ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 19, 1949
DIPLOMATS in Buenos Aires believe the Argentine army has ‘within the last week increased its pressure on President Peron to get his wife out of public life,’ the New York Times reports. The attack on Senora Eva Peron — a former actress who plays a big part in Argentine affairs — comes on the eve of new trade talks with Britain.
FEBRUARY 19, 1990
IVANA TRUMP and her three children flew to her £20 million Palm Beach mansion as it emerged the other woman in her domestic drama claimed: ‘Donald has bought me a ring.’ Friends of model Marla Maples also claim to have known for more than two years of the relationship between her and billionaire Donald Trump. [Trump and Maples married in 1993.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LESLIE ASH, 64. The actress from Oxfordshire made her name as Deborah Burton in sitcom Men Behaving Badly. She was a child star, who appeared in an advert for Fairy washing up liquid aged six. She says she is deeply insecure, but ‘I don’t know if my insecurity is because I’m an actor or because of my childhood’ — her father gambled away the family fortune. JEFF DANIELS, 69. The u.S. actor starred in Dumb And Dumber and Steve Jobs. He has a tarantula-killing species of worm named after him, Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi, in honour of his role in 1990 horror comedy Arachnophobia. He said: ‘Of course, in Hollywood, you haven’t really made it until you’ve been recognised by those in the field of parasitology.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
JUSTIN FASHANU (19611998). The London-born footballer was Britain’s first £1 million black player and the first to come out as gay. He took his own life eight years later, aged 37. Campaigner Peter Tatchell said he ‘cautioned him against coming out’ in the early 1980s: ‘I could see he was not mentally prepared for the likely backlash.’ He played for 22 clubs.
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473-1543). The Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer came up with the theory that the Sun — not the Earth — was at the centre of the cosmos. He died just months after publishing his major work, On The Revolutions Of The Celestial Spheres. A new element — the heaviest yet discovered — was named Copernicium in his honour.
ON FEBRUARY 19 . . .
IN 1957, Emergency Ward 10 began airing on ITV.
IN 2019, German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died, aged 85. He named his cat Choupette in his will.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Morkin (c 1598)
A) An animal that has died by accident.
B) Striding exultantly.
C) Stuffy room.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Palmy days: Meaning prosperous or happy days and alluding to a victorious gladiator when he went to receive his palm branch as a reward for his prowess.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Any fool can play tragedy, but comedy, sir, is a damned serious business.
David Garrick, English actor (1717-1779)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHICH dinosaur has the best vocabulary? Thesaurus-Rex. Guess The Definition answer: A.