ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 6, 1945
BRITAIN’S millions of women war workers had their wages raised 18 per cent, more than the increases granted to men during 1944, and their working hours were extended by only a third of the extra time put in by the men.
MARCH 6, 1969
U.S. ASTRONAUT Rusty Schweickart’s space walk in his ‘golden’ space suit, planned as a highlight of the Apollo 9 flight, is off, officials in Houston confirmed tonight. He vomited twice in the day. Schweickart is subject to motion sickness and was the first astronaut to ask for his antisickness pill before Monday’s blast-off.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ROB REINER, 73. The Emmy-winning U.S. actor has found greater success as a director — with 1980s classics Stand By Me and When Harry Met Sally. In the latter, his actress mother gets the funniest line of the movie — after Meg Ryan’s Sally fakes an orgasm in a new York deli, Estelle Reiner’s character tells a waiter: ‘I’ll have what she’s having.’ His father, Carl, created The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s. JEAN BOHT, 88. The actress from Cheshire made her name playing nellie Boswell, the lead role in 1980s BBC sitcom Bread, which peaked at 21 million viewers — more than Coronation Street. It depicted a family that some saw as workshy scroungers. Boht, right, said: ‘A taxi driver refused to take me to the station because of Bread.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
MICHELANGELO (1475-1564). The Italian sculptor, painter and architect is bestknown for his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his nude sculpture of David. His nose was broken as a teenager by a jealous rival, Torrigiano, who said: ‘I gave him such a blow on the nose that I felt bone and cartilage go down like biscuit beneath my knuckles, and this mark of mine he will carry with him to the grave.’ He was once commissioned by the ruler of Florence to make a snowman. JOHN NOAKES (1934-2017). The former RAF engine fitter and actor, right, became Blue Peter’s action man and longest- serving presenter, hosting from 1965 until 1978. He said the pressure of the job ‘ was terrible’, and referred to the series’ editor, Biddy Baxter, as ‘a bully who treated me like some country yokel from Yorkshire’. He complained he was not insured for his dangerous stunts and BBC risk assessments reportedly read: ‘John may die.’
ON MARCH 6...
IN 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first modern Periodic Table of elements to the Russian Physicochemical Society. IN 1957, Ghana was granted independence from Britain.