ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 24, 1944
WIDER, longer and more comfortable buses for Britain are planned for after the war. Recent conferences of transport chiefs have laid down the principle that two average-size passengers should be able to read in a double seat without bumping or getting on each other’s nerves.
JANUARY 24, 2008
AN ACCIDENTAL overdose of sleeping pills emerged yesterday as the most likely explanation for the death of Hollywood actor Heath ledger ( pictured). Postmortem results were inconclusive and experts said further tests were needed to establish the cause of death.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LUIS SUAREZ, 37. The uruguayan footballer, ‘one of Europe’s best strikers’, played for liverpool before moving to Barcelona for £65 million in 2014, making him one of the most expensive players in football history. He has bitten opponents on three occasions, including at the 2014 World Cup, resulting in a four-month suspension. ADRIAN EDMONDSON, 67. The Bradford-born actor and his co-star Rik Mayall used to pin up their hate mail on a noticeboard in the room where they wrote. In 2021, the former winner of Celebrity MasterChef had to be rescued by the fire brigade after getting trapped on a window ledge while cleaning his windows.
BORN ON THIS DAY
EDITH WHARTON (1862-1937). The novelist from New York became the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with The Age Of Innocence (turned into a film starring Daniel Day-lewis). She once demanded a 20 per cent royalty on a new book, warning her publisher of her protagonist: ‘If you were to refuse, he is so violent that I don’t know whether I can answer for the consequences.’
ERNEST BORGNINE (1917-2012). The American actor played the u.S. army brute who beat Frank Sinatra’s character to death in From Here To Eternity and won an Oscar for his title role as a shy butcher in Marty. His five wives included singer Ethel Merman, though their marriage lasted less than six weeks. His final film came out when he was 95.
ON JANUARY 24…
IN 1935, canned beer — made by the gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in the u.S. — went on sale for the first time. IN 2006, Disney bought Toy Story and Finding Nemo maker Pixar for £4.1 billion.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Quidnunc (coined 1709)
A) gift given to a guest.
B) gift from a pupil to a teacher.
C) Person who always wants to know what is going on. answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
All over bar the shouting: meaning victory is a foregone conclusion. It was first in print in 1842 courtesy of sportswriter Charles Apperley and may derive from shouting in boxing calling for an appeal against the referee’s decision.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
W. E. B. Du Bois, U.S. social reformer (1868-1963)
JOKE OF THE DAY
MY WIFE says I have no sense of direction. I don’t know where that came from! Guess The Definition answer: C. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD