ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 204 OF 2016
CHARLES DICKENS was born 204 years ago. In 2009, a biographer diagnosed him with obsessive compulsive disorder. The author touched objects three times for ‘luck’, combed his hair hundreds of times each day and rearranged furniture whenever he stayed in a hotel. BLACKPOOL’S Peggy Chadwick holds the world record for making the most candy floss in 90 minutes, spinning 204 portions in 2001. SPENCER PERCEvAL became the only British prime minister to be assassinated 204 years ago. He was shot in the Commons by merchant John Bellingham, who felt he had been denied compensation after being imprisoned in Russia. Bellingham was hanged, but his family recovered — a descendant, Sir Henry Bellingham, is a Tory MP.
THERE ARE 162 DAYS LEFT
THE £170million blockbuster Superman film Man Of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, a stockbroker’s son from Jersey as Superman, took 162 days to shoot. The star’s trainer made him eat 5,000 calories a day. Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane, says: ‘He would get up to work out at 3am.’ THE arch of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is 162ft tall. A few weeks after the end of World War I, French aviator Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport fighter plane through the Arch to salute all the airmen killed in the war.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRINCE George of Cambridge, three (pictured). George Alexander Louis, third in line to the throne, has such an effect on baby fashion, he was ranked No 49 in GQ magazine’s 50 Best Dressed Men in Britain list last year. TERENCE STAMP, 78. The British actor is the son of a Thames tugboat captain born in the East End — ‘proper poor, with lino, a scullery and no bathroom’. He shared a flat with Michael Caine, dated Julie Christie and Jean Shrimpton, and had a blind date with Brigitte Bardot.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JIMMy HILL (pictured, 1928-2015), the Londonborn footballer, Match Of The Day presenter, coach, manager, managing director and referee, who as chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association in 1961, helped end the players’ £20 maximum wage. When he was a guest on The Mrs Merton Show, starring the late Caroline Aherne, she refused to ask him: ‘Why the long face?’ because it was too rude. OSCAR de la RENTA (1932-2014). The Dominican-born fashion designer dressed Hollywood actresses and four American first ladies, including Nancy Reagan and Michelle Obama. A month before his death in 2014, he designed the ivory gown Amal Alamuddin wore to marry George Clooney in venice.
ON JULY 22nd . . .
IN 1706, The United Kingdom of Great Britain was born, with the signing of the Treaty of Union, bringing about the political union of England (which included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland. IN 1965, Britain was introduced to ranting Cockney Alf Garnett with the broadcast of the pilot episode of Till Death Us Do Part. IN 2005, Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell Tube station in South London after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, a day after failed bomb attacks in the capital.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Behind every successful man is a woman — behind her is his wife.
Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I LIKE to sleep naked. It’s a shame the air hostess wasn’t more understanding.