ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 268 OF 2015
A FULL-TERM human pregnancy, from ovulation to birth, lasts 268 days — about the same duration as a cow’s. JUST before facing three Indian tribes led by Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, General George Custer told his men: ‘Hurrah, boys, we’ve got them! We’ll finish them up and then go home to our station.’ He was one of the 268 U.S. cavalrymen who were wiped out in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand. THE average woman buys 268 pairs of shoes in her lifetime (costing a total of £34,000), of which nearly a fifth will never be worn. THE Pennine Way runs for 268 miles from Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders. The famous Fells writer Alfred Wainwright offered to buy half-a-pint of beer for any walker who completed the trail — costing him nearly £15,000 by his death in 1991.
THERE ARE 97 DAYS LEFT
THE longest recorded cockroach, from a species found in Peru, Ecuador and Panama, is 97mm (almost 4 in). THE world’s tallest treehouse towers 97 ft high in Crossville, Tennessee, supported on seven oak trees. In the 11 years it took to build as a DIY place of worship, minister Howard Burgess used 258,000 nails. THERE were 97 passengers and crew aboard the airship Hindenburg when it exploded in a fireball in New Jersey in May 1937. Amazingly, 62 survived.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DECLAN DONNELLY, 40 (right). Best known as one half of the Ant & Dec TV duo, he married his agent, Ali Astall, last month. The ceremony was performed by Fr Dermott Donnelly, his older brother. At one time, Dec had also wanted to be a priest. CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, 46. The Oscarwinning star of the musical Chicago said playing vampish Velma Kelly was as exciting — and almost as painful — as giving birth to her son, Dylan, by Michael Douglas, 71, in 2000. The couple, who share a birthday, say their 15-year marriage is back on track after a brief split in 2013. FELICITY KENDAL, 69. For a certain generation of red-blooded male, she will be forever the sexy veg grower Barbara from the Seventies TV series The Good Life. She is a fluent Hindi speaker, having spent much of her childhood in India where her parents ran a touring theatrical company.
BORN ON THIS DAY
FLETCHER CHRISTIAN (1764-1793). The master’s mate on HMS Bounty led a mutiny against Captain Bligh in 1789 after a voyage to Tahiti to collect breadfruit. He is believed to have died on the Pacific island of Pitcairn, where descendants of the mutineers still comprise most of the 50-strong population. CHRISTOPHER REEVE (1952-2004, right). The actor was paralysed in a 1995 riding accident after finding world fame as Superman. He had been trained for the film role by the actor who played Darth Vader in Star Wars, and added almost three stone in muscle to his build to look the part.
ON SEPTEMBER 25 . . .
IN 1660, Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that he had just sampled an exotic new drink from China — tea. IN 1897, Britain’s first motor bus service was launched in Bradford, costing 6d (2½p) for a two-mile trip. IN 1818, at Guy’s Hospital in London, James Blundell became the first doctor to give a patient a blood transfusion.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don’t know into what religion yet.
David Beckham
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a parrot sat under an umbrella? Polly Unsaturated.