ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 16, 1939
SNow was falling as herr hitler entered Prague, capital of his new protectorate, tonight. Twelve hours earlier, crowds of weeping Czechs had booed his advancing troops in the streets of the city. Their reception had alarmed hitler’s advisers, who pleaded with him not to enter the city until they could be sure of his safety. he set their pleas aside contemptuously.
MARCH 16, 1990
Cheque card fraud is rising, with DIY stores among the main targets, according to figures revealed yesterday. ‘Plastic’ users cheated shops, hotels and restaurants of £ 23 million last year, £1 million more than in 1988.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Theo wAlCoTT, 34. The harrow-born former Southampton footballer, once Arsenal’s top scorer ( right), won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2006. It was the year he became the youngest ever england player at 17 years and 75 days old. his uncle David Yates directed four harry Potter films and offered walcott the chance to be an extra. JeRoMe FlYNN, 60. The actor from Kent had three uK chart-toppers with Soldier Soldier castmate Robson Green. Flynn went on to play Bronn in Game of Thrones. In the 1990s, he joined a spiritual group that ‘turned out to be a bit of a cult. It was difficult re-entering the world. I’d been living like a monk’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ChRISTA luDwIG (1928-2021). The German opera star was so protective of her voice that she often communicated only by whistles or writing. She said a singer’s instrument was ‘like a raw egg. once it’s kaput, it’s kaput’. During rehearsals for Carmen at Covent Garden, her Don José drew blood as he stabbed her with a prop knife.
PAT NIxoN (1912-1993). The u.S. First lady met husband Richard Nixon while they were auditioning for an amateur theatre production. She cried twice in public — when Richard lost his 1960 bid for the Presidency to JFK and when he made his post-watergate Scandal resignation speech in 1974. After leaving the white house, she became known as a recluse who wore disguises and wigs to go shopping.
ON MARCH 16…
IN 1965, Tom Jones (right) was at uK No 1 with It’s Not unusual.
IN 2013, Frank Thornton, Captain Peacock in sitcom Are You Being Served?, died aged 92.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Stravage (1810s) A) To wander aimlessly. B) To struggle. C) To forage. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Drop someone like a hot potato: Meaning swiftly to abandon someone; a ‘ hot potato’ is also a metaphor for an awkward or controversial issue no one wants to deal with.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
Helen Keller, U.S. author (1880-1968)
JOKE OF THE DAY
whY is a river lazy?
It never leaves its bed. Guess The Definition answer: A.