ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
AUGUST 23, 1947 USE of gold in the manufacture of jewellery for the home trade was prohibited in an Order issued by the Treasury yesterday. This may mean no more gold wedding rings for British brides. AUGUST 23, 1966 TWO girls sat on the 21st-floor ledge of a New York hotel threatening to jump unless they could see The Beatles. The girls came down 30 minutes later after a policeman went on his knees and pleaded with them.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
NANCY DELL’OLiO, 56. The italian lawyer (right) became famous as the girlfriend of England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, before becoming a celebrity in her own right, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother. in 2011, Dell’Olio threatened Strictly judge Bruno Tonioli with legal action after he suggested she’d ‘inhaled two gallons’ of champagne before her performance on the show. SASkiA CLArk, 38. Last year the sailor from Colchester, Essex, was crowned female World Sailor of the Year, won Olympic gold in rio — and retired after a 20-year career. Her favourite boat was her first, a wooden vessel that she called Bumblebee because it had yellow and black stripes.
BORN ON THIS DAY
River Phoenix (1970-93). The U.S. actor (right) who died at 23 of a drug overdose. The star of Stand By Me played the younger version of Harrison Ford’s character in indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. He was the son of vegan Christian missionaries, who named him after the river of life in Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha. kEiTH MOON (1947-78). The drummer of The Who, who died at 32 from an overdose. Notorious for blowing up hotel toilets with dynamite and destroying his drum kits on stage, he once bribed a stagehand on a U.S. Tv show to load gunpowder into his bass drum — but used ten times the amount needed. The huge explosion embedded a piece of cymbal in Moon’s arm and singed bandmate Pete Townshend’s hair.
ON AUGUST 23…
IN 1775, king George iii issued a proclamation stating the American colonies stood in ‘open and avowed rebellion’, and would face severe punishment. IN 2006, Austrian Natascha kampusch, who had been abducted aged ten, escaped from Wolfgang Priklopil after eight years held in a cellar below his garage.
IN 2010, Tiger Woods and wife Elin Nordegren announced their divorce, nine months after a car crash that left the then world No 1 golfer seriously injured and triggered revelations about his infidelities.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Collimate (coined 1837) A: To close one eye to aim at a target. B: To talk idly, with a stupid gravity. C: To use indecent language.