ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 14, 1950
ARTHUR CONWAY, 37, is the first man in Britain to be publicly labelled ‘work-shy’ by the state. In a case brought by the National Assistance Board, he was jailed for three months for failing to maintain himself, his wife and three children.
APRIL 14, 1967
POLICE used tear gas to break up mobs when the Rolling Stones appeared at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, the British pop group’s first appearance behind the Iron Curtain. Trouble began when 3,000 teenagers gathered outside the venue. Inside, 3,000 boys and girls danced in their seats.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JULIE CHRISTIE, 77. The Oscar-winning English actress, star of Doctor Zhivago (right) and Far From The Madding Crowd, lived on a tea estate in Assam, India, until the age of six. Former lover Warren Beatty said she was ‘the most beautiful and at the same time the most nervous person I had ever known’. JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER, 66. The fourtimes married ‘doyen of British cellists’ is also a conductor, principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire — and the youngest brother of Phantom Of The Opera composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 2001, he was granted the first busker’s licence on the London Underground.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BOB GRANT (1932-2003). The Londonborn actor played lecherous bus conductor Jack Harper in TV and film comedy On The Buses. It made him so famous that when he married Kim, his third wife, in 1971, so many fans surrounded their Rolls Royce, the couple had to get out and walk to the reception. VALERIE HOBSON (1917-1998). The leading lady from Northern Ireland appeared in David Lean’s film of Great Expectations and made more TV appearances pre-war than any other actress. But she was just as famous for standing by her disgraced husband, Secretary of State for War John Profumo (both pictured above) in the wake of his relationship with Christine Keeler.
ON APRIL 14 . . .
IN 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at a theatre in Washington DC. He died the next day. IN 1931, the Highway Code was first issued. IN 2014, 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Islamists Boko Haram (meaning ‘Western education is forbidden’) in Chibok, Nigeria. Despite an international campaign, 195 are still missing.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Ladybro: Female friend, often of a woman. GUESS THE DEFINITION Darby-roll (coined 19th century) A) Small load. B) A type of meat sandwich. C) Distinctive walk that shows a person has been in fetters (‘darbies’ in prison slang) and so is a former prisoner.
Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED To put one’s hand to the wolf’s mouth:
Meaning to expose oneself to needless risk. Alludes to the fable of the crane that put its head into a wolf’s mouth to extract a bone.