ON THIS DAY
April 5, 2024
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 5, 1988
CROSSROADS fans saw the soap opera end happily last night after 23 years. Several endings were filmed amid intense secrecy, but it was expected many characters would die in a spectacular disaster. Instead, everyone survived — it ended with Jane Rossington, who spoke the first lines as Jill in 1964, driving off to open a hotel with her boyfriend. APRIL 5, 1997
PRINCESS DIANA is said to be richer than her former husband after her divorce pay- off. A guide to Britain’s wealthiest people says the 35- year- old princess is worth £17 million following the settlement last July. Prince Charles’s fortune is estimated at £10 million.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KRISHNAN GURUMURTHY, 54. The Channel 4 News anchor competed in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing after losing weight. He had turned down the invitation several times, saying: ‘In the past, I’ve either been feeling really obese, not very well, or worried about my health.’ LILY JAMES, 35. The actress from Surrey starred in Rebecca and yesterday. She is related to former president George W Bush through her American actress grandmother Helen Horton, who was the voice of Mother, the ship’s computer, in Alien.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BETTE DAVIS (19081989). The U.S. actress won Oscars for Dangerous and Jezebel.
She had a notorious feud with co-star Joan Crawford. While filming What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? she installed a Coke machine on set (Crawford was the widow of the CEO of rival Pepsi). SPENCER TRACY (1900-1967). The U.S. actor won best actor Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. According to a poll by the Royal Society of Chemistry, he and co- star Katharine Hepburn possessed the best on-screen chemistry (beating Laurel and Hardy, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers).
ON APRIL 5…
IN 1859, Charles Darwin sent off the first chapters of his seminal On The Origin Of Species to his publisher. IN 1999, two Libyans accused in the 1988 Lockerbie PanAm bombing were taken into custody.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Pugil (coined 1576)
A) One who uses evasions in an argument. B) A handful. C) A thief who causes confusion to rob people.
answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED: Crocodile tears: denoting a false show of sorrow; from the theory that crocodiles shed tears while in the act of devouring their prey.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
We are all failures — at least the best of us are.
JM Barrie, Scottish writer (1860-1937)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT should you do if you’re addicted to seaweed? Sea kelp. Guess The Definition answer: B.