November 4, 2022 ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 4, 1976

JAMES EARL CARTER, President-elect of the U.S., was preparing last night to name his Cabinet. Meanwhile, a tearful and disappointed Gerald Ford readied himself for a retirement into obscurity.

NOVEMBER 4, 1993

JULIA ROBERTS has become the Ten Million Dollar Woman. Despite taking two years off from making movies, the Pretty Woman star will be paid the highest-ever fee for an actress — about £6.8 million — for her role in upcoming Gothic chiller Mary Reilly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

LAURA BUSH, 76. George W. Bush’s First Lady was a school librarian before marrying the President-to-be in 1977, and has said a journalist once asked her: ‘So what’s a nice woman like you doing with a guy like him?’ She wrote in a memoir that before a public engagement, the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall asked for glasses of ice: ‘The Prince removed a flask from his pocket and added to each a small splash of what I presume was straight gin.’ GUY MARTIN, 41. The Grimsby-born former motorcycle racer found fame with Channel 4’s Speed With Guy Martin. He turned down a chance to present the BBC’s Top Gear and has twice broken his back in racing crashes. He used to say he would be surprised to live to 40, and has admitted his daredevil antics so worried his family that his mother became ‘a Bible basher’.

BORN ON THIS DAY

MARGUERITE PATTEN (1915-2015). The home economist from Bath advised the Ministry of Food on rationing in World War II before writing more than 165 cookery books and becoming one of our first TV and radio cooks, featuring on programmes such as Kitchen Front. She later said standards of cooking had declined post-war, affecting the strength and health of children. PAUL VANCE (1929-2022). The New York songwriter co-wrote Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. He got the idea after his daughter, Paula, decided she was too shy to wear a bikini in public. Vance read his obituary 16 years before his death after he was confused with someone who had a similar name.

ON NOVEMBER 4 . . .

IN 1997, Canadian country singer Shania Twain released Come On Over, which became the world’s biggest- selling album by a female solo artist, selling more than 40 million copies. IN 1950, the European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome by 12 members of the Council of Europe.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Encomium (coined late 16th century)

A) Formal expression of high praise. B) Book containing the alphabet.

C) Cry of sorrow. answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED

Catch someone flat-footed: Meaning to take someone at a disadvantage or by surprise; ‘flat-footed’ is seen to be the opposite of ‘on your toes’.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (AD 121-180)

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHAT do you call a man without shins? Neil.

Guess The Definition answer: a Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD