ON THIS DAY
October 19, 2015
IT’S DAY 292 OF 2015
THE typical British child owns four hightech gadgets, such as a mobile phone, laptop, tablet computer and games console, on which their parents have spent an average £292. MANDARIN is China’s official language, but 292 other languages are spoken by its estimated 1.4 billion population. THE Beatles played Liverpool’s Cavern Club 292 times between 1961 and 1963, sharing just £5 a gig between them. Paul McCartney’s father Jim, used pop into lunchtime sessions at the club and was always worried. ‘With so much sweat, energy and electricity around, it was a virtual death trap,’ he said. ‘They should have paid you danger money to go down there.’
THERE ARE 73 DAYS LEFT
THE solid gold coffin of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (right) is 73in (just over 6ft) long. The value of its gold is £2.7 million, but the casket is priceless. THE average person drinks 73 pints of beer a year fewer than a decade ago, and 110 fewer glasses of wine. THERE are 73 million sheep in Australia — around three for every citizen. There are 8.9 million sheep in Wales — 3.4 per person. IN THE Domesday Book, the total rental value of the land (most of England and Wales) was an estimated £ 73,000 a year: about £2.6 billion in today’s money.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JOHN LE CARRE, 84, born David Cornwell, was an intelligence officer before writing bestsellers such as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. His father was a con artist who was jailed for fraud. Le Carre can’t type, and writes out his books in longhand. SINITTA, 52, had two pop hits, So Macho and Toy Boy, and dated TV mogul Simon Cowell and Brad Pitt. She is also known for her outrageous outfits, appearing on The X Factor in a bikini made of hair extensions — dubbed a hair-kini — and a native American head-dress. MICHAEL GAMBON, 75, starred i n Maigret and played Dumbledore (pictured) in the later Harry Potter films. His driving is just as memorable: he took a bend so aggressively on TV’s Top Gear track in 2002 that he went up on two wheels. In tribute, they named the spot Gambon.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIMON WARD (1941-2012). The son of a Kent car dealer found fame in 1972 as Churchill in the film Young Winston, and later had TV roles in Judge John Deed and The Tudors. He survived major brain surgery in the Eighties after being attacked and left unconscious by a canal in London. CASSIUS CLAY (1810-1903) — no, not the champion boxer, who became better known as Muhammad Ali, but the American politician and anti- slavery campaigner. Aged 84, he married for a second time to a 15-year-old.
ON OCTOBER 19 . . .
IN 1897, Henry Sturmey, co-inventor of Sturmey-Archer cycle gears, completed the first Land’s End to John O’Groats car trip, driving a Daimler — it took ten days. IN 1993, the Post Office sold its first selfadhesive stamps. IN 1987, world stock markets crashed in an event dubbed Black Monday, exacerbated by computer trading. By the end of the month, the UK stock market was down 25 per cent and the U.S. by 22 per cent.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Speed has never killed anyone. It’s suddenly becoming stationary that gets you.
Jeremy Clarkson
JOKE OF THE DAY
DID you hear about the cheese that failed at the Olympics? It fell at the first curdle.