ON THIS DAY
OCTOBER 17, 1939
PICCADILLY Circus has lost ‘Eros’ until the end of the war. The famous statue which has stood above a London fountain since 1893 (and is actually a depiction of Anteros, not his fellow Greek love god Eros) was moved to a safe place yesterday. It was not moved in the last war.
OCTOBER 17, 1978
THE bells of Rome’s 500 churches rang out last night to welcome Pope John Paul II after one of the most astonishing elections in history. He is Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla — a former factory worker and World War II resistance agent, and the first non-Italian Pope for 400 years. His predecessor died after just 33 days in the post.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FELICITY JoNES, 36, right. The Star Wars actress from Birmingham was nominated for an oscar for playing Stephen Hawking’s wife Jane in The Theory of Everything. She says she loves taking the last Tube home when ‘everybody is really drunk. There are people singing, people eating McDonald’s, people sleeping. I love the energy.’ Her journalist father advised Felicity: ‘Never trust journalists.’ MATTHEW MACFADYEN, 45. The Norfolkborn actor is husband to Bodyguard actress and his former Spooks co- star Keeley Hawes. He has been the voice of Harrods’ in-store Tannoy announcements and has played Mr Darcy on film, but was far more excited when a journalist compared his face to that of a Moomin, the hippo-like children’s book characters. He said: ‘I like Moomins. Matthew MacMoomin — that’s nice.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
EVEL KNIEVEL ( 19382007). The u.S. motorbike stuntman, right, was born Robert Knievel and got his nickname after a police officer referred to ‘that evil Knievel’. He altered the spelling because he didn’t want to be mistaken for a Hell’s Angel gang member. The former copper miner was fired after he destroyed power lines while attempting a wheelie in an earthmoving machine. ARTHUR MILLER (1915-2005). The playwright, whose works include The Crucible and Death of A Salesman, was married to Marilyn Monroe for five years. The union was reported under the headline ‘Egghead Weds Hourglass’. His son-in-law is the actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
ON OCTOBER 17 . . .
IN 1849, Polish-French composer Frederic Chopin died, aged 39.
IN 2008, Iran failed to register the world’s largest sandwich with Guinness World Records because crowds began eating the 1,500-metre long snack before it could be officially measured.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Flange (coined mid-15th century) A) To dig up weeds with a hoe. B) To desert. C) A projecting flat rim. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Actions speak louder than words — meaning what one does has a greater impact on people than what one says. This comes out of the truism that people often say one thing but mean another.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
AGE is deformed, youth unkind, we scorn their bodies, they scorn our mind. Thomas Bastard, English poet (1566-1618)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY was the baby ant confused? Because all his uncles were ants. guess The Definition answer: C.