ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
AUGUST 26, 1939 THE Labour Party last night issued a message to the German people re-affirming the warning that any attack on Poland means automatic war with Britain and France. It said: ‘You must clearly understand that if war comes, Britain and France stand firmly by their pledges to Poland. It will be war with Britain and France from the first day.’
AUGUST 26, 1970 THE hitch-hiking honeymoon couple picked up on a lonely road in Scotland knew who their driver was. And he knew that they knew… but nobody mentioned it for the whole ten-mile ride. The man behind the wheel was Prince Philip. His passengers were Brett and Julia Parker, 22-year-old newlyweds from Harrow. ‘We thought of designing a banner: Hitch-hikers By Appointment,’ Julia said. ‘But then we thought we’d make do with the memory.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MACAULAY CULKIN, 40. The U.S. former child star made his name in the Home Alone films in the early Nineties (right) before retiring aged 14 (he’s since made a handful of films and taken TV and theatre roles). He appeared in Michael Jackson’s Black Or White video and is godfather to the star’s daughter Paris. Of the child abuse accusations levelled at Jackson, Culkin said: ‘He never did anything to me. I never saw him do anything.’ MICHAEL COCKERELL, 80. The journalist has interviewed — or ‘Cockerelled’ — more prime ministers than anyone else, a total of eight (plus Boris Johnson before he entered No 10). Andrew Marr has said: ‘I’ve sometimes thought that there is a media honours system running in parallel to the official one... to be Cockerelled, getting a full film biography, beautifully written and edited, is the Order of Merit and the Privy Council rolled into one.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
DON LAFONTAINE (1940-2008). The U.S. ‘voiceover king’ produced trailers to an estimated 5,000 films. He was so in demand that he would travel around Hollywood in a chauffeur-driven limousine to avoid wasting time parking as he fulfilled up to 35 jobs a day. He also voiced 350,000 commercials.
GERALDINE FERRARO (1935-2011). The U.S. Democratic politician was the first female vice-presidential nominee when picked by former VP Walter Mondale to be his running mate in 1984. Despite their heavy loss to Ronald Reagan, she said: ‘My candidacy has said the days of discrimination are numbered. American women will never be second-class citizens again.’
ON AUGUST 26…
IN 1939, BBC Monitoring launched and soon expanded to listen to news in all European languages likely to be of wartime use.
IN 2014, Kate Bush (right) performed her first gig in 35 years at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Margrave (c1550) A) An officer in charge of city walls. B) A hereditary title of some European princes. C) A cemetery. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED: To have bats in the
belfry — meaning to be mad or insane; it refers to bats’ apparently erratic flying in their roosts in bell towers which creates a sense of crazy activity.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I’d rather be a musician than a rock star.
George Harrison, singer-songwriter (1943-2001)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT should you do when two molluscs have a fight? Let them slug it out.
Guess The Definition answer: B.
Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD