ON THIS DAY
March 3, 2020
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 3, 1960
Sergeant elvis (the Pelvis) Presley, his two years of army service over, flew home to america from Frankfurt. the screams of american and Scots teenagers competed with the noise of aircraft engines when Presley’s plane landed en route at Prestwick where elvis signed autograph books at the U.S. air Force base.
MARCH 3, 2000
As the 84-year-old former Chilean dictator, general augusto Pinochet, was flown home to Santiago yesterday, the British taxpayer was left with the bill triggered by Pinochet’s arrest in London in 1998. the legal charges for the 16-month court battle [after Spain issued a warrant for Pinochet on murder charges] plus his round-theclock security look like topping £15 million.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ronan Keating, 43. the irish singersongwriter was working in a Dublin shoe shop when he saw an advert for auditions which led to him becoming frontman of Boyzone. his first solo single was When You Say nothing at all from the soundtrack to richard Curtis’s film notting hill. Keating said: ‘as soon as he mentioned the title, i was hooked.’ the song reportedly made the film’s Julia roberts cry when she heard it. Miranda Richardson, 62. the Bafta- winning actress, right, played ruth ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, in Dance With a Stranger (1985) and Queenie in Blackadder ii. She became interested in falconry aged 12 and says of the birds of prey: ‘i love them, they’re fascinating, and there is a bond; it’s not the same as a dog or a cat but they do get bonded with specific people.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
RONALD SEARLE ( 1920- 2011). the cartoonist from Cambridge was the creator of the St trinian’s School comic strip series. During World War ii, Searle was captured by the Japanese and worked as a forced labourer helping to build the Burma railway. he documented his experience in hundreds of sketches which he hid under the mattresses of men dying from cholera. James Doohan (19202005). the actor, right, who was among the Canadians who landed on Juno Beach during D- Day, auditioned for the part of montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott in Star trek. When asked which nationality he thought worked best for the character, Doohan said: ‘it’s got to be a Scotsman if he’s an engineer.’ he is forever associated with the catchphrase ‘Beam me up, Scotty’.
ON MARCH 3...
IN 1894, William gladstone resigned as prime minister, aged 84. IN 1973, Slade notched up their fourth no1, with Cum on Feel the noize.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Fringilline (c1850)
a) relating to a mushroom. B) Fruity. C) relating to a finch. answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Tail wagging the dog: a small component dominating the whole. From the 1800s, it alludes to a happy dog wagging its tail so much its entire body moves.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
What a queer thing life is! So unlike anything else, don’t you know, if you see what I mean
P.G. Wodehouse, English writer (1881-1975)
JOKE OF THE DAY
What’S yellow and stupid?
Thick custard.
Guess The Definition answer: C.