October 15, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 15, 1947
THE base of Princess elizabeth’s wedding cake, damaged in air transit from Australia, is being repaired tonight by Jerusalem’s leading confectioner before continuing for London tomorrow.
OCTOBER 15, 1964
MARY RAND triumphed in wind and hail to become Britain’s first female Olympic athletics gold medal winner in 36 years. The 24-year-old mother achieved this with a new world long-jump record of 22ft 2in.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SARAH FERGUSON, 62. The Duchess of york, who was divorced from Prince Andrew in 1996, insists she is normal enough to go to the supermarket, but adds: ‘I don’t cook, shan’t cook, won’t cook. I hate cooking.’ She is the author of several children’s books — which is handy because she now has two grandchildren as daughters Beatrice and eugenie are both proud new mothers. DOMInIC WeST, 52. The Sheffield-born, eton-educated actor starred in The Wire and the BBC’s Les Misérables. The father of five says while filming sex scenes for The Affair, he and co-star Ruth Wilson would frequently burst out laughing: ‘The editors manage brilliantly to cut around our laughter and make us look intense.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
PENNY MARSHALL (1943-2018). The new york actress found fame as Laverne DeFazio in sitcom Laverne & Shirley before going behind the camera. With Big (starring Tom Hanks), she became the first woman to direct a film that made more than $100 million at the U.S. box office.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900). The German philosopher has been described as ‘one of the most brilliant and dangerous minds of the 19th century’. He made his name rejecting Christianity, declaring: ‘God is dead.’ nietzsche was made a professor at Basel University in Switzerland aged just 24 – despite not having finished his degree. He said: ‘The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.’
ON OCTOBER 15 . . .
IN 1945, Pierre Laval, the French politician who served in the vichy Regime — which collaborated with nazi Germany — was executed as a traitor to France. IN 1964, in the General election, Harold Wilson’s Labour Party won by just four seats, the smallest majority since 1847. The victory ended 13 years of Tory rule.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Pusillanimous (coined 1580s)
A) Tiny, minute.
B) Flowing out.
C) Timid; lacking in courage.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Game, set and match: spoken by the umpire at the end of a competitive tennis match, this also indicates that a player has definitively beaten the opponent.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. founding father (1743-1826)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY should you never date a tennis player? Love means nothing to them. Guess The Definition answer: C