ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JULY 2, 1940
ENEMY troops have landed in Jersey and Guernsey, it was officially announced last night. This is the first time the Nazis claim to have occupied any territory flying the British flag. Thirty-nine people were killed. Telegraphic and telephonic communication has been cut and no further information is at present available.
JULY 2, 1968
BEATLE John Lennon said in London last night: ‘I love yoko.’ It was the launch of Mr Lennon’s exhibition at the Robert Fraser gallery in Duke street, titled ‘From John to yoko’. Mr Lennon, 27, married six years with a five-year-old son, said: ‘My marriage to Cynthia is not over legally. But I don’t want to talk about that now.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LINDSAY LOHAN, 32. The American actress is a former child star who started modelling aged three before appearing in films Mean Girls, The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday. After a relationship break-up, a spoof dating video on a comedy website in which she described herself as ‘a workaholic, a shopaholic and, according to the state of California, an alcoholic’ was viewed 2.7 million times in a week. PIERRE CARDIN, 96. The French fashion designer was the first major couturier to launch a ready-to-wear collection. He holds licences for more than 1,000 products bearing his name, and says: ‘I cover the entire world, except perhaps North Korea, and I could go there too if I chose.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR ALEC DOUGLAs-HOME (1903-1995). The Conservative leader, the last aristocrat to become British prime minister, served for 363 days from 1963 to 1964, the second shortest premiership of the 20th century after Andrew Bonar Law. His predecessor Harold Macmillan described him to the Queen as ‘steel painted as wood’. RENE LACOSTE (1904-1996). The French tennis champion — a two-time Wimbledon singles winner — didn’t take up the game until he was 15 and was told by his father, a prominent industrialist, he had just five years to make himself a champion. Nicknamed The Crocodile, Rene started a trend for wearing polo shirts when playing matches. He later launched the Lacoste tennis shirt featuring a crocodile motif.
ON JULY 2 . . .
IN 1953, author Roald Dahl, 37, married actress Patricia Neal, 27, in New york. IN 2001, Barry George was sentenced to life for the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando. In 2008, he was cleared in a retrial.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: ataraxy (1886) A) A fit of depression B) The affected use of archaic language. C) stoical impassiveness answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
Kill the goose that lays the golden egg — meaning to destroy the one thing that brings you money or power. From an Aesop Fable in which a farmer had a goose that laid one golden egg a day; he killed it thinking it would be full of golden eggs but its innards were that of a normal goose.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H.L. Mencken, U.S. journalist (1880-1956)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Why did Mickey Mouse take a trip into space? He wanted to find Pluto. guess the Definition answer: C.