ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
SEPTEMBER 29, 1941 WHITEHALL has a plan to beat the black-out and any ‘blitz’ this winter. The Treasury has sent out orders to civil servants to ‘stagger’ hours, cut lunch intervals and work 12-hour days followed by short ones of four hours. Basement shelters have been strengthened, dormitories fitted out and canteens installed below ground.
SEPTEMBER 29, 1966
COLOUR TV will start on BBC2 at the end of 1967. Its controller, David Attenborough, said: ‘We will start with 14 hours of colour a week and within a year 90 per cent of all BBC2 programmes will be in colour.’
IT’S THEIR BIRTHDAY
SILVIO BERLUSCOnI, 81. The media tycoon and fourtime Italian prime minister (right) is estimated to be worth more than $4 billion. He was convicted of tax fraud in 2012, which led to a year’s community service at a care home. At a youth rally in 2009, while mired in a sex scandal, he infamously said: ‘I will take questions from the guys, but from the girls I want telephone numbers.’ EMILY LLOYD, 47. The English actress shot to fame in the 1987 film Wish You Were Here. Her father, Roger Lloyd-Pack, played Trigger in Only Fools And Horses. After her big break, she worked with the likes of Brad Pitt and earned £250,000 a movie, but struggled with mental illnesses. Before writing her 2013 memoir, Wish I Was There, she said: ‘I’ve got some funny anecdotes from Hollywood, and that combined with the nuttiness might be quite interesting.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
AnITA EkBERg (19312015). The actress, a former Miss Sweden, starred in 1960’s La Dolce Vita, in which she famously waded through Rome’s Trevi Fountain in a strapless dress (right). The Vatican criticised the scene, but Ekberg said: ‘I’m very proud of my breasts, as every woman should be.’ gREER gARSOn (1904-1996). nicknamed ‘Ca-reer’ garson by jealous rivals, the London-born actress was nominated for an Oscar for her first film, playing the wife in 1939’s goodbye, Mr Chips. Her second husband was Richard ney, who played her son in Mrs Miniver, the film for which she won a Best Actress Oscar in 1943.
ON SEPTEMBER 29…
IN 1829, the Metropolitan Police Force was formed by Sir Robert Peel. IN 1916, U.S. oil baron John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first dollar billionaire.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Murcous (coined 1684) A) Too much for a wheelbarrow, but not enough for a cart. B) One who cuts off his thumb to escape military service. C) Rough, unceremonious. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Real McCoy:
Referring to people or things of highest quality. It is derived from Mackay, a Scottish whisky made in the 1850s and later marketed as ‘the real Mackay’. In the U.S., it became associated with the boxer kid McCoy, hence the variation in spelling.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ConSCiEnCE: the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking. H.L. Mencken, American journalist (1880-1956)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT does a frog do when he dies? He croaks. Guess the Definition answer: B.