ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 188 OF 2015
The heaviest metal tank ever built, the World War II German Panzer VIII ‘Maus’ (meaning ‘mouse’), weighed 188 tonnes. Only two were built before the advancing Allied forces captured them. The blue whale is the loudest mammal and can make a pulse sound that measures 188 decibels and can be heard 500 miles away. The loudest human measured 121 decibels. hAMleys, the largest, oldest toyshop in the world, was originally opened by William hamley in london’s high holborn in 1760 as Noah’s Ark. Its present flagship store home, at 188 Regent street, london, attracts five million visitors a year. IN 1998, a glass-fronted medicine cabinet ‘created’ by Damien hirst and called God was sold for just over £188,000 at auction. Nine years later another of his medicine cabinets was sold for £9.65 million.
THERE ARE 177 DAYS LEFT
TheRe were 177 episodes made of the U.s. comedy Two And A half Men starring Charlie sheen before he was replaced by Ashton Kutcher. The Chicxulub Crater on Mexico’s yucatan Peninsula is 177 km wide by 20 km deep. It is thought by some to be where an asteroid hit the earth, causing the dinosaurs’ extinction. The factually hazy 1995 Oscar-winning film, Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson, runs for 177 minutes. Among its historical blunders were 13th-century scots running around in kilts (they hadn’t been invented yet) and Wallace’s warriors painting their faces blue (believed to be a Pictish custom at the time of the Romans, but not used since those days).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TeleVIsION presenter Jeremy Kyle, 50. his father Patrick was an accountant to the Queen Mother. FORMeR england and Bath rugby union player Jeremy Guscott, 50. he was a bricklayer and bus driver before turning professional. BeATles drummer Ringo starr (pictured), 75. When his divorced mother married painter and decorator harry Graves, 13-year- old Ringo began referring to him as his ‘stepladder’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
The third incarnation of Doctor Who, Jon Pertwee (1919-1996). he joined the Royal Navy in World War II. he was transferred off hMs hood for officer training just a few weeks before the ship was sunk by the Bismarck with the loss of 1,418 men. AMeRICAN film director George Cukor (1899-1983). The winner of an Oscar for My Fair lady, he once said: ‘Give me one good script and I’ll be a 100 times better director.’
ON JULY 7TH . . .
IN 1985, 17-year-old Boris Becker beat south Africa’s Kevin Curran to become the first unseeded Wimbledon Champion, the youngest Men’s singles Champion and the first German winner of Wimbledon.
IN 1924, Bolton-born watchmaker John harwood saved lots of time for everyone by patenting the world’s first self-winding watch.
IN 1928, jeweller Otto Frederick Rohwedder helped speed up sandwich making when he installed the first automatic bread slicing machine at a baking company in Missouri.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work. Lightbulb inventor Thomas
Edison (1847-1931)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Did you hear about the man who got hit on the head by a can of cola. He was OK because it was only a soft drink.