ON THIS DAY
September 12, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 12, 1939
BuSTLES are out, crinolines are pre-war, decolletes are rising skywards, and sleevelengths are travelling down towards the wrist. Such is the effect of war upon fashion. Mr Norman Hartnell, the Queen’s dress designer, said yesterday: ‘Women will want sober frocks at such a time as this.’
SEPTEMBER 12, 1978
SCOTLAND Yard is looking into the mysterious death of 49-year-old Bulgarian playwright Georgi Ivanov Markov, who defected to the West in 1969. Markov told police he was stabbed in the leg with an umbrella. He died of blood poisoning at St James’ Hospital, South London, yesterday, four days after falling ill. [Pathologists found ricin traces in a metal pellet embedded in Markov’s thigh.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JENNIFER HuDSON, 38. The Chicago-born singer and actress was a 2004 American Idol finalist and later landed an Oscar for her debut movie role in Dreamgirls. In 2008, her mother, brother and sevenyear-old nephew were shot dead by her former brotherin-law. Hudson will play Aretha Franklin in a biopic and its producer said: ‘Aretha was adamant that it be Jennifer.’ HANS ZIMMER, 62. The German film composer won an Academy Award for his score for The Lion King and earned Oscar nominations for Gladiator, Dunkirk, Inception and Intersteller. He also wrote the theme tune for 1980s TV quiz Going For Gold, saying: ‘I’m not ashamed of it! It paid the rent and opened up all sorts of doors.’ The 2017
#stopHansZimmer hashtag came about after critics complained he was ubiquitous.
BORN ON THIS DAY
FREDDIE JONES (19272019). The actor from Stoke-on-Trent was famous for playing Sir in The Dresser on stage, freakshow owner in film The Elephant Man and Sandy Thomas in ITV soap Emmerdale. Jones said: ‘My life springs from my wife, my family, my work and my whisky.’ Jones kept a stone in his shoe for months while playing Claudius in The Caesars — to perfect a limp — and was named World’s Best Television Actor at Monte Carlo in 1969. PAuL WALKER (1973-2013). The u.S. star, famous for the Fast And The Furious film series, was killed aged 40 when the speeding Porsche he was travelling in as a passenger hit a lamp-post and two trees and burst into flames. One critic said: ‘Like Steve McQueen and Barry Newman, Walker simply looked good behind the wheel of a fast car.’
ON SEPTEMBER 12…
IN 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson discovered a river in North America that would be named after him. IN 1960, the first MoT test was introduced to ensure the roadworthiness of vehicles.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Welt (14th century) A) Lean deer not fit to hunt. B) Leather rim of a shoe. C) Dead tree. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Bread-and-butter letter: A handwritten thank-you note to a host; suggesting these are written as a matter of course, just as bread and butter was served on the table.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
THE music is not in the notes, but in the silence between. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT happened after the world tonguetwister champion was arrested? He was given a tough sentence.
Guess The Definition answer: B.