ON THIS DAY
January 19, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 19, 1927 WHILE Charlie Chaplin (right) lies in his bed of sickness in New York, his wife is staging at Los Angeles court scenes which his lawyer sarcastically describes as ‘The Second Gold Rush’. The comedian is fighting both his wife, who wishes to secure the major portion of his fortune, and the government, which alleges that he under-estimated his income taxes by £214,000. JANUARY 19, 1957 SCHOOL lunch bells rang, children hurried away — to rock ’n’ roll at the Palais de Danse. Mr C.R. Seaton, head of Nottingham Art School, said: ‘We used to run a lunchtime ballroom dancing session at school. Now it’s flopped. Last time only three turned up.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MARTIN BASHIR, 54. The BBC’s recently appointed religious affairs correspondent made his name in 1995 with a Panorama interview in which Princess Diana referred to her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, saying: ‘There were three of us in this marriage.’ He was suspended from the U.S. TV network ABC after referring to participants at an Asian-American journalists’ conference as ‘Asian babes’. JOHN BERCOW, 54. The Speaker of the House of Commons was the secretary of the immigration and repatriation committee of the far-Right Monday Club as a teenager, calling for a halt to incomers from the Commonwealth. He has said: ‘My 16-yearold self would regard me now as an awful sell-out merchant, a wishy-washy centrist.’ TIPPI HEDREN, 87. The U.S. actress starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (right) and is mother and grandmother respectively to Melanie Griffith (Working Girl) and Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades Of Grey). She lives on a big-cat rescue reserve in California which she funds and helps to run, looking after more than 30 animals, including lions and tigers.
BORN ON THIS DAY
PAUL CEzANNE (1839-1906). The French Post-Impressionist painter has been described as the ‘father of modern art’. He spent 17 years with his mistress and muse, Hortense Fiquet, whom he painted dozens of times, before marrying her. EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849). The American author and poet is now regarded as the inventor of the modern detective story — but his only book to get a second printing in his lifetime was a textbook on seashells.
ON JANUARY 19 . . .
IN 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first U.S. President to record a TV news conference.
IN 1966, Indira Gandhi became India’s first female leader. She was the daughter of the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY GAFA (acronym): tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, viewed as a group. GUESS THE DEFINITION Blepharospasm (coined 1872) A) A headache covering the entire head. B) Uncontrolled winking or eye twitching. C) Perpetual grief. (Answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED Man of straw: A person without capital, from the days when worthless types would loiter about the law courts to act as false witness to those who would buy their services, identifying themselves by a piece of straw sticking out of their shoes.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Punctuality is the politeness of kings. Louis XVIII (1755-1824)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Which cheese is made backwards? Edam.
Guess The Definition answer: B