ON THIS DAY
January 14, 2020
JANUARY 14, 1937
IT TAKES less than two seconds to put on and adjust one of the new gas masks, of which the Government will shortly distribute 30 million. There is a facepiece of rubber with a cellulose acetate window and a harness to secure the respirator to the head. It is proof against any gas so far known.
JANUARY 14, 1971
THE fashion world paid tribute to Coco Chanel yesterday. Police halted rush-hour traffic outside the Church of the Madeleine in Paris as sewing girls, models and world famous designers crushed together in a crowd of thousands for the funeral service to the woman who dominated high fashion for more than 40 years. Mlle Chanel was 87.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
EMILY WATSON, 53. The English actress, who has starred in Angela’s Ashes and Gosford Park, has been nominated twice for an Oscar. She once said she plots her sex scenes ‘scientifically’ to make sure they seem real. The hit French film Amélie was written with Watson in mind and was originally going to be called Emily, but she turned down the part. HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL, 55. The celebrity chef and campaigner on sugar, waste and sustainable fishing earned the nickname Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall after being filmed munching on road-kill and placenta. He got his first cooking job, at the River Cafe, by turning up to his interview with a lemon tart, but says he was sacked for being too messy.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR Cecil Beaton (1904-80). The English photographer, who got his first camera at 11, took the official pictures on the Queen’s Coronation Day. He was far from diplomatic and said the right side of Grace Kelly’s face was ‘very heavy, like a bull calf’, and of Salvador Dali he wrote: ‘I loved him for being such an original individual but today was terribly put off by his really appalling bad breath.’ HUGH LOFTING (1886-1947). The author from Maidenhead, who worked as a civil engineer, is most famous for his books featuring Doctor Dolittle, the physician from Puddle-by-on-the-Marsh who can talk to animals. As a child, Lofting created a miniature zoo and wildlife museum in his mother’s linen cupboard.
ON JANUARY 14…
IN 1954, Marilyn Monroe married baseball player Joe DiMaggio in San Francisco. She filed for divorce nine months later.
IN 1966, David Jones released his first single under the name David Bowie, Can’t Help Thinking About Me.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: cicatrice (14th c)
A) the calling together of hounds in hunting B) a scar, a mark C) the down on the horns of a young deer
PHRASE EXPLAINED one for the money, two for the show —
coined in the 1800s by children to count, typically in preparation for a race. The full rhyme is: ‘One for the money, Two for the show, Three to get ready, And four to go.’ It was popularised by Elvis Presley in his song Blue Suede Shoes.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
YOUR children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese-American writer (1883-1931)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHICH fish can be found in hospitals?
Sturgeons.
GUESS THE DEFINITION answer B