ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 16, 1948
YESTERDAY at Buckingham Palace was the happiest day the King and Queen and their family have had for a long time. Prince Charles, christened in a flower-banked room, behaved perfectly throughout the half-hour ceremony. Not one whimper from him. Just an occasional gurgle.
DECEMBER 16, 1964
POP singer Dusty Springfield (right) was told to leave South Africa tonight. She was told to get out within 24 hours after singing to a multi-racial audience. Miss Springfield, 23, voted our top female singer, was the first British artist to stipulate a ‘No Apartheid’ clause in a South African contract.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SIR QUENTIN BLAKE, 85. The Kent-born illustrator is best-known for creating the pictures for most of Roald Dahl’s books. He was appointed Britain’s first ever Children’s Laureate in 1999, but said: ‘I do like children, but only as people. Not as if they’re a special category.’ DENNIS WISE, 51. The London-born former England footballer and Millwall manager was in the I’m A Celebrity … jungle this month and hailed as the poster boy of the ‘Rise of the fittysomethings’ for his youthful physique. His team-mates once put him in a dog cage when he apparently lost his temper after being teased.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JANE AUSTEN (17751817). The Hampshireborn novelist’s books were described by crime writer P.D. James as ‘Mills & Boon written by a genius’. Austen (right) contributed hundreds of words and phrases to our vocabulary, including: ‘dinner-party’, ‘brace yourself’, ‘family portrait’, ‘door bell’, ‘breakfast room’ and ‘if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 100 times’.
NICHOLAS COURTNEY (1929-2011). The Cairo-born English actor famously played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who on and off between 1968 and 2008. He was the longest-serving co-star, appearing with five Doctors, but always refused to say who his favourite Time Lord was, replying: ‘Splendid chap, all of them.’
ON DECEMBER 16…
IN 1653, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland after leading the Parliamentarian side to victory in the English Civil War. IN 1773, American patriots threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbour to protest against a tea tax — in what became known as the Boston Tea Party. IN 1955, the Queen opened new buildings at London Airport (now known as Terminal 2 at Heathrow).
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Vigesimation (coined 1727) A) The contemplation of death. B) The act of killing every 20th person. C) A union of opposites. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED To see a man about a dog:
It typically acts as a euphemism for going to the loo or buying a drink and originally referred to betting on dog racing.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ThE real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. Umberto Eco, Italian writer (1932-2016)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call people who are scared of Father Christmas? Claustrophobic. Guess the Definition answer: B.