April 01, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE APRIL 1, 1939
PRINCESS ELIZABETH, already a keen horse rider, now wants to learn how to jump. Snowball, her favourite pony, has been brought from Windsor for lessons at the private stables at Buckingham Palace mews where King edward VII, King George V and the present King learned to ride.
APRIL 1, 1967
GUITARIST Jimi Hendrix was taken to hospital with a burned hand after his instrument burst into flames on the first night of the Walker Brothers’ tour at Finsbury Park, London.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SUSAN BOYLE, 60, right. The singer from West Lothian found fame in 2009 when she sang I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables on Britain’s Got Talent. Her performance has been watched more than 600 million times on YOUTUBE and she became the first British female artist to have a No 1 album in the UK and the US simultaneously. ASA BUTTERFIELD, 24. The actor from London stars with Gillian Anderson in the Netflix smash hit Sex education — streamed by 40 million households in its first month. He got his big break aged ten in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and bought his first house aged just 19.
BORN ON THIS DAY
WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657). The physician from Kent was the first person to describe accurately how blood is pumped around the body by the heart. He married the daughter of elizabeth I’s doctor and was physician to James I. Harvey was the first to suggest that human reproduction happened via fertilisation of an egg by sperm, though it took another two centuries before this was observed by scientists. GEORGE BAKER (19312011). The Bulgarian-born British actor is best remembered for playing Inspector Wexford (right) in the Ruth Rendell Mysteries over 13 years. His third wife, Louie Ramsey, played his on-screen wife Dora. Baker, a father of five daughters, was Ian Fleming’s first choice to play James Bond, but he was contracted to a rival studio. He later appeared in 007 films On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me.
ON APRIL 1 . . .
IN 1924, Adolf Hitler was given a five-year sentence for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempted coup in Munich. IN 1958, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop opened from Room 13 at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios. It would create the Doctor Who theme, as well as those for The Living Planet, PM and Blake’s 7. GUESS THE DEFINITION: Arval (c1760) A) A padded jacket for fencing. B) Of, or belonging to, ploughed land. C) An arrow on a convict’s uniform. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Janus-faced:
Meaning to be two-faced or hypocritical. In Roman mythology, Janus was the guardian of the gate of heaven, which he guarded with two faces, with each having a contradictory expression — hence the notion of hypocrisy.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French writer (1755-1826)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT’S bad about time travelling jokes? You already know the punchline. Guess The Definition answer: B.