ON THIS DAY
JANUARY 13, 1937
AFTER the success of the ban on horsedrawn traffic in London’s Oxford Street, five more busy thoroughfares in the capital will be closed to such traffic.
JANUARY 13, 1967
THE famed composure of BBC news broadcasts was broken by the chuckles of announcer Bruce Wyndham, when he read out how a judge had asked a barrister to clarify a defendant’s statement to a policeman. He started to say: ‘The man said: “It’s a load of nuts, copper,” ’ and then broke into fits of laughter.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MAx WHITLOCK, 24. The Hertfordshire-born gymnast has won two gold and three bronze Olympic medals, and at Rio 2016 became the first British athlete in 44 years to win two Olympic golds in a day. He was told early on that he had the ‘wrong feet’ to be a gymnast as they ‘bend the other way’, but ironically this has actually helped him land his dismounts. TOM BRADBY, 50. The ITV News At Ten host is a friend of Prince William. He was given the first interview with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the day of their engagement after the couple asked for him to conduct it. Bradby is also a successful novelist. MICHAEL BOND, 91. The creator of Paddington Bear, who has sold more than 35 million books worldwide, started out as a Blue Peter cameraman. In 1945, he was 19 and stationed with the Army in Cairo when he sold his first short story to a magazine, London Opinion. Paid seven guineas for it, he said he thought then that he ‘wouldn’t mind being a writer’. He says the bear’s success is down to the fact that ‘Paddington is eternally optimistic — no matter how many times his hopes are dashed’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SOPHIE TUCKER (18871966). The larger-than-life American singer was so famous that when Americans were asked what they thought on hearing the name Sophie, 95 per cent answered ‘ Tucker’. She greeted George V, in her 1934 Royal Command performance, with: ‘Hiya King!’ It was said she smoked so much that a friend’s parrot would cough when it heard her name. IAN HENDRY (1931-1984). The Suffolk-born actor appeared in TV’s The Avengers and starred in 1971 film Get Carter. He studied drama alongside Judi Dench, who said: ‘We all thought he was utterly glamorous.’ An alcoholic, Hendry said he ‘got nasty’ on whisky, leading him to switch to brandy, which he chose as his luxury on Desert Island Discs.
ON JANUARY 13 . . .
IN 2004, killer Harold Shipman was found dead on the eve of his 58th birthday, hanging in his cell at Wakefield prison. IN 2012, cruise ship the Costa Concordia ran aground off Italy, killing 32 people.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Meh — unimpressive (from The Simpsons). GUESS THE DEFINITION Drink (coined in Tudor-Stuart era) A) To smoke tobacco. B) Swampy surface of a wet ploughed field. C) To weep. (Answer below.)
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Dressed up to the nines — alluding to classical scholars seeking perfection through learning; the nines were the Nine Muses of Greek and Roman mythology.