ON THIS DAY
February 25, 2021
FEBRUARY 25, 1939
BETTE DAvIS, for her acting in Jezebel, and Spencer Tracy, for his work in Boy’s Town, were last night awarded the premier acting awards for 1938 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You was voted the best production of the year, and Mr George Bernard Shaw received the award for the best-written screenplay, Pygmalion.
FEBRUARY 25, 1997
THE SPICE GIRLS challenged Liam Gallagher to a brawl last night after the Oasis singer threatened to ‘chin’ them. The row between Britain’s two most successful bands erupted as the Spice Girls collected two trophies at the Brit awards ceremony.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
NAGA MUNCHETTY, 46. The BBC Breakfast presenter from London gets up for work at 3.45am — but only drinks decaffeinated coffee. Her parents are both NHS nurses and were unimpressed by her decision to study English at university: ‘My mum was like, “What are you going to do, be a poet?”’
ED BALLS, 54. The former Labour shadow chancellor appeared on Strictly in 2016 and one of his performances was described as the ‘best worst dance’. He has a signed photo from meeting one of his heroes, and says: ‘The moment Dolly Parton placed her hand on my inner thigh and whispered “I hope you don’t mind me hitting on you” will remain one of the highlights of my life in politics.’ Parton was in Britain to promote her reading charity — and ‘hitting on’ him to try to get funding.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GERT FRöBE (19131988). The German actor played the title role in James Bond film Goldfinger (right). In 1965, he admitted: ‘Naturally I was a Nazi,’ and the film Goldfinger was banned in Israel — until a Jewish woman confirmed he had hidden her and her son from the Nazis, saving their lives.
SISTER Wendy Beckett (1930-2018). The Carmelite nun — who lived in a mobile home at a monastery in Norfolk — was dubbed ‘one of the most improbable art critics in television history’. She gave talks on art history to raise funds for the convent. She was discovered by Delia Smith who lived nearby — and became well known for her descriptions of nudes in paintings.
ON FEBRUARY 25…
IN 1980, the BBC broadcast the first episode of Yes Minister. IN 2013, Britain’s Daniel Day-Lewis became the first person to win a third Best Actor Oscar, this time for Lincoln.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: baldachin (coined 13th century)
A)Ceremonial canopy of stone, metal or fabric over an altar, throne or doorway B)Profound-sounding but nonsense poem C) A monk (answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED Oedipus complex: Theory of Sigmund Freud — based on the Greek myth of Oedipus Rex — in which a young boy is sexually attracted to his mother and views his father as a rival.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores Elsa Maxwell, U.S. columnist (1883-1963)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do ghosts dance to? Soul music. Guess The Definition answer: A