ON THIS DAY
February 2, 2016
IT’S DAY 33 OF 2016
A HOST of famous people have died at the early age of 33, including Eva Braun (Mrs Adolf Hitler), singer Sam Cooke, Blues Brothers star John Belushi, Argentina’s former First Lady Eva Peron — and Jesus Christ.
THE San Jose mine collapse in 2010 led to 33 Chilean miners being stuck 2,300ft underground for 69 days. Their rescue is shown in the newly released film, The 33, starring Antonio Banderas and Juliette Binoche.
FORMER U.S. football star O.J. Simpson — acquitted of murdering ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman — is now serving 33 years for armed robbery following a raid at a Las Vegas hotel.
PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903) was a Paris stockbroker for more than a decade when, aged 33, the Paris stock market crashed and he quit to become a full-time painter.
THERE ARE 333 DAYS LEFT
LONDON’S most haunted hotel room is supposedly Room 333 at The Langham in Regent Street. In 1973, James Alexander Gordon — the voice behind BBC radio’s football results for four decades — fled after waking to see the fluorescent figure of a man in Victorian eveningwear.
CARS release about 333 million tons of carbon dioxide i nto the atmosphere annually — 20 per cent of the world’s total.
JAPAN’S whaling fleet is in the middle of a three-month hunt for 333 minkes — about one-third of its previous yearly haul. The Japanese government claims the controversial hunt is for scientific research, though most of the catch will end up on dinner plates.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DUNCAN BANNATYNE, 67. The former Dragons’ Den investor and health club entrepreneur, who has seven children, said he was suicidal when his second wife, Joanne, wanted a divorce in 2010 after four years of marriage. He is now dating Uzbek dental receptionist Nigora Whitehorn, 32 years his junior (above), whom he met getting his crowns fixed in Harley Street.
DAVID JASON, 76. The Only Fools And Horses star became a father at 61 when his daughter, Sophie, was born to his 41-yearold girlfriend (later his wife), Gill Hinchcliffe. Sir David himself is a ‘lone twin’ — his twin brother was stillborn.
BORN ON THIS DAY
LES DAWSON (1931-93), t he Manchester- born comic (right) and Blankety-Blank TV show compere. In 2014, his daughter Charlotte found his nearcomplete manuscript for a romantic thriller, An Echo Of Shadows, that he’d written under the name Maria Brett-Cooper.
NELL GWYN (1650-87). A star of the 17thcentury stage, mentioned by diarist Samuel Pepys as ‘Pretty, Witty, Nell’, she was the mistress of Charles II and had two of his sons, Charles (later, the Duke of St Albans) and James (who died, aged nine). Nell was from humble stock: her mother reputedly drowned in a Chelsea pond while drunk.
FARRAH FAWCETT ( 1947- 2009), the Charlie’s Angels star was married to Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors and had a long relationship with Ryan O’Neal. She died of cancer on the same day as Michael Jackson.
ON FEBRUARY 2nd . . .
IN 1709, Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, was rescued from his desert island, 400 miles off the coast of Chile, after four years alone.
IN 1852, Britain’s first gents public lavatory, opened at 95 Fleet Street in London.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHEN my wife and I argue, we’re like a band in concert. We start with some new stuff, then we roll out our greatest hits.