ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 17, 1940 ONE of the ideas formed for the blackout is cars with extra lights under the body. drivers: keep your speed down. Cyclists: remember that rear light. Pedestrians: you are invisible at night and if you carry a torch shine it downwards.
JANUARY 17, 1958 In TEN minutes of glorious fun on a bus, nine-year-old Prince Charles and Princess Anne, seven, worked the folding doors, pulled the bell, played in the driver’s seat, and bombarded him with questions. Prince Charles jumped into the driving seat during the special visit outside a school in dersingham, norfolk. ‘This is easy to drive!’ he cried as he turned the wheel.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MICHELLE OBAMA, 55. The lawyer and former U.S. First lady ( right) is so popular in Britain that last year she topped the bestseller list with her memoir, Becoming, in which she admitted: ‘I didn’t much appreciate politicians and didn’t relish the idea of my husband becoming one.’ More than 55,000 Brits vied for 2,700 seats to hear her talk in london. CALVIN HARRIS, 35. The Scottish record producer, who has worked with Rihanna, Coldplay and Katy Perry, has a clutch of awards to his name and is up for two Brits next month. After leaving school he worked in a fish factory and Safeway. At 6ft 5in, he later became an Armani model. He topped the Forbes list of the world’s highest paid DJS for the sixth consecutive year in 2018 with earnings of more than £37 million.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANNE BRONTË (1820-1849). The youngest sibling of fellow writers Emily and Charlotte, and author of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, has been described as ‘the forgotten genius’ of the family. Brontë hit out at readers who were shocked that her books were written by a woman, saying: ‘If a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.’ MUHAMMAD ALI (1942-2016). The legendary American boxer ( right), born Cassius Clay, dedicated himself to his sport after his $60 red Schwinn bicycle was stolen when he was 12 and a police officer said he should learn to defend himself. Ali’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the only one you cannot stand on. It hangs on a wall because he did not want it to be walked over by ‘people who have no respect for me’.
ON JANUARY 17...
In 1967, John lennon read an article in the daily Mail about potholes. It inspired a lyric in The Beatles song A day in the life: ‘Four thousand holes in Blackburn, lancashire.’
In 1991, Operation desert Storm began when hundreds of U.S., British and allies’ aircraft launched bombing raids into Iraq.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Apricate (1691) A) To deceive. B) Bask in the sun. C) To boast. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Be as right as rain: Meaning to be fit and well, with ‘right’ having the sense of being straight and correct. likely to be a late 19th century alliteration, such as ‘fit as a fiddle’, but there is suggestion that it is connected to the idea that rain often falls straight down.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ONE has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists. Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist (1879-1955)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a donkey with three legs? A wonky. Guess The Definition answer: B.