September 19, 2022 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
SEPTEMBER 19, 1975
OPPOSITION leader Mrs Margaret Thatcher is bowling over the Americans on her current U.S. tour. Yesterday she was described as ‘a flower among thorns’. The way American politicians see her was reflected in a note slipped to the British Ambassador by Congressman Clarence Brown during a visit by Mrs Thatcher to Capitol Hill yesterday. It read: ‘If for any reason it doesn’t work out for her there politically, we could surely use her here.’
SEPTEMBER 19, 2000
THE Royal Shakespeare Company claimed a dramatic breakthrough last night after casting a black actor as an English monarch for the first time in its history. David Oyelowo, whose family came from Nigeria, will play the title role in all three parts of Henry
VI in a production which opens in Stratfordupon-Avon later this year. The 24-year-old joined the world-famous company only last year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ROSEMARY HARRIS, 95. The Radatrained actress from Suffolk played Peter Parker’s Aunt May in three Spider-Man films in the 2000s. Harris, made her movie debut opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Beau Brummell, while playwright Arthur Miller said Harris was able to create ‘an ambience there that you could cut with a knife’. JEREMY IRONS, 74. The actor from the Isle of Wight said he’s spent his wealth ‘on buildings because I love buildings. So though I’m building-rich, I’m not rich rich’. At school, he would meet his girlfriend outside the dry cleaners and said: ‘Even now, the smell of dry-cleaning fluid is one of the most erotic things I can think of.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
AUSTIN MITCHELL (1934-2021). The Bradford- born TV journalist- turnedLabour MP forced through more legislation during his party’s years out of government between 1979 and 1997 than any other opposition member. This included a bill to allow parliamentary proceedings to be televised.
ANNA KAREN (1936-2022). The South African-born British actress who played much put-upon Olive Rudge in sitcom On The Buses said it was as a striptease artist in various London clubs that she ‘learned more about stage timings and entertaining a live audience than anyone can teach you at drama school’.
ON SEPTEMBER 19…
IN 1945, William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw for the posh accent he used for his Nazi propaganda broadcasts, was sentenced to death for treason. He was hanged the following year.
IN 2005, research revealed Status Quo had achieved more hit singles (61) than any other group in UK chart history.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Manticore (c 1300s) A) A horse’s attempt to dump his rider. B) A legendary monster.
C) One who haunts good tables, a greedy sponger.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
As easy as falling off a log: Meaning very easy. It is a mid-19th century American expression and used by Mark Twain in 1880 in the variant form of ‘rolling off a log’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Money couldn’t buy friends, but you got a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan, Irish comedian (1918-2002)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a bird that’s good at quizzes? A know-it-owl.
Guess The Definition answer: B.