ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
APRIL 17, 1912
THE first flight across the english Channel by a lady alone, piloting an aeroplane, was made yesterday by Miss Harriet Quimby, an American airwoman. She took off from Dover and landed at Hardelot, near Boulogne. She stated that her trip was splendid in spite of fog.
APRIL 17, 1964
THE Great Train Robbery gang was spilt up last night — to serve terms totalling 307 years. Immediately after the sentences were passed, the 12 men in the dock were paired off. each pair was carefully chosen to keep the most dangerous thugs apart.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
VICTORIA BECKHAM, 45. The pop star- turnedfashion designer (right) was the only Spice Girl not to audition for the group with a pop song, choosing Mein Herr from the musical Cabaret. She’s also the only member not on a reunion tour next month. A qualified dance teacher before becoming famous, she said: ‘If it does go wrong, I can always be a tapdancing teacher.’ JOHN MCCRIRICK, 79. The racing pundit calls his long- suffering wife ‘The Booby’, because he says she is like the South American bird: ‘She’s stupid, squawks a lot and was easy to catch.’ After he was dropped by Channel 4, he sued the channel for ageism, claiming £3 million damages, but lost and had to pay £100,000 in legal fees, with the tribunal concluding his ‘self-described bigoted and male chauvinist views were clearly unpalatable to a wider potential audience’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
J.P. MORGAN (1837-1913). Remembered as America’s ‘greatest banker’, he helped to transform business, creating General electric from an 1889 merger, moved into the first home in the U.S. lit by electricity and even, unsuccessfully, bidding to build a new London Tube line. His fortune upon death was estimated at $118 million ($3 billion, or £2.3 billion in today’s money). VICTOR LOWNES (1928-2017). The U.S. impresario (right) was once Britain’s highestpaid executive, as manager of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire in europe. Dubbed Victor Disgusting by Private eye magazine, he boasted of living with six women at a time. At 14, he accidentally shot dead a school friend during a hunting trip.
ON APRIL 17 . . .
IN 1961, the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion was launched when 1,500 Cuban exiles trained by the CIA attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime.
IN 2011, the first episode of TV fantasy epic Game of Thrones was aired. The final series began on Monday.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Tracklement (1954) A) A pole slung across a stream to stop cattle passing. B) The payment of arrears. C) A savoury condiment served with meat. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To a T: Meaning exactly, precisely or to perfection; it is likely to involve T being the first letter of tittle, meaning some very small amount, as ‘to a tittle’ was in use in exactly the same sense for nearly a century before.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
You can’t have everything. Where would you put it? Steven Wright, U.S. comedian
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOW does a mouse feel after a bath? Squeaky clean. Guess The Definition answer: C.