ON THIS DAY
December 15, 2021
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 15, 1973
BRITONS rallied round yesterday and responded swiftly to Prime Minister Edward Heath’s appeal to save power. Throughout the country, housewives were switching off lighting and keeping heating to a minimum as the great economy drive began. A bright spot in London was the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. But after the traditional turning on by Norwegian Ambassador Mr Paul Koht, it was switched off again until the three days of Christmas.
DECEMBER 15, 2003
IN HIS pomp, he bestrode his cowering country like a colossus. But yesterday Saddam Hussein was just a bleary-eyed, powerless old man. The dictator, who boasted 68 palaces, had been living in a tiny hole in the ground. When 600 American troops converged on his hideaway, beside a shack near his home town of Tikrit, he surrendered without a shot being fired.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MICHELLE DOCKERy, 40. The London-born actress made her name as Lady Mary Crawley in ITV’s Downton Abbey. She said one of the hardest things about the sudden death of her fiance from cancer in 2015 was ‘the parallels with Mary’ — who lost her husband after World War I. Dockery, also a jazz singer, has performed at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. CINDy BIRDSONG, 82. The U.S. singer replaced The Supremes founding member Florence Ballard in 1967. Birdsong recalled that Diana Ross developed a signature move at the end of a performance — stretching out her arms and blocking the other women’s faces.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GUSTAVE EIFFEL (1832-1923). As well as building the Paris tower that bears his name (right), the French civil engineer helped design New york’s Statue of Liberty and worked on what was then the highest bridge in the world, the Garabit Viaduct in southern France. The 985ft Eiffel tower was the world’s tallest structure for 41 years, until the completion of New york’s Chrysler Building (1,046 ft). LUDWIK ZAMENHOF (1859-1917). As a child, the Polish ophthalmologist came up with the idea of a global language. He went on to create Esperanto. It was condemned by Hitler as a secret language for Jewish plots, while Stalin called it ‘dangerous’.
ON DECEMBER 15…
IN 1961, the BBC began broadcasting Comedy Playhouse, the strand that would give us sitcoms Steptoe And Son, Till Death Us Do Part and Are you Being Served? IN 1984, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? started five weeks at No 1.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Spall (c1755) A)A small cavity in a rock. B)A chip or splinter. C) To prepare an eel for the table.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Soft-pedal: meaning to tone down, to moderate; it’s a 1915 reference from the 1856 noun, and alludes to the piano which, when its left-foot lever, the ‘soft pedal’, is down, plays more quietly.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly. Simeon Strunsky, U.S. essayist (1879-1948)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy did the woman break into song? She couldn’t find the right key. Guess The Definition answer: B