ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
NOVEMBER 15, 1949
THE Government today calls for volunteers to man the fire pumps, marshal the civil population, lift the debris, and tend the wounded in the event of an atomic war. They will be trained in accordance with the advice of experts who went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to study the atom bomb.
NOVEMBER 15, 1973
AFTER a wedding which enchanted the world by the perfection of its pageantry and the infectiousness of its good humour, Captain and Mrs Phillips spent their honeymoon night at Thatched House Lodge, Richmond. Princess Anne was a stunning bride. The colours, the crowds, the ceremony, the sheer unadulterated rapture, made it the happiest of weddings
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANNI-FRID LYNGSTAD, 74. The reclusive singer is the only member of Abba not born in Sweden. Lyngstad was born in Norway, to a Norwegian mother and German soldier father. Her mother died when she was one and she was brought up by her grandmother. She didn’t meet her father until she was in her 30s. She met her future Abba bandmate and husband-to-be Benny Andersson (pictured with her) in 1969 at the Swedish heats for the eurovision Song Contest, where she finished fourth.
ROBERTO CAVALLI, 79. The Italian fashion designer is best known for his bold-prints and introducing sand-blasted jeans. Cavalli, who holds a helicopter licence, has a menagerie of pets. ‘My monkey was my best friend,’ he said, ‘but he got old and aggressive, so I had to get rid of him.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
J.G. BALLARD (1930-2009). The Chineseborn english science-fiction author is best known for empire Of The Sun — turned into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg. He was obsessed with assassinations, car crashes and psychosis, and liked to show guests photos of his girlfriend’s crash injuries.
ANEURIN BEVAN (18971960). The Welsh Labour minister of health and architect of the NHS was one of ten children, but only six survived into adulthood. Bevan (right) resigned from the government in 1951 in protest at the introduction of charges for dental care and spectacles.
ON NOVEMBER 15…
IN 1979, Margaret Thatcher named Sir Anthony Blunt, art adviser to the Queen, as the fourth man in a Soviet spy ring.
IN 2018, david Hockney became the most highly valued living artist after his Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures) sold for more than £70 million.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Gander-flanking (c 2013)
A) Aimlessly messing about. B) Acting evasively. C) Playing truant. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Give no quarter: Meaning show no mercy; it derives from sparing the lives of the enemy and giving or ‘granting quarter’ or housing them. So to give no quarter meant to take no prisoners and kill all of them.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A LIFE without fame can be a good life, but fame without a life is no life at all.
Clive James, Australian author and broadcaster
JOKE OF THE DAY
HAVE you heard about the new restaurant called Karma? There’s no menu — you get what you deserve.
Guess The Definition answer: A.