ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE July 20, 1948
MISS ALICE BACON, a Leeds Labour MP, last night accused some doctors of sabotaging the NHS by discriminating between paying and ‘public’ patients. ‘This,’ she told the Commons, ‘is the blackest black market of all. Such doctors are not trafficking in food, clothes, or street-corner elastic, but in human sickness and suffering.’ She cited doctors who saw paying patients at their own homes, but made ‘free’ patients go to a side door ‘like tradesmen’.
July 20, 1956
WHAT lies behind today’s decision of Elizabeth Taylor (right) and Michael Wilding to separate legally? Miss Taylor once said: ‘What infuriates me about Michael is that he can be so underplaying. My temper is Irish, and when I blow, I blow. While I am standing in an Irish temper, there he is blasé and unruffled. Finally, I yell: “Oh, you Englishman.” ’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ROGER HUNT, 79. The former Liverpool footballer, who scored a one-time record 286 goals with the club, was a member of the 1966 World Cup-winning team. He played in all six England games in the tournament, scoring three times. His goal-scoring earned him the nickname ‘Sir’ Roger at Liverpool, even though he only has an MBE. JULIAN RHIND-TUTT, 50. The star of Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing also appeared in the movies Notting Hill and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. He was typecast for five years playing ‘posh stupid people’ in theatre, mainly due to his double-barrelled name, but is the son of a builder and says: ‘I actually grew up near Heathrow airport.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
VERNA FELTON (18901966). The U. S. actress voiced Disney characters including the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland and the Fairy Godmother (right) in Cinderella. As Mrs Jumbo, in Dumbo, she spoke only one word, but the animators built the character around her husky voice. GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (1822-1884). The German Augustinian monk is hailed as the founder of the science of genetics. A farmer’s son, he experimented on garden pea plants, growing 5,000 at his monastery in a year, to establish rules of heredity.
ON JULY 20...
IN 1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister when elected leader of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). IN 1990, an IRA bomb blew a 10ft hole in the London Stock Exchange.
WORD WIZARDRY NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Grey gapper — retiree travelling for a year.
GUESS THE DEFINITION
Rumblegumption (coined by Burns, 1787)
A) Impulse.
B) Common sense.
C) Acting vigorously.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
A rolling stone gathers no moss: Meaning someone who does not settle in one place will not prosper, this refers to the fact moss is slow growing and doesn’t benefit from any disturbance.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
HISTORY is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen. Enoch Powell, Conservative politician (1912-1998)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did the penne say to the fusilli before it went on holiday? Pasta la vista!
Guess The definition answer: B.