ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 20, 1967
MOST celebrities are so honoured when Madame Tussauds decides to include them in the exhibition that they do nothing but praise their wax effigies. But Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party, is different. He tells me: ‘I think it is quite ghastly. I am insisting they do something about it.’
JULY 20, 1972
FIvE Englishmen, the last survivors from the tough hard pop music revolution of the 1960s, are conquering America in the most spectacular showbusiness tour seen for five years. Love them or loathe them, in this month the Rolling Stones will make £1 million from their U.S. tour.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SANDRA OH, 49. The double Golden Globe-winning Canadian actress (right) starred in Grey’s Anatomy and plays the title role in the BBC’s Killing Eve. Last year, Time magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, but she says: ‘I’m the only person in my family who doesn’t have a Masters in something.’ SALLy ANN HOWES, 90. The Londonborn actress, who succeeded Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway, is best known for playing Truly Scrumptious in 1968 film musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She was the first celebrity to choose a luxury to take with her on Desert Island Discs in 1951. She chose garlic at a time when it was a treat, with rationing still in force.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NATALIE WOOD ( 19381981). Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko to Russian immigrant parents, the U.S. actress ( right) drowned aged 43 during a boat trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and fellow actor Christopher Walken. Her death was ruled an accident, but in 2018, LA police said Wagner was a ‘ person of interest’ and that he had ‘constantly changed his story’. HEATHER CHASEN (1927-2020). The Singapore-born British actress was best known for playing valerie Pollard in Crossroads. She played 20 different parts in BBC radio sitcom The Navy Lark, and co- star Judy Cornwell said: ‘Heather showed me how to push the men out of the way, because they would grab the microphones and not let us in, so we had to kick them in the shins and get to the microphones that way.’
ON JULY 20 . . .
IN 1837, Euston railway station opened in London, connecting the capital to Birmingham. Planned by George and Robert Stephenson, when the station was first proposed the main site was still farmland.
IN 1996, Gary Barlow became the first Take That member to secure a solo number one, with Forever Love.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Sidereal (c 1630)
A) Of the stars or constellations. B) violetcoloured. C) instant, spontaneous.
PHRASE EXPLAINED: Never never land — An imaginary Utopia or situation; derives from the fictional island of author J.M. Barrie. Although not all who visit stop ageing, its best-known inhabitant, Peter Pan, famously refused to grow up; the term is typically applied to eternal childhood.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Keep violence in the mind — where it belongs.
Brian Aldiss, science-fiction writer (1925-2017) JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy did the crab blush? Because the seaweed.
Guess The Definition answer: A.