ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MAY 17, 1940 THE U.S. State Department tonight said it had advised all Americans in Britain to flee to Ireland as refugees from war. It added that the U.S. ‘will consider sending to the west coast of Ireland a vessel for the use of those desiring to return to America’. The action was based on a recommendation of the U.S. ambassador in London, Mr Joseph Kennedy [and father of John F. Kennedy]. MAY 17, 1961 A PET monkey terrorised a quiet suburb for 90 minutes yesterday before it was killed by a vet using chloroform. Jacko, a 3ft African green, savaged one adult and two children after unscrewing a bolt in its cage to escape in Stockport, Cheshire. One victim had 200 stitches put in six wounds.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JOHANNA KONTA, 28. Last year, the Australianborn tennis star (right), who moved to England as a teenager, became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon singles semifinals since defending champion Virginia Wade in 1978. When not on court, she’s in the kitchen — her signature bake is white chocolate and raspberry muffins. ALAN JOHNSON, 69. The former Labour Home Secretary grew up in poverty. He left school at 15 to become a postman in Slough, and is the only Education Secretary ever to have received free school meals. Johnson has described himself as a ‘failed rock star’; he played guitar in two amateur bands.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BILL PAxTON (1955-2017). The U. S. actor ( right) starred in Apollo 13, Titanic, Aliens and Twister. He said of his movie career: ‘I haven’t had a role that’s propelled me into major stardom. Sure, I’ve had roles that put me on the playing field. A lot of base hits. No home runs.’ QUSAy HUSSEIN (1966-2003). Saddam Hussein’s younger son was head of Iraq’s security and intelligence services. He is thought to have ordered the executions of thousands of prisoners and was in charge of a squad of 90 women officers used to entrap and blackmail men. He was described by schoolfriends as ‘quiet and calculating’. He was killed by U.S. troops, along with his 14year-old son Mustapha, and older brother Uday, during a raid on a home in Mosul.
ON MAY 17 . . .
IN 1792, merchants meeting under a tree in what is now Wall Street founded the New york stock exchange.
IN 1984, Prince Charles attacked a proposed extension to the National Gallery as ‘a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend’.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Yahoo (coined by Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels, 1726) A) Crude or brutish person. B) Spur on the heel of a fighting cock. C) Shout of a huntsmen at the death of the quarry. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED Know on which side one’s bread is
buttered: Has meant to take heed of one’s own interest since at least the 16th century; a better outcome to any situation is likely if one knows where the advantages lie. QUOTE FOR TODAY I pAssIonAtelY hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. Orson Welles, filmmaker (1915-1985)
JOKE OF THE DAY
DID you know . . . six out of seven dwarfs are not Happy. Guess the Definition answer: A.