ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 1, 1945
TWICE as many toys will be made during the six months beginning today. This increase will bring the total output up to a quarter of pre-war production. This is part of a six-month plan announced by the Board of Trade which, from today, eases restrictions on lighting fittings, cutlery and leather goods, as well as on toys.
FEBRUARY 1, 2002
POP idol, ITV’S search for a new singing star, has gripped the nation. The wannabe who triumphs will receive a recording contract, but they will not be the biggest winner. Simon cowell is considering a £2 million offer to front a U.S. version and he will retain the rights to release winners’ material from any territory.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HARRY STYLES, 30. including his time as part of one Direction and as a solo artist, the singer from worcestershire has had six singles and six albums that have topped the UK charts. He won four Brits last year and was voted People magazine’s sexiest musician.
WALLY FUNK, 85. The american became the oldest person to go into space when she flew on amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue origin spacecraft in 2021. The record was beaten later that year by 90-year-old Star Trek actor william Shatner.
BORN ON THIS DAY
LISA MARIE PRESLEY (1968-2023). The singer and daughter of elvis was married four times, including to Michael Jackson and nicolas cage. She lived in east Sussex for several years, where she could regularly be found helping out at her friends’ fish and chip van.
TERRY JONES (1942-2020). The welsh Monty Python star directed life of Brian, named the ‘greatest comedy film ever’ in a 2005 poll, and also wrote The Saga of erik The Viking, which won the children’s Book award. asked how he would like to be remembered, he said: ‘Maybe as the man who restored richard ii’s reputation. He was a terrible victim of 14th- century political spin, you know.’
ON FEBRUARY 1…
IN 1896, Giacomo Puccini’s opera la Boheme had its premiere in Turin, italy.
IN 1988, U. S. actress Heather o’rourke, of the Poltergeist trilogy (pictured), died from an intestinal disorder aged 12.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION:
Gluepot (coined 1811)
A) regimental boot-maker.
B) a child bearing the stamp of its parents’ likeness.
C) a parson. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Fall foul: To fall foul of someone is to do something that gets you in trouble with them, and it derives from a nautical term. a rope is said to be foul when it is entangled and one ship ‘falls foul’ of another when it runs against her and prevents her free passage.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Ever since Eve gave Adam the apple, there has been a misunderstanding between the sexes about gifts.
Nan Robertson, U.S. journalist (1926-2009)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT lies 100 feet in the air?
A sleeping centipede. Guess The Definition answer: C.