ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
DECEMBER 19, 1941
THREE- dimensional television in depth and colour has been achieved. Mr John Logie Baird, pioneer of television, who worked throughout last winter’s Blitz while bombs peppered the neighbourhood of his London home, has realised the dream of the world’s television scientists. No spectacles or eye-pieces are necessary.
DECEMBER 19, 1963
TRAvEL posters showing bikini-clad girls on a tropical beach have been banned from London taxis. The Chief Inspecting Officer at the Public Carriage Office attached to Scotland Yard thinks they ‘ could be offensive to public morals’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CICELY TYSON, 95. The U.S. model-turned-actress and ex-wife of jazz legend Miles Davis was awarded the Medal of Freedom — America’s highest civilian honour — in 2016 by President Obama, who called her ‘just gorgeous’. Earlier this year, Tyson, who has been nominated for 14 Emmys, became the first black woman to receive an honorary Oscar. SYD LITTLE, 77. The Blackpool-born comedian shot to fame as one half of Little And Large, the duo that won ITv talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1971. Little, whose real name is Cyril Mead, was back in the spotlight last year in the BBC’s Real Marigold Hotel. The former painter and decorator now works as a waiter in his wife’s Lancashire pub, serving up the ‘Syd Special’ burger — two quarter pounders and two onion rings in a bap.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GORDON JACKSON (19231990). The Glasgowegian star was best known for playing butler Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs, a role that won him an Emmy. He also starred in The Great Escape and played Maggie Smith’s lover in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. Despite his success, Jackson said: ‘My trouble is that I’m underconfident . . . I’m not a go-getter and I never have been. It’s only when the curtain goes up and the cameras start to roll that I don’t enjoy this business.’ LEONID BREzHNEv (1906-1982). The Russian statesman was the second-longestserving leader of the Soviet Union, behind Stalin. His famous kiss on the lips with East German leader Erich Honecker was immortalised in graffiti on the Berlin Wall and has inspired numerous parodies including, most recently, images showing Donald Trump kissing Hillary Clinton and vladimir Putin.
ON DECEMBER 19…
IN 1848, Wuthering Heights author Emily Bronte died, aged 30. IN 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton became only the second American president to be impeached. He was acquitted by the Senate.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Rebarbative (c1890) a) vigorous. b) High-spirited. C) Repellent.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Enough is as good as a feast — meaning an excess of something is no more valuable than the right amount; coined in 1660, it alludes to being starving, but there being no gain from having too much to eat.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
WhAt is the hardest task in the world? to think...
Ralph Waldo Emerson, U.S. philosopher (1803-1882)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY were 2, 4 and 6 beaten by 3, 5 and 7? the odds were against them. Guess the Definition answer: C.