ON THIS DAY
MARCH 15, 1940
WITH her engine room flooded, and her 15- knot engines shifting on their foundations, a British Admiralty trawler fought a 17-hour running battle with a U-boat and destroyed it. George Westerden, 31, of Blackpool, the trawler’s chief engineer, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his gallantry and devotion to duty. While on leave, he told only his father how he had gained his medal, before going back to sea.
MARCH 15, 1958
FIREWoRkS, frolics, and free champagne — that is Monaco tonight as 20,000 citizens of the flag-decked Principality celebrate the birth yesterday of bonny Prince Albert. The sturdy Prince — 8lb 12oz — arrived with a yell at 10.50am. Princess Grace [former Hollywood actress Grace kelly] was less than three hours in the ‘delivery ward’ in the Palace.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EVA LoNGoRIA, 44. The U.S. actress (right), star of Desperate Housewives, is best friends with Victoria Beckham, who designed the wedding dress for her second marriage. Longoria, who gave birth to her first child last summer, has a multi-million- dollar job as the face of L’oreal plus other big modelling contracts — but as a child, her father called her ‘the ugly one’. RUTH BADER GINSBURG, 86. only the second woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, she is still serving. Bader Ginsburg was involved in many legal battles for sexual equality and is portrayed by Felicity Jones in the film on The Basis of Sex. The judge began working out with a special forces veteran after colorectal cancer left her frail 20 years ago — and on her 80th birthday was still able to do 20 press-ups.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ALAN BEAN (1932-2018). The U.S. astronaut was the fourth person to walk on the moon, in November 1969. Bean, who had Scottish ancestry, took a piece of MacBean tartan along. He became a painter (right) incorporating patches from his space suit in his art. SIR CHARLES WHEELER (1923-2008). The BBC’s longest- serving foreign correspondent volunteered for the Marines in World War II, before joining an intelligence unit founded by Bond author Ian Fleming. Aged 68, Wheeler trekked to a freezing mountain pass in Iraq to interview kurds fleeing Saddam Hussein.
ON MARCH 15...
IN 1985, symbolics.com became the first ever internet domain to be registered, by an U.S. computer firm.
IN 2010, British comedian, actor and writer Sacha Baron Cohen married Australian actress Isla Fisher in Paris.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: bobcherry (1899) A) A children’s game, in which the cherry is hung so as to bob against the mouth. B) A burial ground for paupers. C) A hearse with seats for mourners. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Sow one’s wild oats: Meaning to go through a period of promiscuous behaviour while young; the phrase comes from 1542 Britain: wild oats are a weed that’s a useless crop.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
SeCRetS are the stones that sink the boat. take them out. Look at them. throw them out and float. Lemn Sissay, British poet HEAR about the magician who stole chocolate? He had a few twix up his sleeve. Guess the Definition answer: A.