ON THIS DAY
October 25, 2021
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 25, 1980
ACTOR Tom Baker, who plays the irrepressible Time Lord on TV’s Doctor Who, is giving up his fantastic adventures. He will leave the show in December after seven years of space travel aboard the Tardis. And his successor in space could be… a woman.
OCTOBER 25, 2003
AT 4.05pm yesterday, the supersonic age passed away anything but peacefully. Rattling the capital’s windows for one last time, Concorde — that bold, futuristic symbol of ingenuity, entente, glamour and class — became a thing of the past as Mike Bannister, British Airways’ chief pilot, brought the last commercial Concorde flight to a faultless landing at London Heathrow.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KATY PERRY, 37. The U.S. singer-songwriter, born Katheryn Hudson, has had five UK No1s, including I Kissed A Girl and Roar. The ex-wife of British comedian Russell Brand (he ended the marriage by text) has a daughter with British actor Orlando Bloom. Katy (pictured) earned $38.5million (£27million) last year, most from her role as a judge on TV’s American Idol.
ELIF SHAFAK, 50. The Booker-shortlisted french-born Turkish author, who lives in London, has had her novels — including The Bastard Of Istanbul and Three Daughters Of Eve — translated into 55 languages. Shafak has also penned lyrics for Turkish rock bands and writes while listening to the same heavy metal song: ‘That’s when I write best. I don’t like silence.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
HELEN REDDY (1941-2020). The Grammywinning singer-songwriter from Australia is known for I Am Woman, through to be the first feminist anthem to make U.S. No 1. She said: ‘Lying in bed one night... the words, “I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman”, kept going over and over in my head. I had been chosen to get a message across.’ Reddy was the world’s top-selling female vocalist in 1973 and 1974. PABLO PICASSO (18811973). The Spanish artist (pictured) was called ‘the most famous, the most controversial, in many ways the most influential and undoubtedly the richest artist of his age’. At 14 his family moved to Barcelona, and, although officially too young, he won a School of fine Arts place.
ON OCTOBER 25…
IN 1760, George III became king of Great Britain and Ireland. During his reign, he would suffer recurrent fits of ‘madness’ and Britain would lose its American colonies. IN 1976, the Queen opened the National Theatre on London’s South Bank.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Prebend (c1400) A) Entertaining a sheriff for three nights. B) Stipend for a member of the clergy that is taken from church revenues. C) Guest at an inn. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Pearls of wisdom: Meaning words of intelligence, knowledge and experience; from the early 1800s, though the comparison of wisdom to the preciousness of pearls is in the Book of Job in the Bible.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
GLAMOUR is on a life-support machine and not expected to live.
Joan Collins, English actress
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the spider need an internet connection? It wanted to search the web.
GUESS The Definition answer: B