ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
SEPTEMBER 4, 1939 PANIC occurred in Berlin when the news spread shortly after noon that England had declared war. Police immediately closed the larger beer halls and raided cafes where patrons tried to protest. Police used clubs to disperse people gathered in the streets. SEPTEMBER 4, 1967 BRITISH traffic experts watched Sweden switch from driving on the left side of the road to the right today — and advised Britain to abandon adopting the idea. Alec Durie, director-general of the AA, said: ‘We’d have to think in terms of 12 Swedens. It could raise our accident rate by ten per cent and increase our road deaths from the present 8,000 to 10,000 a year.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JAMES BAY, 29. The Hertfordshire singer-songwriter (right) had a No1 with his debut album, Chaos And The Calm, in 2015. He was inspired to learn the guitar after hearing Eric Clapton’s Layla. He plays a vintage 1966 Epiphone Century guitar and the firm has launched a reissued version — complete with a silhouette of Bay in his signature fedora hat on the neck. MITZI GAYNOR, 88. The American blonde bombshell, who started her stage career as a ballerina, is best known for starring in South Pacific (singing I’m Gonna Wash That Man right Outa My Hair). She was top of the bill on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, which featured The Beatles’ U.S. TV debut. After the show, Paul McCartney asked for her autograph.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GEORGE WILLIAM GRAY (1926-2013). The Stirlingshire-born chemist is the man who made flat screens possible. He was the key figure in research behind liquid crystal displays (LCD). At one stage 90 per cent of TVs, computers and digital clocks used the molecules he invented. His work was commissioned by Labour technologies minister John Stonehouse, who later faked his own suicide by leaving his clothes on a beach. A professor at Hull University, Gray has a London-Hull train named after him. JOAN AIKEN (1924-2004). The author (right), from Sussex, penned 92 novels specialising in supernatural fiction and children’s alternative history, including The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase (made into a film starring Stephanie Beacham and Mel Smith) and The Whispering Mountain.
ON SEPTEMBER 4…
IN 1955, the BBC’s kenneth kendall became the first newsreader on British TV screens. IN 1964, the Forth road Bridge officially opened, alongside the iconic rail bridge. IN 2014, acid-tongued U.S. comedienne Joan rivers died, aged 81.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Plumper (c.1690) A) The least willing sheep to be sheared. B) The large paunch in a pig. C) A small light ball or disc padding for filling out sunken cheeks. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Bite the dust: To die, fail or be destroyed. A variation from the Bible’s Psalms, the phrase typically implies falling to the ground, figuratively or literally.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A MAn should look as if he bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care, then forgot about them. Hardy Amies, English couturier (1909-2003)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I WAS going to tell you a time-travel joke… But you didn’t find it funny. Guess The Definition answer: C.