ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
OCTOBER 10, 1959 Under a new law, women who wear stiletto heels in Mobile, Alabama, may be fined in a move to combat claims against the city by women whose spike heels have caught in pavement cracks and caused them to fall. OCTOBER 10, 1967 Licensees throughout the country complained last night that trade had slumped by up to two-thirds on the first day of alcohol breath tests. Worst hit were outof-town public houses which rely on motorists for most of their business.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MUrrAy WALker, 94. The retired motor-racing broadcaster did his first live commentary in 1949, but started in advertising, where he coined the slogan: ‘Opal Fruits: made to make your mouth water.’ driver david coulthard once said: ‘Murray made every race like losing your virginity. it was always that exciting.’ JUdiTh chALMers, 82. Best known for hosting iTV’s Wish you Were here...? from 1974 to 2003. she confessed that she didn’t wear knickers on screen after a wardrobe assistant warned her against ‘visible panty line’ while broadcasting. ‘so i’m sorry to reveal after 30 years of Wish you Were here...?, that i was pantless all the time.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
cLAre hollingworth (1911-2017). The war reporter from Leicestershire got the ‘scoop of the century’ after she spotted German troops about to invade Poland, becoming the first to report the outbreak of World War ii less than a week into her first job as a journalist. When the secretary at the British embassy in Warsaw refused to believe her, she ‘hung the telephone receiver out of the window, so he could listen to the Germans invading’. WinsTOn chUrchiLL (1940-2010). The former conservative MP admitted that sharing the same name as his famous grandfather caused him problems over the years. Once, on introducing himself to a soldier in the desert just after the first Gulf War, the squaddie replied: ‘yes? And i’m rommel.’
ON OCTOBER 10…
IN 1886, the tuxedo dinner jacket is thought to have made its debut when a group of men wore tailless dress coats to a ball in Tuxedo Park, new york.
IN 1999, the Millennium Wheel, now known as the London eye, was slowly hoisted into place on London’s south Bank.
IN 2005, Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female chancellor.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION
Drollic (coined 1743) A) A young and thoughtless person B) Pertaining to a puppet show c) Of a girl: forward Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
All tickety-boo: meaning all is fine and dandy. May derive from the phrase ‘that’s the ticket’; in the 19th century charities gave tickets to the poor to be exchanged for soup, coal and clothing; or an Anglicised version of the hindi phrase tikai babu meaning: ‘it’s all right, sir’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY IF A free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the U.S. (1917-63)
JOKE OF THE DAY WhAT did the fisherman say to the magician? Pick a cod, any cod… Guess the Definition answer: B. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD