ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MAY 24, 1954
HUNGARY seven, England one! Budapest is a city of hooting motor horns and clanging tram bells as drivers try to get through crowds surging along the streets. People wander aimlessly, reliving the wonder of inflicting on England their heaviest defeat in 91 years of international football.
MAY 24, 1960
ISRAELI secret agents have captured the Jews’ Enemy No. 1: Adolf Eichmann, the gestapo colonel they say organised the massacre of 6,000,000 Jews under Hitler. Mr David Ben- gurion, the Israeli Premier, announced his arrest today. Where was he captured? How does he come to be in an Israeli jail? Mr Ben-gurion did not say.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRISCILLA PRESLEY, 73. The actress (right, with Elvis), who starred in Dallas and The Naked gun films, met Elvis at 14 and married him at 21. He dictated what she wore, banned her from working and shot at the TV when it annoyed him. She described daughter Lisa Marie marrying Michael Jackson as history ‘repeating itself’ and predicted ‘a disaster’. The couple divorced two years later. DAME KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS, 58. The Cornwall-born actress, star of The English Patient and Four Weddings And A Funeral, had a traumatic childhood. Her father, a royal Navy pilot, died in a plane crash when she was five. Her stepfather, also a pilot, died in another crash when she was 11. Yet she said recently: ‘I like flying, hurtling through the air in a tin can.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
QUEEN VICTORIA (1819-1901). She was our longest reigning monarch until Elizabeth II surpassed her record in September 2015. Named Alexandrina Victoria after her godfather, Tsar Alexander I, she preferred to go by her second name, which was used at her coronation. In later life, her bust was 66 in — 7 in more than her 59 in (5 ft) height. BArBArA WEST (1911-2007). Born in Bournemouth, she was ten months old when she survived the sinking of the Titanic with her sister and mother in 1912. Her father died along with 1,502 other passengers and crew. All her life she said she wanted ‘nothing to do with the Titanic people’.
ON MAY 24…
IN 1956, the first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland. Lys Assia, who died in March aged 94, won for them.
IN 1988, Section 28 of the Local government Act 1988 came into force, stating that a local authority ‘shall not intentionally promote homosexuality’. It was repealed in 2003.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Gowl (coined c1300) A) To weep bitterly or threateningly. B) A pathway up to a steep hill. C) Swampy surface of a wet ploughed field. (Answer below)
PHRASE EXPLAINED: In limbo — From the belief that unbaptised infants could not reach heaven or hell; limbo is where things that are too good to destroy, but not good enough to use are stowed.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
IF THERE is one thing I dislike, it is the man who tries to air his grievances when I wish to air mine. P. G. Wodehouse, English writer (1881-1975)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did the cowboy say when he walked into the german car showroom? ‘Audi.’ Guess The Definition answer: A.