ON THIS DAY
October 7, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 7, 1954
MARILYN MONROE wept as she faced the Press for the first time since deciding to seek a divorce from Joe DiMaggio. She emerged from her Beverly Hills home, wearing a black stockinette dress, on the arm of her lawyer. Her studios have waited since Monday for her to begin work on The Seven Year Itch.
OCTOBER 7, 1961
A PLANE carrying 395 monkeys and baboons from Nairobi flew into Britain — 101 were found dead. The animals, onboard a delayed British United Airways plane, were bound for Britain, America and Germany for medical purposes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ALESHA DIxON, 39. The singer (pictured) was a judge on Strictly Come Dancing (which she won in 2007), before defecting to the panel of Britain’s Got Talent. Dixon, who shares her birthday with her boss, Simon Cowell, says she has only ever had two normal jobs, as a receptionist and working at Ladbrokes. THOMAS KENEALLY, 82. The Australian author won the 1982 Booker Prize for Schindler’s Ark, which was turned into the 1993 Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List. He came across the true story of Oskar Schindler in an LA leather goods store getting his briefcase repaired. The owner had been saved by the German industrialist and had spent years trying to persuade someone to write about his life.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SARAH CHURCHILL (1914-1982). The English actress, daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, starred in 1951’s Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire. Churchill worked in photo intelligence for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in World War II. Her father nicknamed her ‘Mule’, and tried unsuccessfully to stop the first of her three marriages, to comedian Vic Oliver, 18 years her senior. MICHAEL HURLL (1936-2012). The Londonborn TV producer’s shows included The Two Ronnies, Eurovision Song Contest and Cilla Black’s Blind Date. He once described some of his programmes as ‘terrible rubbish’, and lambasted Bob Hope for being ‘the nastiest man I’ve ever worked with’ and Rod Hull ‘the most miserable man you’ve ever met’.
ON OCTOBER 7…
IN 1960, Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, starring Laurence Olivier and Kirk Douglas (pictured), was released.
IN 2001, the U. S. and UK launched air strikes against Taliban targets in Afghanistan.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Grimoire (coined from French 1849) A) A small, heart-shaped board on casters with a pencil attached: when participants touched it, it wrote clairvoyant messages. B) A magician’s manual of black magic. C) A cut from right to left (in fencing).
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Whiter than white: Meaning innocent, pure and virtuous. It comes from Shakespeare’s 1593 poem Venus And Adonis — which has the line ‘teaching the sheets a whiter hew than white’ — and became popular after a Fifties Persil advertising campaign.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
PiCTuREs are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western union. Sam Goldwyn, American film producer (1879-1974)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY does the Norwegian Navy put barcodes on the side of their vessels? so they can scandinavian. Guess the Definition answer: B.