ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 20, 1973
WOMEN are to be allowed to drive London buses after years of being banned by busmen. Buses are already being driven by women in many provincial areas, but until now, London bus- men have stuck stubbornly to the belief that driving a bus through the capital’s rush-hour would be too much for a woman.
OCTOBER 20, 1989
THE Guildford Four were cleared yesterday as a major criminal investigation into the police handling of the IRA pub bombing case was launched. Three Surrey officers on the case, which led to the Four spending almost 15 years behind bars, were under suspension last night.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SUSAN TULLy, 53. The London-born actress, who as Michelle Fowler was in the original EastEnders line-up, turned her back on acting to become a director, working on episodes of EastEnders, Lark Rise To Candleford, Line Of Duty and the recent TV adaptaton of J.K. Rowling’s fourth Cormoran Strike detective novel, Lethal White, published under the name Robert Galbraith. TIMOTHy WEST, 86. The Bradford-born actor starred in The Day Of The Jackal and EastEnders and Coronation Street. He is married to Fawlty Towers’ Prunella Scales, with whom he presented Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys. The former furniture salesman is firm friends with Derek Jacobi, having played his lover in the play Staircase, his father, Claudius, in Hamlet and his brother in Last Tango In Halifax.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BELA LUGOSI (1882-1956). The Hungarian actor played Count Dracula in the first sound film of the Bram Stoker novel. He turned down the chance to play Frankenstein’s monster — a part he said was for some ‘half-wit extra’ — which went to Boris Karloff. On his request, Lugosi was buried in his Dracula costume. KATHy KIRBy ( 19382011). Regarded by many as ‘ Britain’s Marilyn Monroe’, the Essex-born entertainer was voted top British female singer of 1963 by New Musical Express readers and came second in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest. Kirby drew audiences of more than 20 million with her BBC series, The Kathy Kirby Show.
ON OCTOBER 20…
IN 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into alleged communist infiltration of the U.S. film industry. IN 1955, The Return Of The King, the final volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, was published.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: pettish (c 1590) A) intimate, familiar B) trivial C) petulantly peevish ( Answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED To be at the sharp end – meaning to be in the action at the point where the danger or competition is at its most fierce; it alludes to the bows of a ship; hence the cry ‘look sharp’ as a call to immediate action.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone? James Thurber, American humorist (1894-1961)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy did Tarzan spend so much time on the golf course? He was perfecting his swing. Guess the Definition answer: C