ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE AUGUST 3, 1976
NO STREAkER has performed to such a world-wide audience as the one at the closing ceremony of the Montreal Olympics. There were 70,000 spectators in the stadium, 800million more in front of their TV sets, and in the centre of the field 200 dancing girls. Suddenly, a bearded young man stripped off and joined in the dance, until the police stepped in to hustle him away.
AUGUST 3, 1991
A WAR of words was raging last night over the decision to spare Saddam Hussein after the Gulf conflict. It was set off by Mrs Thatcher who said in a television interview that the Iraqi leader should have been handed over to the Allies. MPs were divided over whether he should have been brought to trial as part of the ceasefire agreement.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TONy BENNETT, 95. The U.S. crooner, born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, has sung with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga. The World War II veteran, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, has performed for 11 U.S. Presidents and marched alongside Martin Luther king in Selma for civil rights. STEPHEN GRAHAM, 48. The actor from Lancashire, who starred as DS John Corbett in Line Of Duty and Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire, said appearing alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in The Irishman ‘was my Champions League final’. Graham was knocked down by a taxi when he was seven and fell off the seventh storey of a car park aged ten — breaking both legs, a collarbone and an arm.
BORN ON THIS DAY
P.D. JAMES (1920-2014). Baroness James of Holland Park, the ‘Queen of Crime’, and creator of Adam Dalgliesh, only became a full-time writer after retiring from the Civil Service just before she turned 60. She once said: ‘Murder isn’t pleasant. It’s an ugly thing and a cruel thing. Let those who want pleasant murders read Agatha Christie.’ GORDON SCOTT (1926-2007). The U.S. actor, the first Tarzan to be given a full speaking role and the first to appear in colour, starred in six films between 1955 and 1960. Scott, 6ft 3in with 19in biceps, insisted on doing his own stunts, but was nearly strangled by an 18ft python — it took six men to free him.
ON AUGUST 3…
IN 1963, osteopath Stephen Ward was found dead days after taking an overdose and being convicted of ‘living off immoral earnings’ gained from Christine keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies. All three were at the heart of the ‘Profumo Scandal’. IN 2007, Queen guitarist Brian May handed in his doctoral thesis, Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud — three decades after abandoning it for his music career.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Bloviate (1850s)
A. To sweat profusely. B. Lengthy and pompous speaking. C. To seize up. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED: Bowl someone a googly: to give someone something unexpected and unpleasant which it would have been better avoided; from cricket in which a spin bowler disguises his delivery so the ball deviates in a surprise direction.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
Willa Cather, U.S. writer (1873-1947)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I’VE DECIDED to have 16 husbands... Four better, four worse, four richer, four poorer. Guess The Definition answer: B.