ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 3, 1971
PRINCE Charles is set to join the RAF. And waiting for the new Flight-Lieutenant will be two custom-built jets. A team of 15 engineers will service the aircraft as the Prince tries to win his ‘wings’ over the next five months. While the Prince is in the air, full radar control will be kept over a 50-mile radius to cut accident risk. MARCH 3, 1973 PRINCESS Anne yesterday denied that there was any romance between herself and Lieutenant Mark Phillips. Speaking at stables in Berkshire, where she was riding with Lt Phillips, she said: ‘There is no romance and no grounds for these rumours.’ [They announced their engagement two months later.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BRIAN COx, 53. The TV physicist from Lancashire was keyboard player in the band D:Ream, who had hits including New Labour anthem Things Can Only Get Better. He said he got through the boredom of touring by reading about relativity. Sir David Attenborough sees Cox as his science broadcasting successor, saying: ‘If I had a torch, I would hand it to Brian.’ MIRANDA RICHARDSON, 63. The Golden Globe-winning actress from Merseyside made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, in 1985’s Dance With A Stranger, which led People magazine to call her the ‘hot new bundle from Britain’. Richardson, who starred as Queenie in TV’s Blackadder, said her sister recalls her announcing, aged six: ‘I’m going to be an actress.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
JEAN HARLOW (19111937). The American actress, born Harlean Carpenter, got her big break in 1930 film Hell’s Angels, one of the first sound blockbuster action films. Dubbed the ‘blonde bombshell’, she lived life in the fast lane — and was branded by anti-indecency campaigners as ‘the filthiest woman ever to have set foot in Hollywood’. She died of kidney failure at 26 and was buried in the negligee she had worn in Libeled Lady. ALExANDER GRAHAM BELL (18471922). The Scots-born scientist is credited with inventing and patenting the first telephone. He gave all but ten of his 1,500 shares in his company to his wife, Mabel, as a wedding present. After his death, every phone in North America was silenced for a minute in his honour.
ON MARCH 3 . . .
IN 1983, Belgian creator of Tintin, Georges Remi, also known as Herge, died, aged 75. IN 1985, miners’ leaders voted to call off a year-long strike, the longest- running industrial dispute in Britain.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Demirep (18th c) A) A twisting double somersault. B) A woman whose chastity is considered doubtful. C) Bisected, split in half. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED With one arm tied behind one’s back: Meaning without the slightest difficulty in spite of a disadvantage. It came from boxing and is now used to indicate a superiority in any competitive situation.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Correspondences are like smallclothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up. Sydney Smith, English writer (1771-1845)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WOULD you like a free chimney joke? The first one’s on the house. Guess The Definition answer: B.