ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
AUGUST 8, 1936
IN SOME busy London streets horses will soon be seen no more at peak traffic hours. Minister of Transport Mr Hore-Belisha plans to restrict slow- moving traffic causing congestion. The rules relate to vehicles which do not exceed 5mph, horse-drawn vehicles and handcarts.
AUGUST 8, 1983
TWENTY years after the Great Train Robbery, fugitive Ronald Biggs has a new career — managing his nine-year-old son Mike (both pictured), star of a Brazilian children’s TV show. Biggs will mark today’s anniversary of the robbery — also his 54th birthday — with an East End-style knees-up at his Rio home.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SIR ROGER PENROSE, 92. The mathematician from Essex won prizes for his work on black holes with Sir Stephen Hawking. In 1997, Sir Roger sued Kleenex after it used a tile pattern he had created on its lavatory paper. His spokesman said if people were ‘ invited . . . to wipe their bottoms on what appears to be a work of a knight of the realm without his permission, then a last stand must be taken’. THE Edge, 62. U2’s guitarist — full name David Howell Evans — was born in Essex to Welsh parents and grew up in Dublin after his father moved jobs. U2’s singer Bono is said to have given him his nickname because of the shape of his head. ‘ Pretty much everyone calls me Edge,’ he has said. ‘My mum calls me Edge, so I guess that’s about as official as you can get.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
EMILIANO ZAPATA (1879-1919). The legacy of the Mexican revolutionary, who called for ‘reform, freedom, justice and law’, is so enduring that 2019 — the centennial of his death — was declared the ‘year of Zapata’. But that year, his heirs protested against a ‘debauched’ portrait at a gallery of Zapata wearing just a pink sombrero and high heels.
WILLIAM ASHER ( 1921- 2012). The U. S. TV pioneer directed more than 100 episodes of sitcom I Love Lucy, plus Bewitched, starring his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery (right with Asher). After their marriage, she planned to ditch her career, but he said ‘she was too good to quit. I suggested we do a television show together’.
ON AUGUST 8 . . .
IN 1786, Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard made the first ascent of Mont Blanc, western Europe’s highest peak.
IN 1908, U.S. aviator Wilbur Wright made his first public flight at Les Hunaudieres race course, near Le Mans, France.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Macrosmatic (1890)
A) Having a supersensitive nose.
B) High-spirited, proud.
C) Vigorously. answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Pigeon pair: Describes twins comprising a boy and a girl, or one boy and one girl as sole children in a family. It derives from the legend that pigeons lay just two eggs which hatch into one male and one female.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Eating well is a critically important life skill.
Michael Pollan, U.S. food writer
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT’S a sheep’s favourite car? a lamborghini.
Guess The Definition answer: A.