ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
SEPTEMBER 17, 1941 REICH Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels is distributing leaflets throughout neutral and occupied countries, accusing Britain of starting a germ war. This is suspected of providing an excuse in case Hitler wants to start such a war of his own. SEPTEMBER 17, 1977 MARC BoLAN, the pop star who grew from a flower child into a glitter rocker, died in a car crash yesterday after a quiet night out in Berkeley Square. The T. Rex singer was killed when a purple Mini GT driven by his American girlfriend Gloria Jones smashed into a tree on Barnes Common in South London, not far from his home. He was 29.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BAz LUHRMANN, 57. The Australian director of Moulin Rouge! and Strictly Ballroom started as an actor, playing a pig-seller in a soap opera. His wife, costume and production designer Catherine Martin, has worked on all of his films and is the most successful Australian in oscar history — with four in total (Luhrmann has none). His real name is Mark, but school bullies called him Baz because they said his hair made him look like puppet Basil Brush. DES LyNAM, 77. The Irish-born former host of Match of The Day, Grandstand and Countdown was an insurance salesman who was initially rejected by the BBC because he lacked ‘background experience and personality’. He named his autobiography I Should Have Been At Work after a remark he made to viewers during a daytime 1998 World Cup match: ‘Good afternoon. Shouldn’t you be at work?’ A fellow presenter once said: ‘There are only three great white entertainers — Presley, Sinatra and Lynam.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
RoDDy McDoWALL (1928-1998). The Londonborn actor was evacuated to the U.S. aged 11 during World War II, and in 1941, Variety magazine said: ‘The youngster may prove the boy counterpart to Shirley Temple.’ The star of Lassie Come Home once said: ‘I loved Pal, the dog who played Lassie. He was a lot smarter than some of the people I know.’ KEITH FLINT (1969-2019). The singer from London, who died in March, was the frontman of dance music band the Prodigy. The former roofer, thrown out of school at 15, once restored a listed Tudor manor house in Essex, buying the cobble stones from a street in Bristol to use on his driveway.
ON SEPTEMBER 17…
IN 1859, American eccentric Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself to be Norton I, Emperor of the United States. He later declared himself Protector of Mexico after it was invaded by Napoleon III.
IN 1969, the myth that Paul McCartney had died in a car accident and was being impersonated by a body double originated in an American student newspaper before being picked up by radio stations.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: laterite (c 1800) A) the red clay in tropical roads B) verbally to belittle someone C) sideways ( Answer below) PHRASE EXPLAINED: All that glitters is not
gold: meaning that something may not be as valuable or as beneficial as it appears; from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
QUOTE FOR TODAY JOKE OF THE DAY
HoW does a cucumber become a pickle? It goes through a jarring experience. GuESS The Definition answer: A.
WE’RE all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress Tennessee Williams, American dramatist (1911-1983)