ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 342 OF 2015
CHARLIE CHAPLIN ordered 342 retakes of a scene in the 1931 film City Lights where a blind girl sells him a flower, imagining that he is a rich tycoon. THE Russian Tupolev Tu-2, one of the most advanced aircraft produced in World War II, could reach a speed of 342 mph — still slower than the Spitfire’s 371mph. WHEN a woman’s handbag is snatched, the average replacement cost has been estimated at £342, while the value of a stolen bag to a thief is normally less than £50.
THERE ARE 23 DAYS LEFT
IN THE Twelve Days Of Christmas song, 23 animals were sent: a partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, four colly (not calling!) birds, six geese (a-laying) and seven swans (a-swimming). THREE of Britain’s greatest writers — Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Rupert Brooke — died on St George’s Day, April 23. ON AVERAGE, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution launches a rescue boat 23 times every day and rescues 24 people every day. EACH of the four clock faces of Big Ben are 23 ft in diameter and are made up of 312 panes of glass. NEW York’s Empire State Building is struck by lightning 23 times in a typical year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KIM BASINGER, 62. The Oscar-winning actress best known for LA Confidential (right) and Batman. She also played Bond girl Domino opposite Sean Connery in 1983’s Never Say Never Again. Formerly married to Alec Baldwin, after divorcing, he fantasised about murdering Basinger’s lawyer with a baseball bat. SINEAD O’CONNOR, 49. The controversial Irish singer came to the world’s attention with her version of Prince song Nothing Compares 2 U in 1990. An ordained priest, she has four children by four different men. Her shortest marriage lasted 17 days and she had the initials of one of her ex-boyfriends tattooed on her face. GEOFF HURST, 74. The Mancunian footballer and hero of England’s 1966 World Cup victory over Germany. His hat-trick in the 4-2 match was the only hat-trick ever in a World Cup final game — a record that still stands today.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JIM MORRISON (1943-1971, right). The lead singer of iconic Sixties rock band The Doors, who died of heart failure, brought on by drug abuse, in the bath of his Paris apartment. His father was a Rear Admiral and the person in charge of U.S. Naval Forces during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, one of the catalysts for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. SAMMY DAVIS Jr (1925-1990). The Harlemborn actor and entertainer is best remembered as one of the ‘rat pack’, starring in the original 1960 Ocean’s 11 film with his close friends Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He converted to Judaism after a car crash in 1954 in which he lost his left eye.
ON DECEMBER 8 . . .
IN 1980, Mark Chapman, a mentally unstable fan, fatally shot John Lennon outside his apartment in New York. IN 1864, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge was opened over the River Avon at Bristol. IN 1945, it was revealed at the Nuremberg Trials that Germany had expected Spain’s General Franco to seize Gibraltar from Britain in 1940.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
Douglas Adams
RIDDLE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you have in December that you don’t have in any other month? The letter ‘D’.