ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 18, 1927 MEN at the London Docks made an inspection of 50 tons of ivory gathered there, for which about 20,000 massive animals had to die. Next Tuesday at Mincing Lane, these men will be buyers at the auction of this latest crop of ivory from Africa, India, Ceylon and the Arctic. A large quantity of seahorse teeth will also be in the sale. JANUARY 18, 1967 PRINCESS ANNE arrived in London from Sandringham yesterday — in her rocker gear (right). All her clothes were in the up- to- the- minute swinging London style — high leather boots; white, lacy-knit tights; polo-neck sweater; and a suit with a battledress top. It was a really good effort from a girl who not only has to cope with all the fashion problems of a 16-year-old, but also those created by royal protocol. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAyMOND BRIggS, 83. The Wimbledonborn author and illustrator is the man behind The Snowman, Father Christmas, When The Wind Blows and Fungus The Bogeyman. Many of his stories have featured his parents, most notably Ethel & Ernest, an animated adaptation of which was a hit for the BBC at Christmas. However, Briggs said they disapproved of his decision to go to art school. SIR MARK RyLANCE, 57. The Wolf Hall actor, who was knighted in the New year Honours, recently hit the big time in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge Of Spies (for which he won an Oscar) and The BFg. He has an ancient ritual to thank for his acting choices: he revealed he has been guided by the I Ching divining dice, which led him to turn down a role in Spielberg’s film Empire Of The Sun. BORN ON THIS DAY DANNy KAyE (1911-1987), the U.S. actor, singer and comedian (right) who starred in White Christmas and The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Off stage, he was an expert on Chinese cooking, owned a baseball team and became a licensed pilot. He was also Unicef ’ s first celebrity ambassador and, in the Seventies, set a guinness World Record flying a jet between 65 cities in five days to publicise the charity. ON JANUARY 18 . . . IN 1967, Albert DeSalvo, known as the ‘Boston Strangler’, was jailed for life for sexual assault and armed robbery. He admitted murdering 13 women between 1962 and 1964, but was not charged due to a lack of evidence. He was stabbed to death in prison in 1973. DNA testing later proved ‘with an unprecedented level of certainty’ that he was behind the murder of the final victim, Mary Sullivan.
IN 2005, the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, which is roughly the length of eight buses, was unveiled in France. WORD WIZARDRY NEW WORD OF THE DAY MAMIL (acronym): middle-aged man in Lycra. GUESS THE DEFINITION Mundungus (coined 1641) A) The long tail of a graduate’s hood. B) Pretentious nonsense. C) The stench of tobacco. (Answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED Hobson’s choice: A free choice that means no real choice at all — in other words, ‘take it or leave it’. The phrase is said to have referred to Thomas Hobson, a Cambridge innkeeper who had a stable of 40 horses. When a customer came for a horse, they were obliged to take the one nearest the stable door or go without, to prevent the best horses always being chosen. QUOTE FOR TODAY I wAS the first woman to burn my bra — it took the fire department four days to put it out. Dolly Parton, U.S. singer JOKE OF THE DAY WHy did the cell cross the microscope? To get to the other slide.
n Guess The Definition answer: C — it’s from the Spanish word for entrails. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD