ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 202 of 2015
of the 325 first-class passengers on board the titanic, a total of 202 survived the disaster in 1912.
there are 202 horses depicted in the Bayeux tapestry. the embroidered cloth also features 626 people, 55 dogs and 41 boats.
Wolfgang amadeus Mozart composed a total of 202 hours of music — 27 more hours than Johann Sebastian Bach.
of all murders in england and Wales last year, 202 — more than a third — were committed using a knife or sharp instrument.
THERE ARE 163 DAYS LEFT
the world’s largest temple, at angkor Wat in Cambodia, covers nearly 163 hectares (402 acres). that’s 22 times the area of the tower of london.
DIRECTOR James Cameron took 163 days to film true lies, starring arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie lee Curtis. the average film shoot takes 35 days.
the word ‘battle’ is used 163 times in the Bible compared to 220 times for ‘war’, 118 times for ‘kill’ and 400 times for ‘peace’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Brit award-winning singer, Paloma faith, 34, right. the hackney-born performer starred in heath ledger’s last film before he died and once worked as a magician’s assistant called Miss direction.
author, humorist, doctor and intellectual Sir Jonathan Miller, 81. once dubbed t he ‘Cleverest Man in Britain’, he came to fame when he was invited to take part in a topical revue at the edinburgh festival. although it was supposed to run for only a fortnight, Beyond the fringe went on to tour the world and made stars out of Miller, alan Bennett, Peter Cook and dudley Moore.
BORN ON THIS DAY
COMEDIAN robin Williams (1951-2014). the good Will hunting star studied drama at the Juilliard School in new York, where he began a life-long friendship with Christopher reeve, who later starred as Superman. When Williams was starting out as an actor, he busked for money by performing mime outside new York’s Metropolitan Museum. Writer ernest hemingway (1899-1961). the war correspondent and author of for Whom the Bell tolls removed a urinal from his local bar in florida and installed it in his own home, claiming he had flushed so much of his money down it over the years, he owned it.
ON JULY 21st...
in 1946, though the war had ended, the UK began bread rationing for the first time.
in 1969, in the early hours of a British morning, neil armstrong became the first person to step out of apollo 11 on to the surface of the Moon, in a ‘giant leap for mankind’.
in 1983, at the Vostok research station in antarctica, Soviet scientists marked the l owest atmospheric temperature ever recorded on earth — minus 89.2c.
in 1944, german war hero Claus von Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad after a failed attempt to assassinate adolf hitler as part of a coup d’etat codenamed Valkyrie. the war continued for another year.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I always wondered why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on Earth. Then I asked myself the same question.
Harun Yahya, Turkish author
JOKE OF THE DAY
TWO antennas got married. the ceremony was rather boring, but the reception was excellent.