ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE May 14, 1940
AMID loud cheers, Mr Churchill, the Prime Minister, moved this resolution in the House of Commons this evening: ‘That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion.’
May 14, 1984
SPACE agency NASA say Michael Jackson’s promoters wanted to book him on one of the first Space Shuttle flights to carry civilians later this year so he could come out on a space walk singing and dancing. NASA has politely declined the idea.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FRANCESCA ANNIS,
79. The London-born actress is famous for her role as Lady Macbeth in Roman Polanski’s 1971 film, in which she did a sleepwalking scene in the nude. She had wanted to be a nun before training as a ballet dancer and then going on to drama school.
SOFIA COPPOLA, 53. The American film-maker became only the third woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar, in 2004. She has at least 20 family members, including father Francis Ford, and cousins Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman, working in the movie business.
BORN ON THIS DAY
THOMAS GAINSBOROuGH (17271788). The Suffolk-born artist was often late with his commissions, insisting that ‘painting and punctuality mix like oil and vinegar’. He believed that his two daughters should not just be wives and mothers, and taught them art and music so they could have a profession. JACK BRuCE (1943
2014). The Scottish bass player and singer was in Cream with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. He wrote a string quartet at 11, but was expelled from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music for playing bass in a dance band.
ON MAY 14…
IN 1938, England’s football team gave a Nazi salute to the crowd at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, on an order from the Foreign Office.
IN 1955, the Soviet union and seven of its satellite states signed the Warsaw Pact, a collective defence treaty.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Pogonion (coined 1897)
A) Slang for awesome. B) Foremost point of the chin. C) A thick, hearty soup made with shallots.
answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Grin like a Cheshire cat: refers to a broad, fixed smile; from cat-shaped cheese once sold in Cheshire; the allusion is of a grinning cheese-cat.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, British-born author (1849-1924)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you say when you lose a quarter of your roof? ‘Oof.’ Guess The Definition answer: B.