ON THIS DAY
November 18, 2021
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
NOVEMBER 18, 1969
PRINCE PHILIP has turned down an offer by London dockers to buy him a polo pony. They were told yesterday in a letter that he would like them to give the money to young people ‘rather than the middle-aged!’ Regulars at a dockland pub started the fund after hearing the Prince hint on TV that he might have to sacrifice his polo to relieve the pressure on the royal purse.
NOVEMBER 18, 1974
THE body of eva Peron, who was revered as a saint by thousands of Argentinians, returned home to Buenos Aires yesterday after 19 years. eva (right) died in 1952 at the age of 33 and her body was elaborately embalmed. It was smuggled out of the country in 1955 on the orders of the military government after President Peron was overthrown.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MARGARET ATWOOD, 82. The Canadian novelist is best known for The Handmaid’s Tale, which was turned into a hit TV series and an opera. She has won the Booker Prize twice and described how the urge to write hit her in her teens: ‘A large, invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head.’
OWEN WILSON, 53. The American star of Zoolander and Midnight In Paris has been described as ‘a reassuring screen presence who can amuse an audience but never intimidate them’. He is so laid back, he became known for conducting interviews while lying down.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOHNNY MERCER (1909-1976). The fourtime Oscar-winning American ‘pop music poet laureate’ was also a singer. He duetted with Bing Crosby and performed with the Benny Goodman Band before penning the words for more than 1,500 songs across four decades, including Moon River and Days Of Wine And Roses.
GEORGE GALLUP (1901-1984). The American statistician who invented the Gallup Poll was described by the New York Times as the ‘pollster who found the pulse of democracy’. He pioneered the use of phone interviews to measure public opinion and came up with a method for Hollywood studios to predict box office receipts.
ON NOVEMBER 18…
IN 1983, Janet Walton gave birth to the world’s only surviving all-female sextuplets — Hannah, Ruth, Luci, Kate, Jennie and Sarah — in Liverpool. IN 2003, Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, banning councils and schools in england and Wales from promoting homosexuality, was repealed.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Clinker (c 1830s)
A) The stony residue from burnt coal or from a furnace.
B) To sing in the streets.
C) The last and least willing sheep to be sheared. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED: Cameo role — Refers to a brief but stand-out appearance or voice part of a well-known person in a film or play; it relates to the literal meaning of ‘cameo’, a miniature carving on a gemstone.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
G. B. Shaw, Irish dramatist (1856-1950)
JOKE OF THE DAY
GRANDPA walked in with a young bearded guy in skinny jeans. I asked who he was. Grandpa said: ‘My hip replacement.’
Guess The Definition answer: A.