ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 18, 1950
FRANK SINATRA, the crooner, and Ava Gardner, actress, today denounced people who criticised them for night-clubbing and theatregoing together in New York.
Miss Gardner said: ‘Frankie’s plan to leave Nancy [his wife] came into his life long before I did.’
MARCH 18, 1969
SIX hundred buxom women, hopeful of a part in a film, converged on the Central Hotel, Cardiff, yesterday, in answer to a newspaper advert — and caused chaos.
Mrs Margaret Lewis, 33, of Rhymney, Monmouth, said: ‘I’ve no idea what kind of film they want to make, but suggestions include the Prince of Wales’ investiture to a Welsh version of Yoko Ono’s film about bottoms.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LILY COLLINS, 28 ( pictured). The film actress daughter of Phil Collins, born in Surrey, moved to the U.S. with her mother Jill Tavelman after her parents divorced when she was seven. Lily, star of such hit films as Mirror Mirror, is also famous for her full eyebrows for which, she says, someone created a jokey Twitter account. F.W. DE KLERK, 81. South Africa’s last leader under apartheid was responsible for releasing Nelson Mandela from jail after 27 years. On this day in 1992, De Klerk’s 56th birthday, he said: ‘Today we have closed the book on apartheid,’ after a majority of white South Africans voted to create a multi-racial government. He received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Mandela in 1993.
BORN ON THIS DAY
RUDOLF DIESEL (1858-1913). The German mechanical engineer invented the internal-combustion engine that still bears his name. But he did not live to see his success. Debt-ridden, he disappeared on a steamship, after putting a cross next to the date of his disappearance in his diary. GROVER CLEVELAND (18371908). The 22nd and 24th U.S. President (pictured) is, so far, the only one to serve two nonconsecutive terms. He did not like the luxury of office, saying: ‘I must go to dinner, but I wish it was to eat a pickled herring, a Swiss cheese and a chop instead of the French stuff I shall find.’
ON MARCH 18 . . .
IN 1931, the first electric razor, produced by Schick Inc., went on sale in New York. IN 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini agreed to join the fight against Britain and France after a meeting with Adolf Hitler. IN 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, carried out the first-ever ‘walk’ in space.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Quietway: Backstreet dedicated to cyclists with a ban on cars.
GUESS THE DEFINITION
Scuttle-mouth (coined 1848) A) Small oyster in a very large shell. B) Someone looking for an argument. C) Device used by puppeteer to make the voice of Mr. Punch. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Lump of school: Rhyming slang for fool, arising from a market stallholders’ feeling that the sooner a boy stopped reading books and gained practical experience the better.