ON THIS DAY
February 20, 2024
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 20, 1976
EVEN the closest friends and family of Denis Thatcher, husband of the Tory leader, are unaware of a secret he told me yesterday. Margaret Thatcher is his second wife — his first marriage, which took place in wartime, ended in divorce. He wed his ex, another Margaret, on March 28, 1942. ‘We knew each other for only a few months, and then I was posted overseas until the end of the war,’ Mr Thatcher said.
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
WINNING best British male solo artist at the Brit Awards is quite the feat for any musician. But to win it again, exactly 30 years after your first time . . . Well, that is a rare achievement only befitting a star as revolutionary as David Bowie. The 67-year-old is now the oldest recipient of a Brit, although he didn’t attend the show at London’s O2 Arena. Kate Moss accepted the award on his behalf.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SALLY ROONEY, 33. The Irish author, ‘the most talked-about novelist of her generation’, wrote Conversations With Friends and normal People. The latter was Waterstones’ 2018 book of the year. Both were turned into BBC dramas.
GORDON BROWN ,73. The Edinburgh educated former chancellor was the first prime minister to have gone to a university other than Oxford since neville Chamberlain. (Churchill, Callaghan and Major did not have a degree.)
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984). ‘Probably the best-known photographer in the U.S.’, he made his name with black-and-white landscapes. He gave up his first career as a concert pianist to pursue photography. Often working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, he said: ‘The best picture is around the corner. Like prosperity.’
SIDNEY POITIER (19272022). The American, who grew up in the Bahamas, was the first black person to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, for The Defiant Ones, and the first to win in the category, for Lilies Of The Field.
ON FEBRUARY 20 . . .
IN 1976, BBC sitcom Open All Hours, starring Ronnie Barker and Sir David Jason, first opened for business.
IN 2008, Kylie Minogue presented Sir Paul McCartney with the Outstanding Contribution to Music Brit award.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Tumbrel (coined 1220s)
A) Secret, shady. B) A decisive blow or answer that settles a dispute. C) An open farmer’s cart, famously used for taking prisoners to the guillotine. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Fool’s paradise: This reference to unlawful pleasure appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet (late 16th century). Born into feuding families, the pair’s happiness was based on false hope of being together.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The noblest of all dogs is the hot dog; it feeds the hand that bites it.
Laurence J. Peter, Canadian educator (1919-1990)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY is a piano so hard to open? Because the keys are on the inside. Guess The Definition answer: C.