ON THIS DAY
April 10, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 10, 1953
SCHOOLCHILDREN working out sums on calculating machines, no multiplication tables, Einstein’s theory instead of Euclid. That is what schools will be like in 50 years’ time, the mathematics master of Harrow told the Mathematical Association yesterday. He said: ‘Each maths room will have its calculating machine, and the child on duty for the day will do any calculating needed.’
APRIL 10, 1964
ACTOR Peter Sellers sat up in hospital and asked: ‘How am I doing?’ After a 48-hour battle against death caused by eight heart attacks, the 38-year-old is wise-cracking his way back to health. His enthusiasm worried staff at Hollywood’s Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. A nurse said: ‘If we tell him to take it easy, he just makes faces.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
GLORIA HUNNIFORD, 77. The broadcaster was born on her sister’s seventh birthday in 1940. She said: ‘Learning about sex, we’d say: “Gosh, our parents only did it every seven years!” ’ A presenter of TV’s Rip Off Britain, she lost £120,000 when a woman posing as her went into a branch of Santander asking for her ‘grandson’ to be added to the account.
DAISY RIDLEY, 25. London-born Daisy got her big break in 2015 with the lead role in Star Wars: The force Awakens. She is the great-niece of Arnold Ridley, who played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army.
BORN ON THIS DAY
OMAR SHARIF (19322015). The Egyptian star of Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago (right, with co-star Julie Christie) loved to gamble. He quit movies to become one of the world’s best bridge players — but he stopped playing roulette after losing £750,000 in just one night.
JOSEPH PULITZER (1847-1911). The Hungarian-born press baron, whose legacy includes the world’s most prestigious journalism award. His innovative approach to newspapers included the introduction of sports, fashion and comic strips. ‘yellow journalism’ described the sensationalist reporting born out of the rivalry between his New york World and William Randolph Hearst’s New york Morning Journal.
ON APRIL 10...
IN 1925, f. Scott fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published.
IN 1998, the Good friday Agreement was reached. Tony Blair said: ‘A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders.’
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Pawdicure: a pedicure for a dog.
GUESS THE DEFINITION Miryachit (coined from Russian 1890) A) Money paid by a killer’s family as compensation to free the offender. B) The sound of fireworks detonating. C) Disease in which the sufferer mimics everything done by another. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The Gods: High, traditionally cheap seats in a theatre. Comes from London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where, around the early 19th century, the ceiling was decorated with paintings of classical gods.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
FACTS do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Aldous Huxley, author (1894-1963)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the octopus beat the shark in a fight? Because sharks are ’armless. Guess the Definition answer: c.