ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 13 OF 2016
FRANK SINATRA weighed 13 pounds and 7oz when he was born in 1915 — almost double the average of a newborn, even now — and was so big he suffered scars to his ear and the side of his face from the forceps used to help deliver him. ACCORDING to research by King’s College London based on 15,000 men, the average man’s penis is just over 13cm (5.2in) long. THE Marx Brothers released 13 films, including Duck Soup and A night At The Opera. Chico, the oldest brother, is said to have got his nickname (pronounced Chick-o) because of his reputation for ‘ chasing chickens’ — slang for running after women.
THERE ARE 353 DAYS LEFT
THE Pearl Harbor attack was carried out by 353 Japanese warplanes, killing 2,403 U.S. personnel. Almost half the casualties were on the USS Arizona, whose crew included 37 pairs or trios of brothers. Of these, 23 sets of brothers died and only one full set survived. LUXEMBOURG has 353 telephone boxes, which the government has pledged to keep despite lack of use. In comparison, Britain has around 60,000 phone boxes, of which just under 10,000 are traditional red ones.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ORLANDO BLOOM, 39, right. The Canterbury-born actor is best known for The Hobbit and Pirates Of The Caribbean films. Along with co-stars including Sir Ian McKellan and Sean Bean, when he was making the first Lord Of The Rings film, he had the word ‘nine’ tattooed in Elvish script on his forearm to signify his membership of the Fellowship Of The Ring. SUGGS, 55. The lead singer of Madness, whose real name is Graham McPherson, was brought up by his jazz-singer mother, after his heroin addict father abandoned the family when his son was only a toddler. Suggs only found out his father was dead by reading his own Wikipedia profile.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOHN ‘JACK’ LONDON (1905-1966, right). Born in British Guyana, he moved to London as a child, excelled as an athlete and in 1928 became one of the first black Britons to win an Olympic medal by securing a silver in the 100m (where he equalled the 10.6 second world record in the semi-finals) and bronze in the 4x100m relay. In later life, he became an entertainer and played piano in noel Coward’s West End musical Cavalcade. JEAN CABUT (1938-2015). The French cartoonist, known as Cabu, whose illustration depicting the Prophet Muhammad on the cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo caused an outcry in 2006. Cabu was one of eight staff shot dead by Islamist terrorists at the magazine’s Paris offices last January.
ON JANUARY 13...
IN 1873, an Ayrshire factory began making Alfred nobel’s new product — dynamite.
IN 1929, gambler and deputy marshal Wyatt Earp died peacefully aged 80 in Los Angeles, 48 years after the most famous shootout in the Wild West, the so-called Gunfight at the OK Corral in which Earp and other lawmen killed three outlaw cowboys.
IN 1968, American musician Johnny Cash performed in Folsom State Prison — the recording of the concert went on to sell more than three million copies.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
There are three classes which need sanctuary more than others — birds, wild flowers and Prime Ministers.
Stanley Baldwin (three-times Tory PM from 1923 to 1937)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I WAS on holiday with my husband last week when he accidentally fell into a wishing well. I didn’t even know they worked.