ON THIS DAY
December 22, 2021
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
DECEMBER 22, 1979
SUPERMAN Christopher reeve became a Superdad last night when his British girlfriend of two years, former model Gae Exton, gave birth to a boy in a London clinic. The 6ft 3in star of the movie based on the famous comic strip character, said: ‘What a wonderful Christmas present for both of us.’ DECEMBER 22, 1992 THE Queen will sit at her desk at Sandringham this morning to record the most difficult and poignant Christmas broadcast of her 40-year reign. She faces the enormous task of acknowledging the upheaval in the royal Family, while at the same time delivering an assurance that the monarchy will continue. [In the speech, Her Majesty referred to 1992 as her ‘Annus Horribilis’.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAME Mary Archer, 77. The Surrey-born scientist and chair of the Science Museum Group is the wife of Jeffrey Archer, whom she met when she was a 19-year-old chemistry student at Oxford university. During his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, the judge famously described her as a vision of ‘elegance, fragrance and radiance’ — comments Archer said made her ‘wince’. VANESSA PARADIS, 49. The French singer, model and actress had her first big hit, Joe Le Taxi, aged 14 and won a César (France’s Oscar) at 18. She and Johnny Depp split in 2012 after 14 years and two children, despite the Hollywood star saying when they met: ‘I saw those eyes, and boom! My life as a single man was done.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
J. ARTHUR RANK (1888-1972). Without the industrialist and film tycoon from Yorkshire, ‘many of the greatest British films of the 20th century might never have been made’, says English Heritage. These included 1940s hits In Which We Serve and Great Expectations. His father, a miller, told J. Arthur: ‘You’re a dunce at school and the only way you’ll get on is in the mill . . .’
DAME Peggy Ashcroft (1907-1991). The Croydon-born actress made her name as ‘the first lady of the English stage’ before winning an Oscar for A Passage To India. After she played the title role in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, norway’s leading newspaper said: ‘It is curious that an English actress has shown the norwegian public how Hedda should be played.’
ON DECEMBER 22 …
IN 1808, Beethoven’s Fifth — described as ‘the world’s most recognisable piece of classical music’ — premiered in Vienna. IN 2010, the Abbey road zebra crossing that featured on the 1969 Beatles album of the same name was granted Grade II listing.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Calico (c 1505) A) Chalk. B) A plain-woven textile made from unbleached cotton. C) A pearly lustre. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Whistle in the dark — meaning to make a show of bravery in order to keep up one’s courage; ascribed to John Dryden in 1690 and refers to a literal attempt to keep up one’s courage in a dark and lonely place.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
THE best way to predict the future is to invent it Alan Kay, U.S. computer scientist
JOKE OF THE DAY
AS I suspected, someone has been adding soil to my allotment. The plot thickens. Guess The Definition answer: B. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD