ON THIS DAY
April 18, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 18, 1968
PRINCESS Anne passed her driving test at the first attempt yesterday, aged 17, at Isleworth, Middlesex, in a red Rover 2000. She began driving at Balmoral, Windsor and Sandringham, and her first instructors were the Queen and Prince Philip.
APRIL 18, 1984
HUNDREDS of armed police were surrounding the Libyan Embassy in St. James’s Square, London last night after a horrific machine-gun attack in which WPC Yvonne Fletcher, 25, was killed while policing a protest outside the building.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAVID TENNANT, 48. The actor from West Lothian, star of Tv’s Broadchurch, Casanova and Doctor Who, is best known as the tenth incarnation of the Time Lord, who he resolved to play aged three. At 14, he wrote a school essay on the series, Intergalactic Overdose. His career took off slowly — he claimed to have failed 16 auditions for Taggart, joking he was the ‘only Scottish actor alive’ who hadn’t been in the crime drama. JANE LEEVES, 58. The Essex- born star became Britain’s highest paid-actress ever in 2002 after signing a £20million contract to play careworker Daphne Moon in u.S. sitcom Frasier. A trained ballerina, she started out as one of Hill’s Angels on the Benny Hill Show before moving to Los Angeles to study acting alongside Winona Ryder and Jim Carrey. She recalled telling Carrey, after seeing him perform in comedy clubs: ‘“This isn’t going to get you anywhere. What you’re good at is that nice Jimmy Stewart stuff.” Thank God he never listened.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
WILLIAM DEBENHAM (1794-1863). The English retailer founded Debenhams department stores [which was put into administration last week]. Debenham bought a share in a draper’s shop on London’s Wigmore Street in 1813. The firm became successful thanks to victorian mourning practices that included a dress code for widows, involving shawls and gloves. By 1950, Debenhams was the largest UK department store group. JAN KAPLICKÝ ( 19372009). The Prague- born Future Systems architect, who fled to London after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, designed the Birmingham Selfridges store — studded with aluminium discs described as dustbin lids by locals — and the space-age media centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground, which drew comparisons with a giant radio alarm clock.
ON APRIL 18…
IN 1949, the Irish Republic declared its independence. IN 1980, Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Pavonine (17th c) Relating to: A) A peacock. B) A nightingale. C) A parrot. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To be in someone’s black books: Meaning to be regarded unfavourably; ‘ black book’ was first used for any official book bound in black including the Bible, and later for any book used to record the names of people liable to censure or punishment.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I LIke nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells
Theodore Geisel (aka Dr Seuss), U.S. children’s author (1904-1991)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the horse sneeze? Hay fever. Guess The Definition answer: A.