ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 14, 1939 WiNiFRED MARGARET, aged three weeks, and James, aged eight weeks, demonstrated in Holborn Town Hall yesterday that gas helmets for British babies are safe, comfortable and efficient. Mr C. G. Trotman, designer of the mask, said: ‘We found it necessary to make the helmets big enough for the babies to suck their thumbs.’ MARCH 14, 1970 THE teenage vote helped the Tories to a spectacular victory in the Bridgwater byelection [the first in which 18, 19 and 20year-olds were able to vote, after the age of majority was reduced from 21]. Tory leaders claimed last night that a majority of the over-18s, who had the vote for the first time, were on their side.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
siMONE BiLEs, 22. The 4ft 8in American artistic gymnast has 25 Olympic and World Championship medals and is the most decorated female gymnast in the history of the world championships. Biles was fostered at three before being adopted by her grandparents. A complex flip in her floor routine has become known as ‘the Biles’. siR MiCHAEL CAiNE, 86. The cockney actor, born Maurice Micklewhite, changed his name after watching 1954 film The Caine Mutiny. The star of Alfie and Educating Rita has won two Oscars, for roles in Hannah And Her sisters and The Cider House Rules. Caine (right) knew the Beatles and has said: ‘i invited George [Harrison] to dinner and he brought what we thought was a guitar. i didn’t know George was president of the George Formby fan club. He had brought a ukulele and sang George Formby songs all evening.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
DiANE ARBUs (1923-1971). The U. s. photographer (right) became famous for capturing the lives of America’s marginalised. Her subjects included transgender people, dwarfs, giants, nudists and circus performers. Novelist Norman Mailer said: ‘Giving a camera to Diane is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.’ isABELLA BEETON (1836-1865). The London-born cookery writer was best known as Mrs Beeton, author of The Book of Household Management, which became the bible of the victorian housewife and was the first to format recipes in a style we would still recognise today.
ON MARCH 14…
IN 2017, Muirfield in scotland, the world’s oldest golf club, voted to admit women as members for the first time in 273 years. IN 2018, English theoretical physicist stephen Hawking died, aged 76.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: tosticated (1773) A) Burnt B) Confused, in disarray C) Drunk, intoxicated (Answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED
Couch potato: a person who takes little exercise and watches a lot of television; from 1970s America, the ‘potato’ most likely comes from ‘boob tube’, slang for television, with ‘tube’ equating to ‘tuber’, a plant stem.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
PolitiCs without compromise is like a car without a gearbox: it can look quite elegant but you won’t get anything out of it Neil Kinnock, former Labour Party leader
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do vikings use to encrypt their messages? Norse code. Guess the Definition answer: C