January 19, 2022 ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 19, 1973

RACHAEL HEYHOE, captain of England’s women’s cricket team, signed up with ITV last night to become television’s first woman sports reporter. Miss Heyhoe, 33, was quite bowled over by her new job. ‘I’m no supporter of Women’s Lib,’ she said, ‘but I’m really thrilled at getting into what is accepted as a man’s world. Sport has always been my life.’

JANUARY 19, 1998

GORDON BROWN was handed a warning by Tony Blair’s friends last night. The Chancellor, suspected of manoeuvring for power, was told: ‘Nobody is indispensable.’ A senior insider declared Mr Brown could ‘jeopardise his long-term career’ unless he comes to terms with his resentment at losing out over the Labour leadership.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JENSON BUTTON, 42. The racing driver from Somerset, who got his first powered go-kart at eight, won the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship. He was married to model Jessica Michibata for a year and is now engaged to model Brittny Ward, mother of his two children. Button said last year: ‘Now, I have more pushchairs than cars.’ TIPPI HEDREN, 92. The U.S. actress said that while she was working on the Alfred Hitchcock films The Birds and Marnie, the director sexually assaulted her and threatened to ruin her career after she rebuffed his advances. The mother and grandmother of actresses Melanie Griffith and Dakota Johnson said the person to whom she would most like to say sorry is ‘my daughter, for all I wasn’t to her’.

BORN ON THIS DAY

MATTHEW WEBB (1848-1883). The Merchant Navy captain from Shropshire became the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875. He was stung by a jellyfish eight hours in, but continued after a dose of brandy. His final stunt was to swim across the rapids at Niagara Falls. His body was found four days later. JANIS JOPLIN (1943-1970). The U.S. singer, whose best-known song was (Lord Won’t You Buy Me A) Mercedes Benz, was already a heroin addict when she appeared at the Woodstock music festival in 1969. She died of an overdose, aged 27.

ON JANUARY 19 …

IN 1917, London was rocked by its largest explosion when 50 tonnes of TNT detonated at a munitions factory at Silvertown. It killed 73 people and injured more than 400. IN 1967, The Monkees secured their first UK No 1 hit with I’m A Believer.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: MARTINET (COINED 1670s) A) A person who enjoys eating fine food, a glutton. B) A strict disciplinarian, especially a military one. C) A street brawl.

Answer below

PHRASE EXPLAINED Blue on blue:

Denotes an inadvertent attack by a military force upon its own side; it derives from the use of blue on maps to designate one’s own force.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

Art is a revolt against man’s fate. Andre Malraux, French writer (1901-1976)

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHAT do you call toast in a zoo? Bread in captivity. Guess The Definition answer: B. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD