ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MAY 10, 1947 GEORGE Bernard Shaw issued a manifesto to the House of Commons, the Lords, and the Dail [the Irish parliament], calling for simplified spelling which, would save two months’ working days per scribe every year. ‘I reflected on the number of plays Shakespeare would have had time to write if he had written them in the alphabets of Pitman, Sweet, or Gregg [shorthand systems],’ Mr Shaw tells the legislators.
MAY 10, 1957 TWO hospital sisters were at Buckingham Palace last night to look after eight-yearold Prince Charles, who had his tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday. The operation took place in the hospital room at Buckingham Palace in which Prince Charles was born. The Queen and Prince Philip saw their son’s room before Dr Sheldon gave him the sleep pill disguised with jam.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MIUCCIA PRADA, 69. The creative director of Italian fashion company Prada is worth more than £3billion. Before joining the firm founded by her grandfather in 1913, she worked as a mime artist, gained a PhD in political science and was a member of the Italian communist party.
BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD, 85. The Leeds-born author’s first novel, A Woman of Substance, has sold 32million copies. She started writing fiction aged seven and sold her first short story to a magazine for seven shillings when she was ten. She said: ‘Hemingway said you can’t call yourself a writer until you’ve been paid for it.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
FRED ASTAIRE (1899-1987). The U.S. actor was born Frederick Austerlitz, and starred in 30 musicals, including 11 with Ginger Rogers. As a teenager, Astaire was described as ‘apparently boneless’ and remained active all his life — at 78 he broke his wrist falling off his grandson’s skateboard. He wed twice — the second time to 35-year-old former jockey when he was 81.
JOHN WILKES BOOTH (1838-1865). He assassinated president Abraham Lincoln as part of an unsuccessful conspiracy that aimed to help the South win the U.S. civil war. Booth was a famous actor described as ‘the Leonardo DiCaprio of his day’.
ON MAY 10...
IN 1933, the Nazis orchestrated bonfires across Germany, with university students burning more than 25,000 volumes of ‘unGerman’ books.
IN 1954, Rock Around The Clock, by Bill Haley and His Comets, was released. It became the biggest-selling single of the Fifties in the UK.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Misocapnist (coined 1839) A) Shy and repellent in manner. B) One who bathes in the open air daily. C) One who hates tobacco smoke.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Kiss the mistress: Meaning to shoot right into the eye of a target. From the game of bowls where what is now called the jack used to be called ‘the mistress’. If one ball just touches another, it’s said to kiss it.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Love conquers all things, except poverty and toothache. Mae West, American actress (1893-1980)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHERE do boats go if they are ill? The sick bay. Guess The Definition answer: C. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD