ON THIS DAY
OCTOBER 4, 1979
A DECISION by a Los Angeles judge means that TV watchers who own video tape-recorders are free to record as many films from their sets as they want. His ruling came after Walt Disney and Universal City Studios sued Sony Corporation, makers of video players, alleging that the sets violated copyright laws and cost the studios royalties on future airings of their movies.
OCTOBER 4, 1990
TEAR gas filled the streets of Berlin last night as the first day of a united Germany came to a violent end [West Germany and East Germany declared they would become a unified country once more, after 45 years of division]. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 60, promised world leaders his newly united country would continue to work for world peace and to atone for the Holocaust.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANNEKA RICE, 61. The TV and radio presenter, who is competing in Strictly Come Dancing, shot to fame hosting TV shows Treasure Hunt and Challenge Anneka (though her real first name is Anne). Now a painter and radio 2 presenter, she started her career at the BBC World Service before moving to Hong Kong, where she dubbed kung-fu movies. CHRIS LOWE, 60. The Blackpool-born singer- songwriter founded the Pet Shop Boys with Neil Tennant, whom he met in an electronics shop in Chelsea. They chose the band’s name because they had friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing. They have had four No 1 hits: West End Girls, It’s A Sin, Always On My Mind and Heart.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DOROTHY LAWRENCE (1896-1964). The Salisbury journalist was refused the chance to report from the front line in World War I, so she used a razor to give herself a shaving rash, learnt how to march like a soldier and headed for the Somme trenches. After ten days she revealed her identity and was sent home. Lawrence was committed to a lunatic asylum in 1925 and remained in psychiatric institutions until her death in 1964. DAMON RUNYON (1880-1946). The writer is best known for his short stories about New york life, two of which inspired the musical Guys And Dolls, which was turned into a 1955 film starring Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. He once advised a young author: ‘To hell with plot. No one remembers much about the plots of Dickens and Mark Twain, they remember the characters.’
ON OCTOBER 4...
IN 1539, a marriage treaty between King Henry VIII and his fourth wife-to-be, Anne of Cleves, was signed. IN 2010, actor and comedian Sir Norman Wisdom died, aged 95.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Espalier (1655) A) To train a tree against a wall. B) A manoeuvre in which the horse throws its hind legs high. C) A horse’s attempt to dump his rider.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Put the cart before the horse: to do something the wrong way round (the horse always pulls the cart). Coined in the 1500s.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know. Diane Arbus, American photographer (1923-1971)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY didn’t the teddy bear want cake on his birthday? He was stuffed. Guess The Definition answer: A.