ON THIS DAY
October 16, 2015
IT’S DAY 289 OF 2015
TO BE married at 14 is surprising enough — but to have also been either widowed or divorced at the same age is astonishing. Such was the fate of no fewer than 289 girls in the U.S. in 1970, according to that year’s census. IRAQ took 289 days to form a government after its 2010 elections — setting a new record for the longest that any country has been without a government as a result of conflict. THE peace treaty ending the war between the U.S. and Britain had been signed two weeks earlier, but neither side knew it when in January 1815 they faced each other at the Battle of New Orleans. As a result, 289 British and American soldiers died in vain.
THERE ARE 76 DAYS LEFT
SYLVESTER Stallone’s screen debut in Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy Bananas lasted 76 seconds. He played a thug who intimidates Allen on a train. ENGLISH astronomer Edmond Halley claimed in 1705 that several comet sightings — dating from 1531, 1607 and 1682 — related in fact to a single comet whose orbit brought it past Earth every 76 years. Sadly, he died before the comet’s return around Christmas in 1758 proved him correct. ITALIAN composer Gioachino Rossini lived 76 years, but celebrated only 19 birthdays, having been born on February 29, 1792.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANGELA LANSBURY, 90. Her most famous role is author Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote. In the Sixties she moved to Ireland to get her heroin-addict daughter Deirdre out of the grip of Charles Manson — the cult leader whose followers embarked on a murder spree which killed nine people. PETER BOWLES, 78. The actor’s parents worked as a nanny and chauffeur for Lord Beaverbrook, then for the Earl of Sandwich. Best known for his roles in Only When I Laugh, The Bounder and, most famously, as Peter DeVere, alongside Penelope Keith, in To The Manor Born.
BORN ON THIS DAY
OSCAR WILDE ( 18541900). Dublin-born playwright, poet, author and wit (right). His latter days saw him living in a rundown hotel in Paris under the name of Sebastian Melmoth after being imprisoned in England for gross indecency. Shortly before his death he reportedly said: ‘This wallpaper will be the death of me — one of us will have to go.’ MAX BYGRAVES (1922-2012). Royal Variety Performance and Family Fortunes presenter famous for his ‘I wanna tell you a story’ catchphrase. Once the UK’s highest-paid star, he was married for almost 70 years.
ON OCTOBER 16 . . .
IN 1958, the first Blue Peter was broadcast on BBC TV, introduced by Christopher Trace, who had once been a body double for Charlton Heston, and Leila Williams, a former Miss Great Britain. IN 1846, U.S. printer Gilbert Abbott became the first patient to have an operation under anaesthetic when a dentist used ether to ‘mesmerise’ him in a Boston hospital, while a surgeon removed a tumour from his jaw. IN 1964, singer Rod Stewart (right) released his first single, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl — a chart flop. IN 1834, without the help of any of Guy Fawkes’s ancestors, Parliament burned down. The fire could even be seen by the King and Queen from Windsor.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOW did the hipster burn his tongue? He drank his Double Cubano Espresso before it became cool.