ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 23, 1963 MRS Nora Bevins, wife of the PostmasterGeneral, picked a cream telephone to match the decor of their home — and her husband wants to know why it cost 30 shillings [£29.50 in today’s money] more than a plain black one. A Post Office spokesman said: ‘You pay £3 for a coloured phone. Thirty shillings of it is the cost of a visit to change the instrument; the other 30s is just for being different. If it was abolished, some housewives might change their phone every time they altered a colour scheme.’ JANUARY 23, 1967 HOMES in the year 2000 may move about on their own and plug in at intervals on a parent ‘tree’ for refuelling and other services, says designer Sir Hugh Casson, who has produced a model of his ‘capsule house’. It will be seen as one of the features at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EWEN BREMNER, 46. The Edinburghborn actor had originally wanted to be a circus clown. Best known for playing Spud in Trainspotting (he is pictured, left, with co-stars Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle), Bremner almost turned down the part because he’d played the lead role, Renton, on stage and was angry at being overlooked in favour of McGregor. PRINCESS CAROLINE OF MONACO, 61. The first child of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly was in the car crash that killed her mother in 1982. She also lost her second husband, Stefano Casiraghi, who died in a speedboat accident in 1990. She is married, but estranged from, third husband, Prince Ernst of Hanover, a descendant of George III.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JEANNE MOREAu (19282017). The Bafta-winning screen star (pictured) is best known for 1962 film Jules Et Jim. Described as the most iconic Gallic actress of her generation, she was the daughter of a Tiller Girl dancer from Oldham, and a French restaurateur. Of her heritage, she said: ‘I’m pleased I can be outrageous as only the English can be.’ WALTER FREDERICK MORRISON (19202010). The American invented the ‘Pluto Platter’ and sold the rights on this day in 1957, his 37th birthday. Renamed the Frisbee a year later, it went on to sell 200million during his lifetime, though he thought its new name was ‘a horror’.
ON JANUARY 23...
IN 1973, President Nixon announced on TV ‘peace with honour’ with Vietnam after a deal was signed in Paris earlier that day. IN 1986, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry were among the first group of musicians inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York. IN 1989, artist Salvador Dali died aged 84.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Cloop (1848) A) Sound of drawing a cork from a bottle. B) To hit round the head. C) To fell, to knock down. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
Swan song: An artist’s last performance. From an ancient, but false, belief that swans sing melodiously just before they die. Plato, Aristotle and Shakespeare all mention it.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. Oprah Winfrey, U.S. TV host JOKE OF THE DAY WHY are paediatricians always so annoyed? Because they have little patients. Guess the Definition answer: A.