ON THIS DAY
JULY 30, 1965
PRINCESS Margaret greeted The Beatles at the premiere of their film Help! Outside the cinema, the London Pavilion, 5,000 fans waited. Eros was boarded up and 250 policemen were in Piccadilly Circus to deal with fans. Seven girls were taken to hospital.
JULY 30, 1966
WHOEVER wins today’s Final at Wembley, England’s 22 World Cup footballers will celebrate with 400 guests at a banquet at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, tonight. Black market prices for Final tickets in London last night were £40 for a £5 seat. The £200,000 gate money taken for the game is an all-time record for a football match.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FRANCES DE LA TOUR, 74. To one generation, the Hertfordshire-born actress ( right) is spinster Ruth Jones, the object of landlord Rigby’s affections in the sitcom Rising Damp; to another, she’s Olympe Maxime, the larger-thanlife headmistress in the Harry Potter films. Asked if she felt a sitcom was beneath an RSC actress — she’d joined the RSC in 1965, at 21 — she quipped: ‘We were just doing it for the money. I certainly needed the money!’ SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR, 78. The British inventor and personal computer pioneer has said his mission began, aged six, when he was enchanted by an inventor character on the children’s radio programme Toytown, featuring Larry the Lamb. The former chairman of Mensa has an IQ of 159 (Einstein’s was estimated to be 160). He was described by actor Alexander Armstrong — who played him in a Tv drama — as ‘a cross between Einstein and Willy Wonka’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
EMILY BRONTË (1818-48). The English poet and author published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell because she wanted to avoid prejudice as a female writer. Kate Bush, who wrote and sang Wuthering Heights, her debut single inspired by the book, was also born on this day, 140 years after Brontë. RICHARD JOHNSON (1927-2015). The Essex-born stage and screen actor (right) whose good looks and rich voice captivated audiences for 60 years, turned down the role of James Bond in Dr No because he did not want the seven-year commitment. He said he had never regretted his decison. Married four times, his second wife was the vertigo actress Kim Novak.
ON JULY 30…
IN 1930, Uruguay won the first World Cup, beating Argentina 4-2 in Montevideo. IN 2003, the last ‘classic’ vW Beetle rolled off the production line in Mexico. More than 21 million had been produced.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Jollop (1780) A) Liquid medicine — a cough syrup or laxative. B) Pendulous skin under the throat of cattle. C) A hiccough. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
To have a bun in the oven — meaning to be pregnant; it comes from the act of baking a bun in the oven where the bun keeps rising as it bakes. Ever since the 17th century, ‘oven’ has referred to a woman’s womb.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it. Joan Rivers, U.S. comic (1933-2014)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I’M SURE wherever my dad is, he’s looking
down on me. He’s not dead — just very condescending. Guess The Definition answer: A