ON THIS DAY

January 12, 2022

JANUARY 12, 1943 AS POLICE in America’s Eastern States continue to round up motorists who are defying the ban on pleasure driving, Mrs Roosevelt [wife of the President] admitted today that she herself had been guilty of taking a joy ride. ‘I went to a concert, but to my horror next morning I read all the rules and realised I had unwittingly broken one of them — using a car for pure pleasure.’ JANUARY 12, 2007 DAVID and Victoria Beckham are leaving Spain and heading for California after the former England captain signed a recordbreaking £128 million deal with a football club in Los Angeles. Beckham (right) will leave Real Madrid in June to play for LA Galaxy, in a deal that will run for five years and pay him a staggering £500,000 a week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

ANTHONY ANDREWS, 74. The Londonborn actor, who played Lord Sebastian Flyte in ITV’s Brideshead Revisited, later said: ‘Since Brideshead Revisited, I’ve spent 30 years not playing aristocrats, so I’m not sure why that image has stuck.’ In 1979 he was cast as Bodie in the ITV series The Professionals, but after three days of filming it was decided he didn’t have the necessary ‘menace’ and was replaced by Lewis Collins. KIRSTIE ALLEY, 71. The American actress made her name as Rebecca Howe in sitcom Cheers. Alley (right), who endorsed Donald Trump during both his presidential elections ‘because he’s NOT a politician’, says her golden rule for dating is: ‘I won’t go out with men who haven’t been married by 45.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

JOHN SINGER SARGENT (1856-1925). The Florence-born American painter was known as the ‘outstanding society portraitist of his age’, but said: ‘Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.’ He spent most of his life in London, but turned down a knighthood to retain his U.S. citizenship. CYNTHIA ROBINSON (1944-2015). The U.S. trumpeter and vocalist was a founding member of soul group Sly And The Family Stone, who had hits with Family Affair and Dance To The Music. After an early rehearsal, she said: ‘We hit that first note and I saw sparks and lights and my body just went nuts. It was magnificent.’ Robinson became the first African-American female trumpeter to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1993.

ON JANUARY 12…

IN 1879, the British-Zulu war began. IN 2003, Bee Gee Maurice Gibb died, aged 53.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Slough (13th cent) A) To walk alone with the head held low B) The cast-off skin of a snake C) To slow down Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED Warm the cockles of someone’s heart: Meaning to give someone a comforting feeling of pleasure; from the resemblance in shape between a heart and a cockleshell.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

WHEN you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

George R. R. Martin, U.S. author

JOKE OF THE DAY

DID you hear the one about the roof? Never mind, it’s over your head. Guess The Definition answer: B.