ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 21, 1939
PEOPlE who lose their gas-masks may find themselves accused of ‘failing to take proper care of Government property’ — and fined £5. A ‘test case’ may be brought in the courts against an ‘absent-minded’ citizen who has lost his mask.
OCTOBER 21, 1960
THREE women and nine men will be locked in the Old Bailey at 10.30am today to begin reading the unabridged version of lady Chatterley’s lover. The members of the jury, most of them middle aged, have to decide if the book is obscene, or if the affairs of lady Chatterley and her husband’s gamekeeper can be published uncensored.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KIM KARdASHIAN, 39, right. The U.S. reality star revealed this year that she is studying to become a lawyer. Rapper Kanye West is her third husband and they have four children, North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. Her father, Robert, was O.J. Simpson’s defence lawyer during his murder trial in 1995. Simpson has said he is Kardashian’s godfather, although she has never confirmed it. SIR ANdRE GEIM, 61. The Russian-born University of Manchester scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for his work on graphene — a one-atom-thick material made of carbon arranged in a hexagonal lattice that is harder than diamond. He has also developed adhesives modelled on the climbing mechanisms of geckos.
BORN ON THIS DAY
lEONARd Rossiter (1926-1984). The liverpoolborn actor played Rigsby in Rising damp and Reggie Perrin in The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, but was perhaps as well known for his ten Cinzano adverts with Joan Collins in which she ended up with a drink thrown over her (above). He died of a heart attack at the lyric Theatre in london and was discovered in his dressing room after missing his entrance 15 minutes into the performance. URSUlA lE GUIN (1929-2018). The U.S. science fiction novelist wrote The Earthsea chronicles and The left Hand Of darkness. In 2017, she hit out at a newspaper’s claim that sci-fi writing had much in common with donald Trump’s ‘alternative facts’. In response, she said a fact ‘has no alternative’, adding: ‘Santa Claus is a fiction. He’s harmless. In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible.
ON OCTOBER 21…
IN 1879, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light — the first commercially practical incandescent light. IN 1966, a coal waste tip collapsed on to the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 144 people.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Embrasure (coined 1695) A) A gathering. B) An opening in a wall or a parapet. c) Pregnancy. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Acid test: Meaning a test to determine something’s worth; it was first recorded in the 18th century when acid was used to distinguish gold from base metals.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
YOu can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT sign do you see outside an Egyptian car park? Toot and come in. Guess The Definition answer: B.