ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 1, 1940 A WARNING that the Germans are about to launch an invasion was given last night by Mr Chamberlain. ‘We know,’ said the former prime minister, in a broadcast speech, ‘that the Nazis are even now completing their preparations for an attempt to invade this country. At any moment the invasion may be launched by sea and air.’ JULY 1, 1955 A BBC representative at the East Suffolk Parish Councils’ Association meeting yesterday was asked to have a word with an announcer who says ‘tomorrer’ in weather forecasts. Rev. Leslie Smith, of Great Blakenham, said: ‘He makes it very difficult to educate our children.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAME Olivia De Havilland, 101. The actress, who starred in Gone With the Wind aged 22 in 1939 (pictured), became the oldest woman to be made a dame last month. Born in Tokyo to British parents, she had a life-long feud with her sister, actress Joan Fontaine. CARL LEWIS, 56. The American sprinter and long jumper is one of only four Olympic athletes to have won nine gold medals and one of only three to have won the same individual event in four consecutive games-four times. In 2003, he admitted that he was one of ‘hundreds’ of American athletes who had escaped bans even though they had tested positive for banned substances.
BORN ON THIS DAY
CHARLES LAUGHTON (1899-1962). The Scarborough-born actor played the lead in The Private Life Of Henry VIII and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. He said his success was partly due to his appearance, which he compared with at least part of an elephant: ‘I have the face of a departing pachyderm.’ PRINCESS DIANA (19611997). On her 36th birthday, two months before her death, the Princess of Wales spent the evening at a centenary gala for the Tate Gallery, wearing a dress by Catherine Walker (pictured), who also designed the black gown Diana was buried in.
ON JULY 1...
IN 1916, the Battle of the Somme began. On the first day, 21,000 British soldiers died — more than in the Crimean, Boer and Korean Wars combined. IN 1997, Hong Kong was handed over to China after 156 years as a British colony.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Greycation: When several generations of a family, including older relatives, holiday together. GUESS THE DEFINITION Nictitate (coined 1820s) A) To drip from a candle (said of wax). B) To smell like burnt flesh. C) To blink or wink rapidly. Answers below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
World is your oyster: All opportunities are open. From Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives Of Windsor, when Pistol says: ‘Why, then the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.’
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. J. K. Galbraith, U.S. economist (1908-2006) JOKE OF THE DAY What happens to a frog’s car when it breaks down? It gets toad away. Guess The Definition answer: C.