ON THIS DAY
February 19, 2016
IT’S DAY 50 OF 2016
The first practical hovercraft, the SR. N1, made its inaugural english Channel crossing exactly 50 years after Louis Bleriot became world famous in 1909 with his first cross-Channel flight. IT TAKES around 50 seconds for blood to circulate completely around the body. IN The 1967 film Cool hand Luke, Paul Newman wins a bet that he can eat 50 hardboiled eggs an hour. In real life, the record is held by american competitive eater Joey Chestnut, 32, who ate 141 in eight minutes. MODERN machines can turn one ounce of gold into a wire that is 50 miles long.
THERE ARE 316 DAYS LEFT
The four great thinkers albert einstein, Galileo, Mahatma Gandhi and Carl Jung lived for 316 years between them. MEASURING 316 ft to the top of the clock tower, the first ‘skyscraper’ built in europe was the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool, which was completed in 1911.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LESLIE ASH, 56. The actress (right) best known for playing deborah Burton in the BBC sitcom Men Behaving Badly and for having botched surgery on her lips leading to a socalled ‘trout pout’. In 2004, she nearly died after contracting the MSSA virus while having hospital treatment for a cracked rib and punctured lung. She was later paid £5 m compensation. PRINCE ANDREW, 56. The third child of elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and sixth in line to the British throne. on his birth in 1960, he became the first child to be born to a reigning monarch for over a century — the last being Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Beatrice, in 1857. Ray WINSTONE, 59. The London actor (right) famous for playing ‘hard man’ roles in films such as Scum, The departed and The Sweeney. as a schoolboy, he was London welterweight Boxing champion and won 80 of his 88 fights. Jeff Daniels, 61. The american actor famous for Gettysburg, Steve Jobs and The Martian. he was paid just $50,000 to appear alongside Jim Carrey in the 1994 comedy dumb and dumber. his co-star was paid $7 million.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473-1543). The Poland-born astronomer who argued that the earth revolved around the Sun — a fact contrary to religious beliefs at the time — went to three different universities but there is no record of him getting a degree. Lee MARVIN (1924-1987). as a serving u.S. marine in world war II, Marvin was wounded in action and medically discharged. he went on to become an oscar-winning actor famous for roles in The dirty dozen, Paint your wagon and Cat Ballou. he was expelled from boarding school after throwing his roommate from a second-floor window.
ON FEBRUARY 19...
IN 1939, Batman was first drawn by Bob kane for a ‘detective Comics’ issue in May that year. The date is kept as the birthday of Batman’s alter-ego, Bruce wayne.
IN 1985, 13 million viewers watched the first episode of eastenders on BBC1, which involved the death of a pensioner, Reg Cox, in his albert Square home.
IN 1996, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker was detained by police at the Brit awards after bursting on stage to protest against Michael Jackson, who was performing earth Song surrounded by children.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
‘If I had a flower for every time I thought of you . . . I could walk through my garden for ever.’
Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
JOKE OF THE DAY
why is england the wettest country? Because the Queen has reigned for so many years.