ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 30, 1942
BRITAIN told Mr Churchill to ‘carry on’ in a thunderous, almost united voice. The House of Commons yesterday gave him the vote of confidence by 464 to one. The odd one was James Maxwell, leader of the ILP group who, as the opponent of any war, enabled the House to show it backs its war chief.
JANUARY 30, 1979
THE lorry drivers’ strike that has crippled Britain looks about to end — with the men getting nearly all they demanded. An independent tribunal in Bristol last night offered drivers in the South-West £64 for a 40-hour week. The men wanted £65.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JACK LAUGHER, 28. The Harrogate-born diver became the first ever Olympic champion in his sport for great Britain, when he won, alongside men’s synchronised 3m diving partner Chris Mears at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He was made a MBE aged just 22.
DAME VANESSA REDGRAVE, 86. The Oscarwinning actress from London, star of Julia, Howards End and Atonement, is the matriarch of one of Britain’s top theatrical dynasties (daughters natasha and Joely and son
Carlo nero followed her into the profession). A former member of the Workers Revolutionary Party, she wrote in her 1991 autobiography: ‘ i remain absolutely convinced of the necessity of Marxism.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SHIRLEY HAZZARD (1931-2016). The Australian-born u.S. novelist wrote The Transit Of Venus and The Bay Of noon. Hazard worked for British intelligence in Hong Kong aged 16. She later met graham greene after overhearing him recite a Robert Browning poem, and wrote a memoir of their friendship, greene On Capri.
JOHN PROFUMO (19152006). The Secretary of State for War was forced to resign after it emerged that he had lied to Parliament about an affair with model Christine Keeler — who had also been sleeping with a naval attache at the Soviet embassy. Profumo’s claim that there had been ‘no impropriety’ was described as ‘ one of the most barefaced lies ever uttered in the Commons’. His friendship with the Queen Mother survived the scandal.
ON JANUARY 30 . . .
IN 1956, u.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s home was bombed. He told his supporters: ‘Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you.’
IN 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Paludal (1810s)
A) Of, or relating to, marshes. B) uncomfortable, bothered, uneasy. C) Of, or relating to, a duck.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Pot of gold: A distant or illusory prize; it alludes to the tale that a ‘pot of gold’ is to be discovered at the end of a rainbow.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. Mary Elizabeth Frye, U.S. poet (1905-2004)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did one colour say to the other?
I love hue.
Guess The Definition answer: A