ON THIS DAY
October 22, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
OCTOBER 22, 1963
DOCTORS early today started an operation on Mr Michael Foot, who was seriously injured in a car crash yesterday. The wife of the 50-year-old Labour MP, Jill Craigie, film director and TV scriptwriter, received pelvis and leg injuries in the crash. After an operation, she was satisfactory. Mr Foot has broken ribs, a lung injury and a broken leg.
OCTOBER 22, 1966
EIGHTY-FIVE children and teachers were killed and another 46 were feared trapped early today in the wrecked school at Aberfan — 18 hours after it was overwhelmed by a mountain of moving slag. Another 36 were in hospital. Eighty- eight escaped. The disaster ‘wiped out a whole generation of children,’ said Mr George Thomas, Minister of State for Wales. [The final death toll was 116 children and 28 adults.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
GEORGE COHEN, 80. The Londonborn footballer played in every England game in the 1966 World Cup finals and won 37 caps for his country as well as appearing for Fulham in 459 games. He was described by George Best as ‘the best full-back I ever played against’. He has pledged to donate his brain to scientific research to help improve understanding of health risks faced by footballers, particularly dementia. JEFF GOLDBLUM, 67. The 6ft 4in U. S. star of Jurassic Park and Independence Day had his first child at 62 with his third wife, a former Olympic gymnast half his age. His dog is called Woody Allen and he plays piano, performing at Glastonbury in June.
BORN ON THIS DAY
TIMOTHY LEARY (1920-1996). The U.S. psychologist, branded ‘the most dangerous man in America’ by President Nixon, was a famous advocate of LSD and other psychedelic drugs, leading him to multiple arrests and imprisonment. Leary, who popularised the phrase ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’, said his own first ‘turn-on’ was with nitric oxide from his dentist father’s surgery. JOAN FONTAINE (19172013). Born in Tokyo to English parents, the Hollywood star had a decadeslong feud with her elder sister, Olivia de Havilland. In 1942, Joan (far right, with her sibling) won the Best Actress Oscar for Suspicion, beating Olivia, nominated for Hold Back The Dawn. Even 37 years later, at an Oscars winners’ reunion, they had to be seated on opposite ends of the stage. Olivia, who went on to win two Oscars, is now 103.
ON OCTOBER 22…
IN 1964, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre turned down the Nobel Prize in Literature. ( Dr Zhivago author Boris Pasternak did the same under pressure from Soviet authorities in 1958.)
IN 1966, Soviet spy George Blake broke out of Wormwood Scrubs by climbing a ladder made from knitting needles.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Puttee (coined c. 1870)
A) A curl on a wig. B) A cloth to protect the ankle. C) A tankard. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Cast pearls before swine: To give or show something valuable to the unappreciative, it comes from St Matthew’s Gospel.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.
Pericles, Greek statesman c. 495-429 BC
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a thieving alligator?
A crookodile.
Guess The Definition answer: B