BORN ON THIS DAY

CHRISTOPHER REEVE (1952-2004). The American actor found fame as Superman but struggled to ‘escape the cape’. He was paralysed from the neck down following a horse riding accident in 1995, but managed to write two books and continued to act and direct. Just a month before his death, aged 52, he told chat show host Oprah Winfrey that he thought it ‘very possible’ he would walk again. RONNIE BARKER (19292005). The Bedfordshireborn star of Porridge and The Two Ronnies, right, acted alongside Maggie Smith at the Oxford Playhouse but advised her: ‘If I were you, I’d give up.’ In 2006, he was given a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, at which vergers carried four huge candles instead of the usual two — a nod to his famous ‘fork handles’ sketch.

ON SEPTEMBER 25…

IN 1818, James Blundell became the first doctor to perform a transfusion using human blood at london’s Guy’s hospital.

IN 1906, Spanish civil engineer leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated the first remote control to crowds in the port of Bilbao by guiding a boat from the shore.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Ichthyophagous (1850) A) Divination using mirrors. B) Divination by tossed pebbles. C) Fish-eating Answer below

PHRASE EXPLAINED

To be in fine fettle — meaning to be in good order; the word ‘fettle’ means to arrange, or prepare and may derive from the Old English ‘fetel’ for a belt, with the sense of girding oneself, as for a challenge.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

SOMEONE told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales Stephen Hawking, physicist (1942-2018) WHAT do you call a dessert made with sour milk? Quite off pudding. Guess The Definition answer: C