ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 67 OF 2016
IN 1784, Yorkshire locksmith Joseph Bramah devised a ‘pick-proof lock’ offering a prize for the first to open it. American locksmith Alfred Charles Hobbs finally opened it 67 years later and received a prize of 200 Guineas — just over £20,000 today. THE world’s longest engagement was between Mexican couple Octavio Guillan and Adriana Martinez, who were betrothed for 67 years before getting married at the age of 82. JuST 67 of the original 130 ships and less than 10,000 of the 30,000 men of the Spanish Armada returned to Spain after their illfated attack on England in 1588.
THERE ARE 299 DAYS LEFT
DuRING its original run between 1978 and 1991, actress Barbara Bel Geddes played the role of Miss Ellie 299 times in the Tv soap Dallas. Her character was the mother of J.R. Ewing in the series, but in real life she was just nine years his senior. LIGHT travels at 299,000km per second. That’s equivalent to travelling from London to New York and back 27 times a second. IN GREEk legend, Epimenides lived to the age of 299, including a sleep of 57 years which left him with the gift of prophecy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
RACHEL WEISz, 46 (right). The London-born Oscarwinning actress and wife of James Bond star Daniel Craig. Best known for films The Mummy, Enemy At The Gates and The Constant Gardener, the Cambridge graduate was trained by French clown Philippe Gaulier, who also tutored comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and Emma Thompson. ERIkA MITCHELL, 53. Better known by her pen name E. L. James, the London-born author of the controversial erotic fiction series Fifty Shades Of Grey. At the peak of its popularity, one book was being sold every second somewhere in the world. Mitchell f i rst started writing under the name Snowqueen’s Icedragon. SIR RANuLPH FIENNES, 72. The Windsorborn soldier regarded as the world’s greatest living explorer, who became the first person to have crossed both North and South Poles and scale Everest. After getting severe frostbite during an expedition in 2000, back home he sawed off his fingertips to avoid a £6,000 operation.
BORN ON THIS DAY
RIk MAYALL (1958-2014). The Essex-born comedian best known for his roles in The Young Ones and Bottom. His brief appearance i n 1989 as superconfident flying ace Squadr on Commander Lord Flashheart (right), in Blackadder Goes Forth, had people shouting his catchphrase: ‘Let’s Do- oo- ooooo-it!’ He later became the face of Bombardier Bitter. ROB ROY MacGREGOR (1671-1734). The Scottish outlaw and folk hero born along the banks of Loch katrine in the Trossachs. The cocktail known as a Rob Roy (whisky, vermouth and bitters) was created at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in his honour.
ON MARCH 7th . . .
IN 1917, the first jazz record went on sale, entitled The Dixieland Jazz Band One-Step. IN 1968, the first Tv news programme to be broadcast in colour was transmitted by BBC2. IN 1973, Scotland Yard detectives appealed for help and vigilance from the public after muggings in London ‘leapt’ to four a day.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
Charles Dickens (in Doctor Marigold)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHEN I was younger, I had everything handed to me on a plate. Soup was a nightmare.