ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 24, 1941
Every train and plane arriving in Washington today [two weeks after Pearl Harbor] was packed from end to end with people from every part of the United States just to get a glimpse of Churchill. One store had a window full of little statues of him. They were all bought within an hour.
DECEMBER 24, 1992
HORRIFIED BBC chiefs were last night hunting the mole who leaked the Queen’s Christmas Broadcast. The Queen was said to be ‘dismayed and distressed’. Public interest in the message was particularly high this year in the wake of all the Royal Family’s marital problems.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Carol Vorderman, 60. The Bedfordshire-born Tv presenter was the second star to appear on Channel 4 (following her Countdown colleague Richard Whiteley). For a year after that she also continued her job selling computers. Despite having an IQ of 154, she has a third-class degree — from Cambridge. Ricky MARTIN, 49. The Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, who had hits with livin’ la vida loca and Shake your Bon-Bon, was credited with launching ‘a golden age of latin music’. He has sold more than 70 million records. Martin, who came out as gay in 2010, has four children, and when asked if he wants more, said: ‘I wanna have ten daughters!’
BORN ON THIS DAY
Noel Streatfeild (1895-1986). The author from Sussex was best known for her children’s novel Ballet Shoes. She was such a rebel as a child, she once found her vicar father on his knees praying for guidance on how to handle her. Streatfeild said a successful children’s writer needs ‘the ability to remember with all their senses their own childhood’. Ava GARDNER ( 19221990). The American actress, who was married to Hollywood stars Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra and bandleader Artie Shaw, starred in The Barefoot Contessa and The Sun Also Rises. U.S. sculptor Joseph Nicolosi said Gardner had ‘the most nearly perfect figure of any woman in the world’. Her old neighbours created a museum to her, but she never went in, saying: ‘I lived it.’
ON DECEMBER 24 . . .
IN 1914, the Christmas Truce was triggered after British soldiers heard German troops singing carols in their trenches. IN 1995, Shaun the Sheep was introduced to the world when he appeared in Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave on BBC2.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Rill (coined c1535) A) A vat of boiling water into which the accused plunged his arm in lieu of a trial. B) A dancer’s belt. C) A small rivulet or brook. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED Laugh like a hyena: meaning to have a loud, high-pitched laugh; when the hyena approaches a dead body of an animal it utters a hysterical cackle which resembles a human laugh.