ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 22, 1993
A MAJOR security operation will be in force today when two boys aged ten appear in court accused of murdering toddler James Bulger. Police and James’s parents have appealed for people to stay away from the building. The court is 300 yards from the Strand shopping mall in Bootle, Merseyside, from which the two-year-old was allegedly abducted ten days ago.
FEBRUARY 22, 2002
WITH ice-cool skill, the British women’s curling team slid sensationally to Olympic glory early today at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Millions of TV viewers stayed up late in Britain to see the gripping triumph in the U.S. — our first winter gold since figure skaters Torvill and Dean swept to glory on the ice rink in 1984.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SHEILA HANCOCK, 91.
The actress and widow of Inspector Morse star John Thaw starred in Carry On Cleo and 2023 BBC crime drama The Sixth Commandment. She says she speaks her mind and ‘I don’t care if I’m cancelled. Death will do that soon anyway.’ But she has complained of being typecast: ‘Dying or going senile, that’s my role nowadays.’ CHRIS MOYLES, 50. The self-proclaimed ‘saviour of Radio 1’ hosted its breakfast show from 2004 to 2012 and now presents on Radio X. In 2014, a tribunal found he had claimed to be a used car salesman in a failed attempt to avoid up to £1million in tax.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799). The first American president gave his name to his nation’s capital and a U.S. state. At his inauguration, he had only one of his own teeth, and wore dentures made from ivory, brass and gold.
LORD ( ROBERT) BADEN-POWELL (1857
1941). The London-born founder of the Scouting movement was declared
Chief Scout of the World in
1920. In 2010, MI5 files revealed Baden-Powell had talks with the head of the Hitler Youth movement and was invited to meet Hitler. He was later put on a Nazi death list over suspicions he was using Scouts as spies.
ON FEBRUARY 22 . . .
IN 1977, the Eagles released Hotel California. Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the greatest songs of all time.
IN 2006, £53 million was stolen from the Securitas bank depot in Kent — the largest cash heist in British history.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Swabble (coined 1848)
A) Noise made by sloshing water over a ship’s deck with a swab. B) Chair-back cover. C) To catch trout with your hands.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Cloak and dagger: refers to situations involving intrigue or secrecy and derives from 19th- century France when swashbuckler ‘ comédies de cape et d’épée’ (of cloak and sword) plays were popular.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
Stephen Hawking, physicist (1942-2018)
JOKE OF THE DAY
DID you see the new film about a tornado? It’s got a great twist.
Guess The Definition answer: A. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD