ON THIS DAY
September 30, 2015
IT’S DAY 273 OF 2015
MANY crash test dummies made today weigh 273lb (19st 7lb) each, up from 167lb (11st 13lb) in the 1960s, to reflect people’s increasing weight. Obese drivers are more likely to die in a crash, a study found, as excess weight stops the seat belt from tightening immediately. LAST year, businesses in the UK made just
273 million cheque payments, a 69 per cent drop compared with a decade earlier. The average value of each cheque was £2,181. THE UK’s first indoor heated swimming pool was opened 273 years ago in London’s Lemon Street. It was 43 ft long and was for men only.
THERE ARE 92 DAYS LEFT
THE fare for a typical airline flight undergoes an average 92 changes between becoming available for sale and departure.
92 OUNCES (5lb 12oz) was the weight of the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, born in Oldham General Hospital in 1978. JAMES BOND drank as much as 92 units of alcohol each week — or 13 units a day — four times the recommended amount, according to research into Ian Fleming’s 007 novels.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MONICA BELLUCCI, 51. The Italian model and actress ( right), who stars in the upcoming 007 movie Spectre, has made film history as the oldest Bond girl to grace the film series. She takes the title from Honor Blackman, who was 39 when she played iconic character Pussy Galore in 1964’s Goldfinger. BARBARA KNOX, 82. Best known as Rita Tanner in Coronation Street, the Oldhamborn actress first appeared on the cobbles in 1964, before becoming a regular in 1972. In January she was banned from the roads for a year after admitting drink-driving. She was a passenger when her daughter was stopped and arrested by police in Cheshire. When Knox drove to the police station to collect her, she was arrested for the same offence. JOHNNY MATHIS, 80. One of the top-ten selling artists of the 20th century, the Texasborn singer of When A Child Is Born intended to be a PE teacher. In 1956, he turned down the chance to record his first album in New York when he was called up for athletics trials with the U.S. Olympic team for Melbourne 1956.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DEBORAH KERR ( 19212007). The actress’s sizzling beach scene with Burt Lancaster (right) in the 1953 film From Here To Eternity shocked audiences by being one of the first Hollywood movies to show two people kissing while lying down. JACK WILD (1952-2006). The child actor is best remembered for his role as the Artful Dodger in the 1968 film Oliver!. In 2004, his tongue and vocal cords were removed because of cancer, ahead of a stint in Cinderella, and his part was rewritten so he could mime. MARC BOLAN (1947-1977). The lead singer of Seventies glam rockers T- Rex died instantly when the Mini being driven by his girlfriend crashed into a tree in London. He’d always feared he would die in a car accident and had never learnt to drive.
ON SEPTEMBER 30TH...
IN 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain from a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich to wave a letter of agreement and proclaim ‘peace in our time’. Within a year we were at war. IN 1991, Peter Morris, representing the U.S., won the first world Scrabble Championship, held in London, scoring 86 for INHALER and winning $10,000 prize money. IN 1987, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Susan Lazarchick had the world’s first successful transplant of the body’s most complex joint — the knee.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit.
Billy Connolly
JOKES OF THE DAY
WHAT type of dog is best at magic tricks?
A labracadabrador.