ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JUNE 30, 1941 A TICKING parcel addressed to ‘Franklyn D. Roosevelt’ threw New York’s Grand Central Post Office into a flurry last night. The ‘bomb’ turned out to be an alarm clock and electric wire. Police said it was harmless, and must have been sent by someone with a peculiar sense of humour. JUNE 30, 1956 MARILYN MONROE and playwright Arthur Miller were married secretly in the court house of a New York suburb. Only two witnesses and a photographer attended the civil ceremony. The bride, who wore a sweater and a creased skirt, had said she would not care for a Grace Kelly-style white wedding.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
AMANDA FOREMAN, 49, the Anglo-American historian (pictured), whose book Georgiana, Duchess Of Devonshire inspired the film The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley. Foreman once posed naked behind a pile of books for Tatler magazine. TONY HATCH, 78. The Pinner-born composer wrote the theme tunes for Crossroads, Emmerdale and Neighbours and wrote Petula Clark’s Downtown. He helped discover comedians Lenny Henry and Victoria Wood when he acerbically judged talent show New Faces in the Seventies. ROBERT BALLARD, 75. The American scientist and marine explorer discovered the wrecks of the Titanic (in 1985) and the German battleship Bismarck (1989).
BORN ON THIS DAY
FLORENCE BALLARD (1943-1976). The original lead singer of The Primettes, later renamed The Supremes. Ballard, (pictured, left) one of 15 children born to a General Motors worker in Detroit, died aged 32 of a heart attack after earlier suffering from alcoholism. She had been forced out of the lineup, that also included Diana Ross (centre) and Mary Wilson, aged 24 by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records — and Ross’s lover. ED YOST (1919-2007). The American pilot and inventor of the modern gas-burner hotair balloon. His company carried out secret Cold War operations that included dropping agents and propaganda leaflets over the Iron Curtain. Despite several crash landings, while setting balloon flight world records, he died while mowing his lawn.
ON JUNE 30 . . .
IN 1937, the British emergency number 999 was introduced, the first telephone system of its kind in the world.
IN 1992, Margaret Thatcher took her place in the House of Lords, as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.