ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
DECEMBER 21, 1939
HAIRDRESSERS are to ask the Home Secretary to ban enemy aliens from working in their salons because ‘much of what a hairdresser hears is of national importance’. Trade delegates said that the hairdresser is the confidant of the customer and hears information of use to an enemy.
DECEMBER 21, 1963
THERE were smiles instead of shots on the Berlin Wall today as young east German guards eagerly helped visitors from West Berlin with their Christmas gift parcels, lifted babies’ prams and cut the pass formalities down to a minimum.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SAMUEL L. JACKSON, 72. The American star of Pulp Fiction and The Hateful eight has made 120 films, which have grossed $13 billion. In 2018, the Box Office Mojo website named him Hollywood’s most bankable star. Asked about his expletive-laden movie catchphrases, he said: ‘I’m a walking T-shirt. It’s better than not being known for anything.’ EMMANUEL MACRON, 43. Before becoming France’s youngest-ever president, the former banker, who had once aspired to be an actor, had never held elected office. The prize-winning pianist, nicknamed ‘Mozart of the elysée’, is the only member of his family not to follow a career in medicine.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DIANA ATHILL (1917-2019). The literary editor brought up in norfolk became an author after winning the 1958 Observer writing contest under the pseudonym Mr What, the name of that year’s Grand national winner. She won the 2008 Costa prize for biography, aged 91. known for a series of affairs, she had a 40-year relationship with a man known to her family as ‘the lodger’. FLORENCE GRIFFITH Joyner (19591998). The u. S. athlete still holds the women’s 100- metre and 200- metre records (10.49 and 21.34 seconds, set in 1988). She was nicknamed Flo- Jo, with one obituary saying: ‘even her name was fast.’ Griffith Joyner was known for her body-suits and long fingernails and was once asked to leave a shopping centre for wearing her pet boa constrictor around her neck.
ON DECEMBER 21…
IN 1954, David Attenborough made his first appearance on BBC TV’s Zoo Quest. IN 2005, Sir elton John and David Furnish became the first celebrity couple to enter into a civil partnership.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Moil (15th century) A) To play host to a sheriff. B) To work hard, to drudge. C) The last and least willing sheep to be sheared Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED To kiss the Blarney stone — to have the gift of eloquence and persuasiveness; in 1602 Irishman Lord Blarney, in fighting the english, smooth-talked the english emissary with flattery and promises; Queen elizabeth is said to have coined the term ‘blarney’ to depict the emptiness of his promises.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
When a dog bites a man, that is not news... but if a man bites a dog, that is news.
Charles A. Dana, U.S. newspaper editor (1819-1897)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a fly with no wings? A walk. Guess The Definition answer: B