ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
FEBRUARY 23, 1950 THE King has received two dinner jackets he ordered made from tartan, leaving some tailors shocked. Mr John Taylor, editor of Tailor & Cutter magazine, which occasionally rebukes royal customers for lapses in sartorial taste, last night said: ‘Presumably they are intended for wear in private only.’ FEBRUARY 23, 1968 THE United Kingdom Committee for Human Rights Year has urged the Lawn Tennis Association to rethink prize money for the Open Wimbledon tournament. It expressed ‘concern’ that they will be much larger in the men’s events. [This was the first year of prize money: £2,000 for the men’s champion and £750 for the women’s. Parity was achieved in 2007, and in 2017 both champions won £2.2 million].
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SYLvIE GUILLEM, 53, right. The French dancer was principal guest artist at the Royal Ballet for nearly 20 years and has been hailed as one of the greatest ballerinas of all time. She trained as a gymnast before making her name as the youngest ever étoile — the highest rank — at the Paris Opera Ballet at 19. Nicknamed Mademoiselle Non for the number of roles she turned down, she only retired at age 50. BERNARd CORNWELL, 74. The English author is best-known for his Sharpe novels, which were turned into a Tv series with Sean Bean. Adopted as a child, he did not see his biological father for 57 years, his mother for 58. His adoptive parents were members of the Peculiar People, a strict sect of pacifists who banned frivolity of all kinds. A former journalist, as head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland, he was for a time Jeremy Paxman’s boss.
BORN ON THIS DAY
MAJEL Barrett-Roddenberry (1932-2008). The U.S. actress, right, was known as the First Lady of Star Trek, playing several characters including Nurse Christine Chapel, voicing the Starship Enterprise computer, and marrying Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator. In her will, she bequeathed £2.65 million to her cats and dogs. SAMUEL PEPYS (1633-1703). The civil servant and diarist is thought to have been the first Englishman to admit to buying pornography. He purchased the ‘mighty lewd’ French book in plain binding. After reading it, he burnt it, had supper and went to bed. In the Great Fire of London, Pepys buried a valuable wheel of Parmesan cheese in his garden to save it from the flames.
ON FEBRUARY 23...
IN 1821, poet John Keats died of TB aged 25. IN 1820, the Cato Street Conspiracy to murder every British Cabinet minister was discovered in London’s Marylebone.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Servitor (1642) A) Student who gets a college allowance. B) Attendant who seats dinner guests. C) doorman or janitor. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
Rack and ruin: describing a loss of fortune, it has nothing to do with of torture instruments, but shipwrecks; ‘rack’ comes from ‘ wrack’ which became ‘ wreck’. And ‘rack’ was paired with ‘ruin’ for emphasis.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
BEAUTY is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone. Dorothy Parker, American writer (1893-1967)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a multi-storey pig pen? A styscraper. Guess The Definition answer: A