ON THIS DAY
Janaury 17, 2022
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 17, 1973 ROyAL Ballet soloist Wayne Sleep, 25, has broken a record attributed to the legendary Nijinsky by pulling off the fastest entrechat douze — a step that includes five crossings and uncrossings of the legs in mid-air. It was filmed for BBC TV’s Record Breakers.
JANUARY 17, 1980
CARRy On star Barbara Windsor has told how police raided her home in Stanmore, Middlesex, at 5.30am and arrested her husband, nightclub manager Ronnie Knight. Last night he was still being quizzed by Scotland yard Serious Crime Squad detectives investigating a gangland murder.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
RICKy WILSON, 44. The singer-songwriter from West yorkshire fronts the Kaiser Chiefs, whose hits include I Predict A Riot and Ruby. A former coach on BBC’s The Voice, he relaxes by watching 1980s crime series Murder, She Wrote and has a growing toy collection: ‘They’re ones that I couldn’t afford when I was a kid and now that I can, I keep buying them on eBay.’ JIM CARRey, 60. The Canadian starred in Liar Liar and Dumb And Dumber and played the Riddler in Batman Forever. On becoming the first actor to be paid $20 million for a film — 1996’s The Cable Guy — he was hailed as ‘the biggest box-office star in the world’. In 2014, he appeared on a Canadian postage stamp. He has nearly 19 million Twitter followers.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BeTTy WHITe (19222021). The American actress and comedian, who died last month, would have turned 100 today. The last surviving star of sitcom The Golden Girls won eight emmy awards. In 2019, she voiced a tiger teething toy — Bitey White — in Toy Story 4. She joked that at her age she didn’t contact friends on Facebook but via a ouija board. eARTHA KITT (1927-2008). The U.S. singer and actress — famous for festive hit Santa Baby — died on Christmas Day. She was also known for playing Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series. Kitt was born on a cotton plantation and named eartha after that year’s good crop. After she lambasted President Johnson at a White House dinner over the Vietnam War, a CIA dossier called her ‘a sadistic nymphomaniac’. But Orson Welles called her ‘the most exciting woman in the world’.
ON JANUARY 17…
IN 1945, as Soviet troops approached, the SS forced prisoners at Auschwitz on what became known as death marches. IN 2008, U.S. chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer died, aged 64.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Shenanigan (c 1850)
A) Trickery, mischief. B) A scarecrow made of old garments. C) A pole slung across a stream to stop cattle passing.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED To catch a Tartar:
Meaning to be forced to take on someone more troublesome than bargained for. The Tartars, ruled by Genghis Khan, were known for ferocity
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I don’t design clothes.
I design dreams. Ralph Lauren, U.S. fashion designer
JOKE OF THE DAY
I ALWAyS use the word ‘mucho’ around Spanish friends. It means a lot to them. Guess The Definition answer: A. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN
and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD