March 31, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 31, 1964
MOBS who tried to make trouble in Clacton yesterday found the reinforced police equal to the occasion [in one of the first big battles between the Mods and the Rockers]. Continuous patrols kept incidents to a minimum. When brawls developed among the leather-jacketed gangs police swooped readily on the ringleaders.
MARCH 31, 1979
TWO branches of the IRA last night claimed responsibility for the murder of MP Airey Neave, Mrs Thatcher’s closest friend and political adviser. He suffered terrible injuries when a bomb ripped his car apart at the Commons underground car park and died later in hospital.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EWAN McGREGOR, 50. The actor from Perthshire became world-famous thanks to his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in three Star Wars films. but he admitted he was very reluctant to take on the part: ‘I saw myself as this urban, grungy actor doing films about heroin and stuff, and that’s who I felt like I really was.’ In 2004, he was named the fourth most influential person in british culture in a BBC poll. SHIRLEY JONES, 87. The American singer and actress who starred in the film musicals Oklahoma! and Carousel (pictured) and won an Oscar for playing a prostitute in 1960’s Elmer Gantry, is best known for playing the lead role of Shirley Partridge in 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family. She was the first and only singer to be put under personal contract with the musical theatre songwriters Rodgers and Hammerstein.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANITA CARTER (1933-1999). The American singer was the youngest of The Carter Sisters, who toured with Elvis Presley (rumoured to have had an unrequited love for Anita) and performed with Johnny Cash (the husband of her sister June). The group recorded 250 songs — according to the New york Times, ‘one of the most important and influential bodies of work in country and folk music’. JOHN FOWLES (1926-2005). The novelist from Essex saw three of his books turned into films, The French lieutenant’s Woman (starring Meryl Streep), The Collector (starring Terence Stamp) and The Magus (starring Michael Caine). but he said the latter was ‘a disaster all the way down the line’ and vowed never to allow another of his works to be adapted for the screen.
ON MARCH 31…
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower ( pictured) was officially opened in Paris by its designer, Gustave Eiffel. In 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex formally stepped down as senior members of the Royal Family.
WORD WIZARDRY
Guess the definition: Brindled (coined 1670s) A) Disheartened. b) Tawny with streaks of other colours. C) Inexperienced, green. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Mexican wave: When groups of spectators in a stadium take turns to stand up and sit down so the action, done in a circular fashion, resembles a wave. It first happened during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.
W. B. Yeats, Irish poet (1865-1939)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did Mars say to Saturn? Give me a ring some time. Guess The Definition answer: B. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD