November 25, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 25, 1993
ROBERT THOMPSON and Jon Venables, a couple of chubby, evil 11-year-olds, were quickly taken down from the dock at Preston Crown Court after being found guilty of murdering two-year-old James Bulger. The pair never heard James’s uncle shout: ‘now how do you feel, you little b ****** s?’
NOVEMBER 25, 2006
As THE deadliest poison known to man was revealed to have killed Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko, the question is: How many more lives could it claim? The 43year-old former KGB officer was the victim of radioactive polonium 210 — so powerful his widow, Marina, 44, or ten-year-old son Anatole could have received a lethal dose just by kissing him in hospital.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
sqn LDR JOHNNY JOHNSON, 100. The last surviving British member of the RAF ‘Dambuster’ squadron cheated death several times — including when his Lancaster was hit by lightning. A 200,000signature petition, begun by Carol Vorderman, called for him to be knighted. But he said all he wants is a campaign medal for Bomber Command veterans, 55,573 of whom died in World War II.
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE, 50. The Hollywoodborn actress starred in the films Vacation and Bad Moms plus netflix’s Dead To Me and won an Emmy for a guest role in Friends. she was named after her mother’s dog, which was named after Andrew Wyeth’s 1948 painting, Christina’s World.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NOEL NEILL (1920-2016). The U.s. actress played Lois Lane in two superman film serials and 78 TV episodes in the 1940s and 1950s. she said she spent most of the time ‘bound, gagged and waiting for the bomb to go off’, yet it was ‘one of the greatest...
experiences of my life’. neill started out as a singer at a racetrack and was spotted there by Bing Crosby. she later played Lois Lane’s mother in 1978’s superman and had a cameo in 2006’s superman Returns.
ANDREW CARNEGIE (1835-1919). The scottishborn industrialist left for the U.s. poor and became the world’s richest man. He made his fortune replacing wooden bridges with iron ones and with a new way to refine steel. Later a philanthropist, Carnegie, said: ‘To try to make the world in some way better than you found it is to have a noble motive in life.’ He kept his fiancee, Louise, secret until his mother died, then wed her.
ON NOVEMBER 25…
IN 1823, Brighton’s Royal suspension Chain Pier was officially opened. IN 2020, Argentine footballer Diego Maradona — named Fifa Player of the 20th Century — died, aged 60.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Valance (c. early 15th century) A) Gold coin. B) Decorative drapery attached to a bed. C) Worth. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Fool’s gold: Any apparent treasure that turns out to be worthless. It relates to iron pyrite, which resembles gold at first sight.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
To be desired is perhaps the closest anybody in this life can reach to feeling immortal. John Berger, English art critic (1926-2017)
JOKE OF THE DAY
MY Son ate some electric cables. I grounded him until he conducts himself properly. Guess The Definition answer: B.