ON THIS DAY
April 27, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 27, 1935
THERE is a boom in bowler hats. The black silk ‘topper’, which used to be the national mark of good business, is gradually disappearing from City streets. A city hatter said: ‘Apparently the chief reason for the boom is that business men have come to feel that the bowler is a dignified hat.’
APRIL 27, 1963
POP singer Anthony Newley’s wife, actress Ann Lynn, was granted a decree nisi in London yesterday because of Mr Newley’s adultery with London-born Hollywood actress Joan Collins. Confessions by Mr Newley and 30-year-old Miss Collins were shown to the court.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANNA CHANCELLOR, 52. The actress (right) is best known for playing Caroline Bingley in the BBC’s adaptation of Pride And Prejudice and ‘Duckface’ in Four Weddings And A Funeral — a nickname she says that’s even used by her daughter. RUSSELL T. DAvIES, 54. The 6ft 6in Welshborn screenwriter created Bob & Rose and Queer As Folk before reviving Doctor Who in 2005 after an absence of 16 years. Davies, who is openly gay, said: ‘When it was announced I was doing Doctor Who, along came the Sun with the headline Doctor Queer. But everyone still watched. Hooray!’
BORN ON THIS DAY
WALLACE CAROTHERS (1896-1937). The U.S. chemist invented the first synthetic fibre, nylon. Carothers, who suffered from depression and kept a capsule of cyanide on the chain of his watch, took his own life with the poison at 41. It meant he never saw the huge success of his material, which was first used for synthetic toothbrush bristles, then as a much cheaper alternative to silk to make stockings. On the first day nylon stockings went on sale in America, 800,000 pairs were sold. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797). Now regarded by many as the original suffragette, the author of A vindication Of The Rights Of Women declared: ‘I do not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves’, advocating equality of education. She died 11 days after the birth of her second daughter, Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.
ON APRIL 27...
IN 1981, the first computer with a mouse, the Xerox Star, went on sale.
IN 1992, Betty Boothroyd (right) was elected as the first woman Speaker of the House of Commons in its 700-year history.
WORD WIZARDRY NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Mansplain — (of a man) to explain something in a patronising way to a woman.
GUESS THE DEFINITION Minerval (coined 1603)
A) Song sung by the guests at a banquet. B) A gift given by a pupil to a teacher. C) One who cuts off his thumb to escape military service. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Cry wolf: To give a false alarm. It alludes to the shepherd lad who cried ‘Wolf!’ to make fun of his neighbours; but when the wolf really came, no one believed him.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ALwAys forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist and poet (1854-1900)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the library book go to the doctor? It had a bloated appendix. Guess The Definition answer: B.