ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE DECEMBER 5, 1939
PROFESSOR Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis — whom the Nazis gloated over as a ‘broken, bankrupt Jew’ when he sought refuge in England last year — tricked them of a fortune. He left £22,850 after his death (more than £1 million today). ‘They thought they had got all my father’s fortune,’ said Dr Jean-Martin Freud, one of his sons, ‘but they were wrong.’
DECEMBER 5, 1980
LED ZEPPELIN, one of the world’s most successful rock bands, are to split up. The decision follows the sudden death of drummer and founder John Bonham in September. The group said: ‘The loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SAJID JAVID, 53. The Rochdale-born former Chancellor, Home Secretary and Health Secretary was the first Asian holder of one of the great offices of state. At 14, he went to see his father’s bank manager to borrow £500 to invest in shares, and later he became a self-made millionaire.
MICHAEL EDWARDS, 59. The Gloucestershire-born plasterer found fame as ‘Eddie the Eagle’. In 1988, he became the first Olympic ski jumper to represent Great Britain at the Winter Olympics in 60 years. Although he finished last in Calgary, he held the British record until 2001. He once fractured his skull, jaw and three ribs in a fall while training.
BORN ON THIS DAY
LITTLE RICHARD (1932-2020). The U.S. singer-songwriter had hits with Good Golly Miss Molly and Tutti Frutti, which he said was ‘when rock really started rocking’. Born Richard Wayne Penniman, he claimed to have had a threesome with Buddy Holly and to have spent $1,000 a day on cocaine.
JOAN DIDION (19342021). The ‘first lady of American journalism’ cowrote the screenplay for the 1976 film A Star Is Born. Aged ten, she wrote a story about a woman who took her own life by walking into the ocean. Didion was determined ‘to know what it would feel like, so [she] could describe it’, and almost drowned.
ON DECEMBER 5 . . .
IN 1954, pianist Winifred Atwell was No 1 in the UK with Let’s Have Another Party. She was the first black artist to top the charts. IN 2017, Russia was banned from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics, because of doping at the 2014 Sochi Games.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Exonumia (coined early 1960s)
A) Tokens that resemble money. B) Hallucinogenic drugs. C) Spiritual torpor, world-weariness.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Ghost at the feast: meaning someone or something that brings gloom to an otherwise joyful occasion; it alludes to Banquo’s spectre in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Patience is a bitter thing, but its fruit is sweet.
Sadi, Persian poet (c. 1213-1291)
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOW do you measure the length of grapevines? In vineyards. Guess The Definition answer: a.
Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD