ON THIS DAY

May 27, 2017

MAY 27, 1947

MR GANDHI lost one of his most prized possessions on Sunday when a thief took the five shilling watch which for 25 years had dangled from his loincloth. the thief is believed to have mingled with crowds which mobbed Mr Gandhi at Kanpur railway station on his way to Delhi. [the thief felt remorse and returned it six months later.]

MAY 27, 1969

PRINCESS ANNE made her first public speech yesterday — and she wrote it herself. the 18-year-old talked about her taste in clothes at a lunch to open the Festival of London Stores. She said: ‘i think i can claim to have supported almost all the stores represented here at some time or other. But i dislike macs so intensely, my Burberry is going to last me a good many years.’

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HESTON BLUMENTHAL, 51. the three-Michelinstarred chef (right) — whose crazy dishes include egg and bacon ice cream, snail porridge and meat fruit — turned to cooking after failing to get the A-level grades to be an architect. While people assume that Blumenthal is bald, he shaves his head, partly to stay cool in the kitchen.

SIOUXSIE SIOUX, 60. the lead singer of Siouxsie and the Banshees grew up as Susie Ballion in Chislehurst, London. An early exponent of punk fashion, her controversial outfits often consisted of glam, fetish and bondage gear. During a live early-evening TV show in 1976, members of the Sex Pistols swore at presenter Bill Grundy when he tried to flirt with Siouxsie in one of the most infamous bouts of swearing in TV history.

BORN ON THIS DAY

VINCENT PRICE (19111993). the U.S. actor starred in dozens of horror films and also provided the monologue for Michael Jackson’s 1983 song thriller. Price said of his genre: ‘in a world where slaughter and vicious crimes are daily occurrences, a ghoulish movie is comic relief.’

AMELIA BLOOMER (1818-1894). the U.S. women’s rights campaigner edited a journal in which she advocated a move away from starched petticoats and whale-bone fitted corsets to something giving women freedom of movement. in 1851, she told readers how to make the turkish-style pantaloons and short dress that she had adopted — and within weeks newspapers dubbed it the ‘Bloomer’ dress. the baggy trousers shortened over time, but the name lived on.

ON MAY 27... IN 1927,

the last Model t Ford was built — 15 million of the cars had been sold.

IN 1964,

Jawaharlal Nehru, independent india’s first prime minister, died aged 74.