September 14, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 14, 1978
THE widow of Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov [stabbed by a poison-tipped umbrella] said yesterday: ‘I have no doubts he was murdered.’ Former deb Mrs Annabel Markov, 36, added: ‘There was every reason why someone should want him killed. His work was the motive. He was silenced for his hatred of tyranny.’
SEPTEMBER 14, 1993
IT WAS the most hesitant of handshakes. And one of the most historic [between Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat].
With it, Israel and its sworn enemy set the course for peace in the Middle East.
This was the moment no one had dared hope for, orchestrated for a worldwide TV audience by President Clinton on the South Lawn of the White House.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
WALTER KOENIG, 85. The U.S. actor played Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series and all six original films. He was cast in the hope that his resemblance to Davy Jones of The Monkees would broaden the audience and ‘bring in the eight to 12-year-olds’. In 2008, he was best man at the wedding of George Takei (who played Mr Sulu) but he has expressed his dislike of William Shatner (James T Kirk), saying he was ‘totally preoccupied with himself’. MELISSA LEO, 61. Though the U.S. actress won an Oscar for her role in The Fighter as Mark Wahlberg’s mother (despite just a ten-year age gap), she had to apologise for using the F-word in her acceptance speech and has criticised the system, saying: ‘This entire awards process, to some degree, is about pimping yourself out.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
NICOL WILLIAMSON (1936-2011). The actor from Lanarkshire was described by playwright John Osborne as the greatest actor since Marlon Brando and by Samuel Beckett as ‘touched by genius’. Williamson, who died in obscurity and relative poverty, complained the problem with actors is they ‘act too much’ and once interrupted a play to tell his co-star to ‘put more life into it’. CLAYTON MOORE (1914-99). The U.S. actor, ‘King of the Serials’, took the lead role in 1949 film Ghost of Zorro and in TV series Lone Ranger, the first western filmed for TV. As a teen he was taught swimming and athletics by Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to play Tarzan in a dozen films.
ON SEPTEMBER 14…
IN 1955, the first episode of BBC children’s show Crackerjack was broadcast. It ran until 1984. IN 2009, TV chef, author and restaurateur Keith Floyd died aged 65 of a heart attack.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Prandial (coined. 1810s)
A) Genial, friendly, cheerful B) Rapacious, grabbing C) Relating to dinner Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED Blind man’s bluff — refers to a version of the children’s game of tag in which the player who is ‘It’ is blindfolded; its traditional name is ‘Blind man’s buff’ where the word ‘buff’ means a small push.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Poor Mexico! So far from God, so close to the United States! Porfirio Diaz, Mexican president (1830-1915)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did one pickle say to the other when they fell out of the jar? Dill with it. Guess The Definition answer: C.