ON THIS DAY
October 24, 2016
IT’S DAY 298 . . .
A new record for the most press-ups in an hour was set earlier this year by a 55-year-old American nicknamed Popeye. David escojido, from Texas, did 2,298 in 60 minutes. OVeR her lifetime, the average British woman will revamp her wardrobe 298 times, adopt 572 new hair and make-up styles, change her job 21 times and attempt an astonishing 228 new diets and 1,503 fitness regimes, according to a study by toiletries firm Sure.
THERE ARE 68 DAYS LEFT
POlO mints were first produced 68 years ago and cost 2d. Today, 20 million are made daily — still in the same York factory. The pressure they are put under when formed is equal to the weight of two elephants jumping on them, says maker nestle Rowntree.
GeRmAn polyglot emil Krebs (1867-1930) was able to speak 68 languages fluently — including Chinese and all those spoken in today’s eU. His private library contained the Bible in 61 different languages. After his death, his brain was recovered and is still kept as an ‘elite brain’ at the Vogt Institute for Brain Research at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf.
‘PHAnTOm vibration syndrome’ — in which people feel their mobile phone vibrating even when it isn’t — affects 68 per cent of phone owners, says a U.S. hospital study. It is thought to occur because people are so anxious not to miss any calls.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
wAYne ROOneY, 31. At school, the manchester United and england captain (right) was suspended for two days when he kicked a hole in a science lab wall after having his football confiscated. At United, he earns £300,000 a week — which in 1969 would have covered the club’s annual wage bill. BIll wYmAn, 80. The former Rolling Stones bassist — who quit n 1993 — has patented his own metal detector. Bob Dylan said that when wyman left, the Stones became a funk band, adding: ‘They’ll be the real Rolling Stones when they get Bill back.’ But wyman has ruled it out, saying: ‘It’s not the same. School reunions, old girlfriends, divorces, getting back with the old wife — it doesn’t work.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR ROBIn DAY (1923-2000). The BBC broadcaster (right) described as ‘the most outstanding TV journalist of his generation’. Question Time’s first chairman campaigned for 25 years for the televising of Parliament, as well as for the creation of the national lottery. He weighed 17st as a student and claimed he had managed to lose more weight than anyone in the world. DAme SYBIl THORnDIKe (1882-1976). The lincolnshire-born actress was married to director Sir lewis Casson — one of the few couples each to have honours in their own right. Asked if she’d ever considered separating, she said: ‘Divorce, never! murder, often!’
ON OCTOBER 24 . . .
IN 1857, the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC, was founded by nathaniel Creswick and william Prest, who also wrote the rules that would form the basis for the modern game. IN 1945, the United nations Organisation — later known as the United nations — was established. The name had been coined by wartime U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. IN 2005, Rosa Parks, who refused to give her bus seat to a white man in 1955 and was called ‘the first lady of civil rights’ in the U.S., died aged 92.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I fInd it easy to portray businessmen. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me.
John Cleese, comedian
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOw do you get rid of water on the knee? Wear drain-pipe trousers.