ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JULY 27, 1945
MR WINSTON CHuRCHILL drove to Buckingham Palace yesterday, soon after Labour’s victories at the polls. Tendering his resignation as Prime Minister, he said: ‘It only remains for me to express to the British people, for whom I have acted in these perilous years, my profound gratitude for the unflinching, unswerving support which they have given me during my task.’
JULY 27, 1950
BuLK buying of tea — which, experts say, has given housewives the world’s worst cuppa — is to end in April 1951. An official of the Ceylon Association said: ‘under the system the Government tendered for tea, and accepted the lowest tender. Naturally, the producers sent only their worst quality tea.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TOM KERRIDGE, 45. The Michelin-starred TV chef, host of BBC2’s Top Of The Shop, lost 12 st by giving up alcohol and carbohydrates and getting up at 6.15am to swim. His wife proposed to him six weeks after they met, but left him three times after he opened his pub due to stress of the business. They are still together after more than 20 years. SHIRLEY WILLIAMS, 88. The daughter of writer Vera Brittain, ex-Labour minister and co-founder of the Social Democratic Party (right), retired as a Liberal Democrat peer in 2016. She boasted in her youth of wanting to be Britain’s first female prime minister, dated athlete Roger Bannister, became a parliamentary candidate, for Harwich, at 22 and worked a 66-hour week into her 80s.
BORN ON THIS DAY
HILAIRE BELLOC (1870-1953). Pink Floyd’s first singer Syd Barrett was a fan of the Anglo-French writer and wrote the song Matilda Mother based on Belloc’s Cautionary Tales, stories about naughty children who get a gruesome comeuppance. Belloc famously wrote: ‘When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.’ SIR GEOFFREY DE HAVILLAND (1882-1965). The aviation pioneer’s firm designed the Tiger Moth (used in the Thirties), the Mosquito ( World War II) and the Comet (the first commercial jet airliner). Today is the 69th anniversary of the Comet’s maiden flight (above). The aircraft was plagued by fatal crashes blamed on structural weakness caused by its square windows. Actresses Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine were de Havilland’s cousins.
ON JULY 27...
IN 1981, more than 24 million viewers watched Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow and Deirdre Langton marry, two days before Charles and Diana’s nuptials.
IN 2012, the Queen appeared to parachute into the Olympic stadium in London before declaring the Games open.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Latrociny (1732) A) Delusion of being of heavenly descent. B) Robbery. C) A cemetery. answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED
Butter up: To flatter so as to get something in return from someone. It comes from spreading butter to make things tastier.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
We MaY be a small island, but we are not a small people. Sir Edward Heath, British prime minister (1916-2005)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a dinosaur that takes care of its teeth? a Flossiraptor. Guess The Definition answer: B