ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
January 15, 1940
THERE has been a big demand since war began for khaki, Air Force blue and Navy blue dyestuffs. This spring and summer, light fawns, greens and beiges are expected to be worn most. Economy in dyestuffs means the Yorkshire woollen manufacturing industry has to turn fashion in the direction of shades more easily supplied.
January 15, 1969
BRUCE REYNOLDS, a leading member of the Great Train Robbery gang, has been jailed for 25 years. That means five years for every year on the run with his £150,000 loot. Reynolds, 37, pleaded guilty to stealing the mail-bags on August 8, 1963. Going to the top security wing of Leicester Jail, he took the last big secret of the Great Train Robbery: how did he smuggle abroad his £150,000 share of the stolen £2,500,000?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRINCESS MICHAEL of Kent, 73 (right). The wife of the Queen’s first cousin earned the nickname ‘Princess Pushy’ from her former friend, author Jilly Cooper, who used the term in a profile she wrote in the Mail on Sunday in 1986. Cooper later received an envelope from Kensington Palace containing 30 pieces of silver — the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. At Christmas, the Princess apologised after wearing ‘racist jewellery’ — a Blackamoor brooch — to the Queen’s Christmas lunch, attended by Prince Harry’s mixed-race fiancée Meghan Markle.
MARGARET BECKETT, 75. The Labour politician is the longest-serving woman MP in history at more than 39 years (though not continuous service). She was the first woman to lead the Labour Party (as caretaker leader after John Smith’s death). Beckett is known for copious swearing (told she was to head the Foreign Office, she is said to have exclaimed: ‘F***!’), for drawing doodles of ministers during Cabinet meetings and for her annual three-week caravan break.
BORN ON THIS DAY
LLOYD BRIDGES (191398). The U.S. actor (right) starred in Airplane! and High Noon. He had been presented with a trophy for being America’s Fattest Baby by President William Howard Taft (who was very fat himself). Bridges was part of an acting dynasty: his father, Lloyd Sr, was in silent films and two of his children, Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges, joined the profession. IVOR NOVELLO (1893-1951). The Welsh master of escapist musicals, after whom the Ivor Novello awards are named, found fame with his 1914 song Keep The Home Fires Burning. He was also a film star, hailed as Britain’s ‘handsomest screen actor’. One critic gave him the back-handed compliment: ‘No one walks through his own tosh with quite the confidence of Ivor Novello.’
ON JANUARY 15...
IN 1559, Elizabeth I’s Coronation took place. IN 2001, Wikipedia was launched.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Snaste (1561)
A) To snore. B) To sneeze. C) To snuff a candle. answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED To pull strings:
To use one’s influence behind the scenes to gain an advantage, derives from puppets whose movements are manipulated and controlled through the use of strings.