ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 212 OF 2015
THE epic historical drama Ben-Hur is 212 minutes long and won a record 11 Academy Awards — a feat never bettered. However on its 1959 release the New York Times review called the film ‘distressingly’ lengthy and ‘simply too much of a good thing’. IN 1986, a Royal Navy scuba diver, Mike Stevens, stayed under water at Birmingham’s NEC for 212 hours continuously, even sleeping and eating while underwater.
THE european Commission has 212 officials whose basic wage is higher than the £142,500 David Cameron earns as Prime Minister. IN the Bible, the word ‘wine’ is used 212 times, but the word ‘beer’ is used just twice.
THERE ARE 153 DAYS LEFT
A DAY on Pluto lasts 153 of our hours — or about six and a third earth days. IN 1894, after eight years of construction work involving 3,000 workers, the city of Manchester began to draw water by tunnel and aqueduct from Thirlmere, 153km (95 miles) away in the Lake District. It still provides about one glass in every nine of the North-West of england’s fresh water.
THE 153rd epsom Derby, now known as the Investec Derby, ran on June 1, 1932, but the winner’s name was April the Fifth. FOR every 1,000 music albums sold in Canada, 153 of them will be by British bands.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
J. K. ROWLING, 50, right. Joanne Rowling used two initials for her pen name in case boys didn’t want to read books by a woman. As she had no middle name, she chose ‘K’ for Kathleen — her grandmother. She came up with the idea for Harry Potter while on a delayed train from Manchester to London.
ACTOR Wesley Snipes, 53. The Blade and Demolition Man star’s big break was playing a gang l eader who threatens Michael Jackson i n the music video f or his song Bad.
BROADCASTER Andrew Marr, 56. The Glasgow-born political commentator is one of the few people to have ever told a serving Prime Minister to ‘shut up’ on live television — he did so in May this year to David Cameron.
COMEDIAN Roy Walker, 75. The Belfastborn former Catchphrase host represented Northern Ireland in his younger years as a hammer thrower.
BORN ON THIS DAY
TED CASSIDY (1932-1979). Famous for his role as Lurch (right) in the TV series The Addams Family, the 6ft 9in actor began his career as a radio presenter in Dallas and covered the moments after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
ECONOMIST Mil to n Friedman (1912-2006). A Nobel Prize winner in 1976 and adviser to Margaret Thatcher, he said his proudest accomplishment was his role in helping eliminate military conscription in the U.S.
ON JULY 31st . . .
IN 1970, many in the Royal Navy mourned the last day on which sailors were issued with a daily rum ration — a tradition that had been in place for more than two centuries. IN 1936, the new education Act raised the official school-leaving age from 14 to 15. IN 1959, Indian-born British singer Cliff Richard had his first number one single in the UK with Living Doll.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
BY THE time a man realises that his father was right, he normally has a son who thinks he’s wrong.
American pianist Charles Wadsworth
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT’S the difference between a lawyer and a herd of wild bulls? the lawyer charges more.