ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JUNE 28, 1941 Two women fainted in a Croydon street last night during a gas test. The worst to suffer the effects were staff at a bank who were working overtime. Their eyes streamed as tear-gas fumes poured into the building. JUNE 28, 1958 Men can live for 250 years if their complaints are treated by hypnosis, a doctor claims today. Dr S. J. van Pelt, president of the British Society of Medical Hypnotists, says the motto for longevity — by removing tension and anxiety — should be: ‘Be wise — hypnotise.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ADAM wooDYATT, 50. The actor is the only original cast member of eastenders to have appeared continuously — playing hapless Ian Beale for 33 years. Former butcher woodyatt is the soap’s joint highest paid star, with Danny Dyer, earning up to £250,000 a year. A 2011 poll found viewers thought his character gave entrepreneurs a bad name — he has tried running a motor repair firm, fish and chip shop and knitting company. KATHY BATeS, 70, right. The American actress, star of Titanic, says her biggest regret is not taking her 83-year-old mother to the oscars the year she won best actress for Misery. She says the strangest object a fan has ever sent her was a gold bust of herself: ‘It’s bald. I look like my father. For some reason, it’s been hard to throw away.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
AA GILL (1954-2016). The Sunday Times journalist died just three weeks after revealing in a restaurant review that he had ‘the Full english’ of cancers. The ex-husband of former Home Secretary Amber Rudd had severe dyslexia and had to dictate his articles. His views often sparked outrage, for example calling norfolk ‘the hernia on the end of england’, but he revealed his softer side when he chose his children’s pillows as his luxury on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
RICHARD RoDGeRS (1902-1979). The American behind the musicals South Pacific, oklahoma! and The King And I, was the first composer to win an emmy, Grammy, oscar and Tony, and was also honoured with a Pulitzer. The prolific writer of 1,500 songs — above, with Julie Andrews, star of another of his hits, The Sound of Music — was able to compose a tune over breakfast. He said: ‘I admit, with no modesty whatever, that not many people can do it. But when they say: “You’re a genius,” I say: “no, it’s my job.”’
ON JUNE 28…
IN 1838, Queen Victoria was crowned in westminster Abbey.
IN 1969, the Stonewall riots — after a police raid on a gay bar — began in new York, starting the gay liberation movement.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: mumchanceness (coined 1910) A) Silence, reticence B) Random C) The most unlikely situation Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Hammer and tongs — meaning energetically or enthusiastically; from blacksmiths who held the hot iron with tongs and beat it into shape with a hammer.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
How can I tell what I think till I see what I say? E.M. Forster, English novelist (1879-1970)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I’ve just burned my Hawaiian pizza... I should have put it on aloha temperature. Guess The Definition answer: A.