ON THIS DAY

December 6, 2019

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

DECEMBER 6, 1933

PRINCESS Elizabeth will probably see her first play towards the close of the Christmas holidays. The Duchess of York has promised to attend, on January 30, a matinee at the Cambridge Theatre at which the first performance of Ever So Long Ago is to be given in aid of St John’s Clinic and Institute of Physical Medicine, and hopes that the Princess will accompany her.

DECEMBER 6, 1958

PRIME Minister Harold Macmillan pressed a button, a barrier pole lifted … and Britain’s first high-speed road was open. Lancashire police put on a race between two Jaguar saloons to show how the new motorway will save time in bypassing Preston. One went along the A6, the other used the bypass. It took 18 ½ minutes to go by the old road. The other Jaguar took 6 ½ minutes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

PRINCESS SOFIA, 35. The Swedish royal was a glamour model — once posing with a boa constrictor — reality TV star and yoga instructor before marrying Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland. She was described as the toughest member of Sweden’s royal family last year after competing in an endurance event featuring fire, mud and barbed wire. ANDREW ‘FREDDIE’ FLINTOFF, 42. The former England cricketer from Preston has tried his hand at modelling, acting and boxing, and now hosts BBC’s Top Gear. A winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, he says he is afraid of the dark. At a Downing Street reception to celebrate his team’s 2005 Ashes win, he sat at the Prime Minister’s chair with his feet on the Cabinet table and drank a beer.

BORN ON THIS DAY

DAVE BRUBECK (19202012). The pioneering American jazz pianist and composer’s 1959 single Take Five was the first millionselling record in jazz history. Brubeck grew up on a remote ranch and his family did not even own a radio. Three of his sons also became jazz artists. HENRY VI (1421-1471). The last Lancastrian ruler of England succeeded his father, Henry V, when he was nine months old. But in 1453, Richard, Duke of York, was made protector after Henry had a breakdown. He was later taken prisoner and died in the Tower of London. His legacy includes founding Eton College, king’s College, Cambridge and All Souls College, Oxford.

ON DECEMBER 6…

IN 343AD, Saint Nicholas died, aged 73. IN 1999, in a referendum, Australians voted against replacing the Queen as head of state.