ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 273 OF 2016
SCIENTISTS have calculated that up to 273million sharks were killed in 2010 by commercial fishing, driven by the demand for shark fin soup by Chinese consumers. AMERICAN composer John Cage, who died aged 80 in 1992, is best known for his composition 4’33”, which comprises 273 seconds (4 minutes 33 seconds) of silence. Musicians were present but were asked to do nothing during the recording. AN AvERAGE of 273 hedgehogs are killed on British roads every day. DRACULA star Sir Christopher Lee, pictured, who died last year aged 93, at 6ft 5in, held the record for tallest actor in a leading role. PRINCE Albert, Duke of York (later George vI) married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) in Westminster Abbey 93 years ago. It was not broadcast on the wireless because courtiers feared listeners might have been sitting down or drinking in a pub when God Save The King was sung.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LORD (SEBASTIAN) COE, 60. President of athletics governing body, the IAAF, and organiser of the London Olympics, Coe says the best kiss of his life was ‘the one from Sir Keith Mills [deputy chairman of the Olympics London Organising Committee] when we won the bid to host the 2012 Games.’ COLIN DExTER, 86. The author behind Inspector Morse said that after Morse, people thought he was cleverer than he was. ‘Morse made people think I’m very smart. I’m definitely not as smart as Morse’. Not only was the character relentlessly highbrow, but also the theme tune contained MORSE spelt out in Morse code, and the names of suspects were similarly hidden in the incidental music, for cerebral fans to spot. JERRY Lee Lewis, 81. The singer-songwriter from Louisiana, pictured, achieved fame with such hits as Great Balls Of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On. Backstage at one concert, John Lennon fell to the floor to kiss Lewis’s feet. He didn’t return the favour, saying later: ‘I never did care for The Beatles all that much, to tell the truth.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
MICHELANGELO Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). Regarded as one of the greatest painters, was known for his violence. He murdered a man in Rome in 1606, apparently after an argument over a woman, and when a waiter questioned Caravaggio’s taste, he smashed a plate in his face. The artist died a few months after his face was slashed by a man he had assaulted. ELIzABETH GASKELL (1810-1865). The author of Cranford, North And South and the first biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë turned to writing for comfort after the death of her infant son.
ON SEPTEMBER 29th . . .
In 1885, the first proper electric tramway of many around the world opened in Blackpool, Lancashire. Unlike most of the others, it’s still going. In 1978, Pope John Paul I died of a heart attack in bed, 33 days after being elected. In 1997, British scientists said that a new version of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which had infected 21 people in Britain, had been caused by eating BSE-infected beef.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Anybody seen in a bus after the age of 30 has been a failure in life. Loelia Lindsay, Duchess of Westminster (1902-1993)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Why do dragons sleep during the day? So they can fight knights.
THERE ARE 93 DAYS LEFT