ON THIS DAY
December 18, 2020
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 18, 1916
THE National War Savings Committee has had its attention drawn to the lavish expenditure that is still taking place in connection with weddings. The purchase of expensive gowns and presents, including jewels, creates a very bad impression.
DECEMBER 18, 1986
MINER’S wife Davina Thompson was recovering last night after becoming the world’s first triple-transplant patient.
Mrs Thompson, 35, received a new liver, heart and lungs in a seven-hour operation at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge.
[Mrs Thompson died in 1998, aged 47, from a lung infection.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BIllIE EIlISH, 19. The green-haired American singer has been writing music since age four — her first song ‘was about falling into a black hole, but being happy to be there’. She was the first artist born in the 21st century to top the U.S. album charts and the youngest to have written and recorded a Bond theme, No Time To Die. Her songs were streamed more than a billion times before she turned 17. CHRISTINA AgUIlERA, 40. The singer-songwriter from New York (right), who has had four UK No 1s, was described by Celine Dion as ‘probably the best vocalist in the world’. She was said to be so impressive as a child that when other girls knew she was to take part in talent shows, they would pull out.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BETTY gRABlE (1916-1973). A 1943 publicity photo by Frank Powolny of the U.S. actress in a bathing suit was turned into one of the earliest pin-ups. Troops were soon requesting 50,000 copies a month and grable was dubbed ‘she who unofficially won the war’. Her legs were insured for $1million with lloyds of london. PAUl KlEE (1879–1940). The Swiss-born ‘father of abstract art’ said drawing was ‘an active line on a walk, moving freely, without goal’. The Nazis included 17 of his works in their Degenerate Art exhibition of 1937. After a painting trip to Tunisia, he declared: ‘Colour and I are one.’
ON DECEMBER 18 . . .
IN 2015, a judge said ex- Oasis frontman liam gallagher ( right) and former All Saints singer Nicole Appleton had run up an £800,000 legal bill in their divorce case. IN 2019, Donald Trump became the third U. S. president to be impeached.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Moue (coined mid 19th century) A) Melted. B) Spoilt, over-indulged. C) A pouting grimace. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED A drowning man will clutch at a straw: Said about someone who is in a very difficult situation, and who will take any available opportunity to improve it; often shortened to ‘clutching at straws’, a form of it was first used by Sir Thomas More in 1534.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. Phyllis Diller, American comedienne (1917-2012)
JOKE OF THE DAY
IT’S raining cats and dogs outside . . . I just stepped in a poodle. Guess The Definition answer: C