ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 31, 1935 A WArnInG against ‘the pernicious effect of certain types of exotic modern dance music on the immature minds of children’ was uttered by Dr r. S. Thatcher, director of music at Harrow School, at a conference of British and Canadian organists in London yesterday. JULY 31, 1947 Mr STrACHEy, Minister of Food, was asked at Birmingham last night if the Government was going to do anything about Britain’s ‘spivs’. Mr Woodrow Wyatt, MP for Aston, at the same Labour rally at Aston Park, said later: ‘There is an estimated total of nearly a million of these men who will eventually be rounded up and given useful work.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EMILIA FOx, 45. The actress said: ‘I’ve played Dr nikki Alexander in Silent Witness for so long I could have trained to be an actual pathologist by now.’ Fox, (pictured) who was briefly engaged to comedian Vic reeves and dated chef Marco Pierre White, says she has had a life-long phobia of touching flower pots or unglazed pottery. nOrMAn COOK, 56. The Brit awardwinning DJ, better known as Fatboy Slim, was born Quentin Cook. He married radio presenter Zoe Ball in 1999 but they separated in 2016. Cook only started to cook when he had his first child at 37, and once phoned his friend Jamie Oliver in Australia ‘to check exactly how much a glug of oil is’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
STEPHAnIE KWOLEK (1923-2014). The U.S. chemist invented Kevlar, and became only the fourth woman added to the national Inventors Hall of Fame. She came up with the synthetic material, used in bullet-proof vests, in 1965 while trying to reinforce car tyres without using heavy steel belts. It is flame-resistant and five times stronger by weight than steel. TED CASSIDy (1932-1979). The 6ft 9in U.S. actor, who appeared in films including Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, was deepvoiced butler Lurch (pictured) in Sixties TV series The Addams Family. It was a non-speaking role, but this changed when he used the line ‘you rang?’ during his audition. It became his catchphrase.
ON JULY 31…
IN 1959, Cliff richard secured his first no1 single with Living Doll.
IN 1964, U.S. space probe ranger 7 transmitted 4,000 pictures of the Moon’s surface that were a thousand times clearer than any previous telescope image. IN 2009, former England football player and manager Sir Bobby robson died, aged 76.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Dasypygal (coined 1875) A) Having hairy buttocks. B) Having two toes pointing forward and two backwards (of a bird). C) Opposite direction or wrong way. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Wake-up call: An alert that change or improvement is required. Coined in the early 1900s from the common hotel practice of offering a courtesy phone call to help guests wake up.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
MONEY is like an arm or a leg — use it or lose it. Henry Ford, U.S. industrialist (1863-1947)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT’S a drunk astronaut’s favourite part of a computer? The space bar. Guess The Definition answer: A.