ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 13, 1963
A BILL to make Sir Winston Churchill an honorary U. S. citizen was approved by the House of Representatives today. It read: ‘The purpose of this Bill is to express the highest esteem and admiration of the American people for a great statesman and leader of free peoples.’ MARCH 13, 1969
IT WAS, by Beatle standards, a quiet affair. Only a handful of fans turned up to sob in the rain as Paul McCartney wed yesterday. Paul turned up in a quiet, ordinary sort of black suit to marry 27- year- old New Yorker Linda Eastman at Marylebone register office in London.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MIKE STOLLER, 91. Alongside his longtime collaborator, the late Jerry Leiber, the U.S. composer penned Stand By Me for Ben E. King and Elvis Presley classics Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog. He said of Leiber: ‘We started fighting the moment we met.’ GILLIAN KEEGAN,
56. The Lancashire-born Education Secretary was the sixth in 14 months. Keegan has defended wearing her £ 10,000
Rolex, saying: ‘It’s like an inverted snobbery or something.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
PERCIVAL LOWELL (1855-1916). The U.S. astronomer predicted the existence of Pluto — which he called Planet X. The Lowell Observatory that he founded in Arizona is still running.
SAMMY KAYE (1910-1987). The U.S. big band leader was known for hits such as The Old Lamp-Lighter and a version of (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover. His radio show was interrupted by the news of the Pearl Harbor bombing.
ON MARCH 13 . . .
In 1999, 52-year-old Cher became the oldest woman to reach No 1 in the U.S. charts, with Believe.
In 2013, Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio — Pope Francis — became the first non-European to be elected pontiff for almost 1,300 years.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Cantrip (coined 1719)
A) A witch’s spell.
B) Of a girl: forward, romping. C) Diagonally from something else.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Witches’ sabbath: said of the gathering of witches and demons at night to devise mischief.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
People ask how I’ve survived so long. Well, I was in the Blitz and there was stoicism in adversity. and humour. Humour has sustained me.
Nicholas Parsons, English broadcaster (1923-2020)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did the bartender say when Charles Dickens ordered a martini? ‘ Olive or twist?’
Guess The Definition answer: a.