ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 327 OF 2015
EDWARD LLOYD opened a London coffee house 327 years ago which became popular with shipowners and merchants who gathered there to create insurance for their journeys and cargo. It is now Lloyds of London.
IN APRIL, 1943, German U-boats sank 327,000 tons of shipping, the second highest total of any month of the war.
SOME 327 months — 27 years and 3 months — after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in May 1953, Italian climber Reinhold Messner became the first to climb it solo, and without extra oxygen.
THERE ARE 38 DAYS LEFT
EVERY month, the average person in the UK receives at least 38 cold calls, offering everything from insurance mis-selling compensation to ‘free’ tickets for cruises.
WHEN the first Star wars film was released 38 years ago in 1977, France was still using the guillotine for executions.
DAVID JASON starred as Del Boy Trotter in 38 more episodes of Only Fools And Horses (64) than he did as Granville Arkwright in Open All Hours (26).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KIRSTY YOUNG, 47, right. The Lanarkshire-born presenter of Crimewatch and Desert Island Discs keeps chickens at her Oxfordshire home — named after fellow newsreaders. At school, her teachers called her Old Man River due to her deep voice.
MILEY CYRUS, 23. The singer famous for her risque outfits and hits we Can’t Stop and wrecking Ball was born in Tennessee as Destiny Hope Cyrus. Her nickname Smiley was later shortened by her father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, to Miley.
ZOE BALL, 45. The Blackpool-born Tv and radio star, the daughter of children’s Tv entertainer Johnny Ball, briefly separated from her husband DJ Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) in 2003 after cheating on him with another DJ, Dan Peppe.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BORIS KARLOFF (18871969). Born in London as william Henry Pratt, the actor became synonymous with horror films after his portrayal of Frankstein’s monster, right, in 1931 — even though in the credits his name appeared as a question mark and he was not even invited to the premiere.
HARPO MARX (1888-1964). The second oldest of the Marx Brothers comedians and the one with the curly blond hair, the harp and the horn. After he died in 1964, his ashes were mixed into a sand bunker on the 7th hole at Rancho Mirage Golf Club in California — a place he had apparently grown to love, having been stuck there so often.
ON NOVEMBER 23 . . .
IN 1889, the first jukebox was installed, a nickel-operated Edison phonograph, at the Palais Royal Saloon, San Francisco.
IN 1963, at 5.15pm, the first Doctor who programme was televised on the BBC with william Hartnell as the first of what is now 12 incarnations of the Doctor.
IN 1993, artist Rachel whiteread was awarded the £20,000 Turner Prize for Best British Contemporary Artist at the Tate Gallery. Outside the gallery just minutes later, the anti-Turner Prize K Foundation awarded her £40,000 for worst Artist Of The year. She accepted the money.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
No One can ever make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
JOKE OF THE DAY
DON’T worry if you can’t spell the word Armageddon. It’s hardly the end of the world.