ON THIS DAY
October 3, 2015
IT’S DAY 276 OF 2015
A MALE driver clocks up, on average, an extra 276 miles a year driving around lost — equivalent to a journey from London to Newcastle. The average woman motorist drives 256 ‘lost’ miles in a year.
BRITAIN’S war with Spain, which began 276 years ago was called the ‘War of Jenkins’ Ear’, after Captain Robert Jenkins — a smuggler whose ear was cut off by Spanish coastguards on his ship in the Caribbean.
THE average Briton collects 181kg of recycling in a year, but sends 276kg of rubbish — equivalent to the weight of two and a half Chris Robshaws, the England rugby captain — to landfill sites or to be incinerated.
FOREVER associated with James Bond and Goldfinger it’s believed there are just 276 classic Aston Martin DB5s left in the UK.
THERE ARE 89 DAYS LEFT
IN THE wake of the school massacre in the U.S. this week, it’s sobering to know there are 89 firearms for every 100 people in that country. In Canada, the figure is 31, in Australia it is 15, while in the UK it is seven.
THE first recognisable steam iron was introduced by the Eldec Company of New York 89 years ago.
AN INCREDIBLE 89 per cent of people in Sweden speak English — that’s a higher percentage than in Canada.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CLIVE OWEN, 51 (right). The Coventry-born actor, best known for films Sin City, Inside Man and The International, is such a big David Bowie fan that in the Seventies he kept dyeing his hair to keep up with the singer’s latest style.
CHUBBY CHECKER, 74. The singer-songwriter, who popularised the Twist dancing craze, was one of the first exponents of jogging, saying: ‘When I was jogging in 1969, people looked at me as if I was strange — but by 1985, everybody was doing it.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
JAMES HERRIOT (1916-1995). Real name James Alfred Wight, the vet who wrote All Creatures Great And Small about his life. His nom de plume was taken from Birmingham City and Scotland goalie Jim Herriot.
SIR MICHAEL Hordern (1911-1995). The classical actor was adored as the narrator of the original BBC children’s series of Paddington (right), but in the Sixties he turned down the role of the first Doctor Who, which went to William Hartnell.
EDDIE Cochran (19381960). The American singer of C’Mon Everybody and Summertime Blues, was killed, aged 21, when his taxi crashed in Chippenham, Wilts, during a British tour. His last single before he died was Three Steps To Heaven — it became his posthumous No 1.
ON OCTOBER 3 . . .
In 1896, Queen Victoria became the first British monarch to be captured on moving film, at Balmoral.
In 1926, at Chiswick, Violet Piercy became the first woman to run a marathon in Britain — it took her three hours and 40 minutes.
In 1989, residents of the Shetland Island of Foula woke to the shock news that someone had vandalised a Land Rover — the island’s first crime for more than 80 years. A 17-yearold was later convicted and fined £50.
In 1995, American football star OJ Simpson was cleared of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. His trial came after 95 million American TV viewers watched police chase his white Ford Bronco to arrest him.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
It Is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.
George Bernard Shaw
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the chimpanzee put steak on his head? He thought he was a griller.