December 9, 2020
ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 9, 1965
THE conditions under which Britain may be able to join the European Common Market will one day be present, the Tory leader Edward Heath said last night. ‘When that day comes we must be ready for it,’ he said. ‘We cannot have our feet in Europe and our heads out.’
DECEMBER 9, 1986
DYnASTY star Joan Collins is seeking a divorce from her fourth husband, Peter Holm, after just 13 months of marriage. The actress, who earns about £1 million a year from her role as Alexis in Dynasty, is not asking for any financial support from Swedish-born Holm, 39.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DAME JuDI DEnCH, 86. The actress from York got her first tattoo (‘ carpe diem’, Latin for ‘seize the day’) on her 81st birthday and became Vogue’s oldest cover star this year. (Her daughter said she came back from the photoshoot ‘literally thinking she was Beyoncé’.) Playwright Alan Bennett once joked that the most offensive slogan anyone could put on a T-shirt was ‘I Hate Judi Dench’. JOAn ARMATRADIng, 70. The three-time grammy-nominated British singer- songwriter serenaded nelson Mandela (who came up on to the stage and danced), ran the new York marathon at 57 and completed a history degree with the Open university while touring the globe. She is so private that when she entered into a civil partnership in 2011, she did so on the Shetland Islands. ‘Literally two people in the world have my phone number,’ she says.
BORN ON THIS DAY
KIRK DOugLAS (1916-2020). The u.S. actor, who died in February aged 103, was born Issur Danielovitch in new York to penniless immigrants. The Spartacus star was a wrestler before studying drama. Asked if he always fasted on the Jewish Day of Atonement, he said: ‘I did, and you have no idea the difficulty in making love to Lana Turner on an empty stomach.’ MARgARET HAMILTOn ( 1 9 0 2 - 1 9 8 5 ) . The u. S. actress won fame as the green-faced Wicked Witch of the West in 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. She once said: ‘I hope that when I die, someone has the presence of mind to say: “Ding, dong, the witch is really dead.” ’ Ray Bolger (who played the Scarecrow) said: ‘She was a terrifying villain in the picture, but an angel in life.’
ON DECEMBER 9 . . .
IN 1978, Boney M notched up their second uK no 1, with Mary’s Boy Child. I N 1979, smallpox became the f i rst infectious disease afflicting humans to be officially eradicated.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Garth (circa 14th century) A) A tree bare of leaves or twigs. b) A yard or a garden. c) A spade’s depth in digging.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Blood runs thicker than water — meaning one’s family bonds are more important than any other kind. After all, ‘blood relatives’ share common DnA in their blood.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
E. M. Forster, novelist (1879-1970)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a woman with one foot either side of a ditch? Bridget.
Guess The Definition answer: B.