ON THIS DAY
April 3, 2020
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
APRIL 3, 1952
LAURENCE OLIVIER will be heard in his first singing role when he takes the part of Macheath, the highwayman in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which begins filming in England in July.
APRIL 3, 1982
THE once-great power of Britain endured one further humiliation yesterday when Argentina seized the Falkland Islands and put their 1,800 British inhabitants under the martial law of a foreign land. At dawn, a powerful Argentine naval task force landed marines on the islands, which have been British for 150 years, and took control.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EDDIE MURPHY, 59. The American actor and comedian starred in Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places and voiced donkey in the Shrek films. Murphy says women think ‘there’s something sexy about’ the fact that he has ten children by five women. He only admitted he was father of ex-girlfriend Mel B’s daughter after taking a DNA test. Last year, the Spice Girl said that Murphy is ‘the love of my love and always will be’. He once said: ‘I gave up caring about my career $80 million ago.’ NIGEL FARAGE, 56. The dulwich College -educated Brexit Party leader and former MEP started his career as a metals trader in the City. Farage has cheated death three times — he was run over after a night in the pub in his early 20s and nearly lost a leg, months before being diagnosed with testicular cancer, and he was seriously injured in a plane crash while campaigning in the 2010 general election. When Russell Brand called him a ‘pound shop Enoch Powell’ on the BBC’s Question Time, Farage hit back, saying that the comedian had had his chest hair straightened by his make-up artist.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DORIS DAY (1922-2019). Born doris Kappelhoff, the American actress had hits with Whip Crack Away and Que Sera Sera. One critic objected to her wholesome image, saying he was ‘so old, I remember her before she became a virgin’. LESLIE HOWARD (18931943). The London-born matinee idol starred in Pygmalion and The Scarlet Pimpernel. He lived in the U.S. in the 1930s but returned to Britain to do his bit for the war effort. To do so, he had to give up his box office share for Gone With The Wind, because at the time British citizens living in the UK could not hold foreign interests. He was killed in 1943 when his unarmed civilian plane was shot down by the Luftwaffe.
ON APRIL 3...
IN 1888, the first of 11 murders ascribed to Jack the Ripper took place. IN 1979, Kate Bush began her first — and so far only — concert tour in Liverpool.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Arras (c1375)
A) In opposite direction, the wrong way. B) A rich tapestry. C) Behind. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To talk shop: meaning to discuss business or work matters; coined in the 1880s and one definition for ‘shop’ (coined in 1814) is things that relate to one’s trade (as in workshop, paint shop, etc).
QUOTE FOR TODAY
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
Graham Greene, novelist (1904-1991)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a dinosaur that has a great command of English? A Thesaurus. Guess The Definition answer: B.