ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 120 OF 2016
ON AVERAGE there is a wedding every 120 seconds in the UK, but just 30 per cent of them are traditional church ceremonies or conducted in a religious setting. And while just one in 100 couples living together in 1960 was unmarried, today it is one in eight. THE first and only Oxford v Cambridge University air race took place in July 1921 over a course of 120 miles and involved six S.E.5 British fighter biplanes. Competing students had to have logged more than 1,000 hours as a pilot. Cambridge won. ERIC CANTONA, the exManchester United star (right), was given 120 hours of community service after his kung-fu attack on a Crystal Palace fan in 1995. He spent it teaching children football skills at United’s training ground. AMERICAN Sniper actor Bradley Cooper — voted Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine in 2011 — was married to actress Jennifer Esposito for just 120 days before she filed for divorce. AFTER the Jacobite rising of 1745, a reward of 120,000 crowns (£30,000 then, £6 million today) was placed on the head of Bonnie Prince Charlie — but no one betrayed him.
THERE ARE 246 DAYS LEFT
THE average pay for staff at investment bank Goldman Sachs was £246,000 in 2015. THE Tower of London tribute to the fallen of World War I in the dry moat in 2014 was made up of 888,246 large ceramic red poppies — each representing a British or Empire serviceman who died in the War.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MICHELLE Pfeiffer, 58. The latex catsuit that the Californian-born actress wore as Catwoman in Batman Returns (right) was so tight that she had to be coated in talcum powder before it could be tugged on. It then had to be opened regularly so she didn’t become light-headed and pass out. PHIL TUFNELL, 50. The London-born former Middlesex and England cricketerturned-television personality and winner of I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! In 2003, he was the target of a witty bit of cricket sledging from an Australian spectator: ‘Oi, Tufnell. Lend me your brains, I’m building an idiot.’ DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, 59. The Anglo-Irish actor is the only man to have won three Best Actor Oscars — for My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2012).
BORN ON THIS DAY
EMPEROR HIROHITO (1901-1989). The Emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death, in whose name the Japanese fought and died in World War II, was the first member of his imperial family to go abroad. In 1921, he spent six months travelling and studying in Europe. DUKE ELLINGTON (1899-1974). The Washington-born pianist and father of big band jazz. Stevie Wonder’s 1977 hit Sir Duke was written in his honour.
ON APRIL 29...
IN 1884, Oxford University agreed to allow female students to sit examinations. IN 1933, the job of a football referee got a lot easier as players in the FA Cup final wore numbers on their shirts for the first time. IN 2011, the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place at Westminster Abbey. William’s best man, his brother Harry, was deemed a safe pair of hands by bookmakers — Ladbrokes offered odds of 100/1 that he would drop the ring.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow.
Writer William McFee (1881-1966)
JOKE OF THE DAY
DID you hear about the woman who was kidnapped by a band of mime artists? they did unspeakable things.