ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 18, 1945
Copies of a mythical ‘speech’ to be delivered by Hitler in five years time, when he is ‘Fuhrer of everyone on earth’, have been found on prisoners captured on the seventh Army front. Couched with heavy-handed Teutonic humour and written in a tone of mock gravity, the document seems to have been penned by some disillusioned Nazi.
JANUARY 18, 1991
Mrs THATCHer, who was premier when Kuwait was invaded by iraq, was delighted yesterday with the ‘good start’ to the battle to free it [the allied operation Desert storm]. she said: ‘Dictators like saddam Hussein do not surrender, they have to be well and truly defeated.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KeviN CosTNer, 66. The double-oscar-winning American actor and director had his full-frontal nude scene in For Love of The Game cut after ‘people laughed inappropriately’ during test screenings. Before hitting the big time, Costner worked as a fisherman, a truck driver and a Hollywood tour guide. He is also an Arsenal fan. sir MArK ryLANCe, 61. The radatrained actor from Kent starred in Dunkirk and played the giant in The BFG. He was the first artistic director of shakespeare’s Globe theatre and his earliest film role was opposite Bob Dylan in 1987’s Hearts of Fire, which he said was ‘terrible’. rylance went on to win an oscar for Bridge of spies.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JoHN HuMe (1937-2020). The Northern ireland politician was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his role in the process that led to the Good Friday Agreement. The former teacher, who briefly trained for the priesthood, insisted: ‘politics is the alternative to war.’ He was named ireland’s Greatest person in a 2010 Tv poll.
DAviD BeLLAMy (19332019). The botanist and broadcaster from London said that he got ‘really turned on by plants’ during a trip to scotland. The former plumber had dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer, but said ‘my mass exceeded my aspirations’. His career petered out in old age because of his claim that man-made global warning was ‘poppycock’.
ON JANUARY 18…
IN 1486, the marriage of Henry vii and elizabeth of york united the warring houses of Lancaster and york.
IN 1958, the first edition of Bunty, ‘a great new picture paper for girls’, was published.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Hatchment (c1540s) A) A shelter. B) The embedding into a surrounding mass. C) A lozenge-shaped heraldic board fixed to a dead man’s house during mourning. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED To frighten the horses — meaning to be indiscreet or to shock public opinion; from the actress Mrs patrick Campbell (1865-1940) who said, in reference to a moral question: ‘it doesn’t make any difference what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.’
QUOTE FOR TODAY
VioleNce is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Isaac Asimov, U.S. writer (1920-1992)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy did the girl smear peanut butter on the road? To go with the traffic jam.
Guess The Definition answer: c.