ON THIS DAY

February 18, 2016

IT’S DAY 49 OF 2016

IN 1975, Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to lead a major British political party. She was ‘ 49 and not very experienced’, one newspaper commented. Before her first Shadow Cabinet meeting, she had a breakfast of grapefruit, poached egg and coffee and told reporters: ‘One hasn’t got time to feel butterflies.’

MORE than 300,000 prospectors took part in California’s Gold rush of 1849 — sparked by a carpenter’s discovery of flakes of gold at a water-powered sawmill — and were known as ‘ 49ers’. About one in five died within six months of arriving, as disease raged amid the poor conditions.

THERE ARE 317 DAYS LEFT

BLACK American athlete Jesse Owens (right) won gold in the long jump at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Berlin, with a leap of just over 317 in (26 ft 5 in). The present record, set by American Mike Powell in 1991, is more than 352 in (29 ft 4¼ in).

THE world water speed record, the pursuit of which killed Donald Campbell (Coniston Water, 1967), Mario Verga (Lake Iseo, 1954) and John Cobb (Loch Ness, 1952), is 317 mph, achieved in 1978 by Australian ken Warby in Spirit of Australia on Blowering Dam, 250 miles south-west of Sydney.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JOHN TRAVOLTA, 62. Later the star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction, the actor began a relationship with Diana Hyland, 18 years his senior, when she played his mother in the 1976 TV movie The Boy In The Plastic Bubble. She died of breast cancer in his arms in 1977. YOKO ONO, 83. Her first name means ‘ocean child’ in Japanese. When John Lennon composed a song to his mother Julia, who was killed in a car crash in 1958, he wrote the line: ‘Julia Julia, Ocean Child calls me.’

GRAEME GARDEN, 73. One of The Goodies and a panellist on BBC radio 4’s comedy quiz Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, he gave up smoking when he was due to go to Australia because he didn’t know if he would last the flight without a cigarette.

BORN ON THIS DAY

BOBBY ROBSON (1933-2009). The england manager from 1982 to 1990 became the coach of Sporting Club Lisbon in Portugal in 1992. His translator at Sporting later became his assistant manager at his next two clubs. His name? Jose Mourinho.

ENZO FERRARI (1898-1988). The Italian racing driver created the Ferrari automobile company, whose rampant horse logo was the emblem of Italian air ace Francesco Baracca, who had 35 kills and died in the closing months of World War I. When Baracca’s mother met enzo Ferrari many years later, she suggested he use her son’s personal emblem on his cars for good luck. MARY I (1516-1558). A devout Catholic, as queen she was dubbed ‘Bloody Mary’ because hundreds of Protestants were burned at the stake. On her death, she was succeeded by her Protestant half-sister, elizabeth I. They share a tomb in Westminster Abbey, with the inscription: ‘Partners both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters.’

ON FEBRUARY 18 . . .

IN 1936, Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times was banned in Nazi Germany because it had ‘Communist tendencies’. Most people thought the real reason for the ban was Chaplin’s resemblance in the film to Hitler.

IN 1979, BBC1 screened the first episode of The Antiques roadshow, hosted by Bruce Parker, Arthur Negus and Angela rippon.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

Housework can’t kill you — but why take the chance?

Comedian Phyllis Diller (1917-2012)

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHY was the shopper banned from the supermarket? He knocked over a confectionery stand and now there’s a Bounty on his head.