ON THIS DAY
March 4, 2024
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 4, 1943
THE King has become a part-time worker at a war factory. On two evenings a week he stands at a bench for nearly three hours turning out special parts for a gun used by the RAF. A few months ago royal staff went to do similar work at a small munitions plant and recently the King visited to see how they were getting on. George VI took off his coat, donned overalls and joined the shift.
MARCH 4, 2002
WILL YOUNG, the 23year-old who beat 10,000 other wannabes to the
Pop Idol title, has made history with the fastestselling debut single. He notched up more than a million sales in one week with his No 1 double A-sided single evergreen/Anything Is Possible.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHRIS REA, 73. The Yorkshire-born singer and guitarist said of his 1986 hit Driving Home For Christmas, sparked by a miserable car journey home when he was down to his last £220, that he was ‘terrified it would ruin any credibility I had left’. But the song, which regularly gets into the top 40 every festive season, brings in about £200,000 a year.
PATSY KENSIT, 56. The actress from London and daughter of a gangster — a pickpocket nicknamed ‘Jimmy the Dip’ — found fame as a child star but said: ‘Mum never let me do interviews, mainly because if people found out about Dad’s criminal ways, it could have seriously harmed what was turning out to be an amazing career.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
HARVEY POSTLETHWAITE (19441999). The F1 engineer designed the car James Hunt drove to victory in the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. He also helped develop the semi-automatic gearbox.
CHRIS SQUIRE (1948-2015). The London- born bass guitarist and songwriter co- founded British prog-rock group Yes and was the only member to appear on every one of their 21 studio albums over 47 years.
ON MARCH 4 . . .
IN 1969, the Kray twins, Reginald and Ronnie, were found guilty of the murder of Jack McVitie.
IN 2018, Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION:
Kiddlywink (coined 1830)
A) An unlicensed public house.
B) Man with whip in Morris dancing.
C) A free tiddlywink that lands on another wink. answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The whole gamut of emotions: meaning the full range; in the 1500s, the gamut was the lowest note on a scale — in both music and life.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think. Hannah Arendt, German-born philosopher (1906-1975)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the balloon go to the doctor? It felt light-headed. Guess The Definition answer: a.