ON THIS DAY
June 8, 2016
IT’S DAY 160 OF 2016
Holy Island, also known as lindisfarne, off Northumberland, has a population of just 160 people — though numbers swell by 650,000 visitors every year.
The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell, which measures up to 160 microns (0.16 mm). The smallest cell is the male sperm at 3 microns (0.003mm).
The Titanic, which sank on her maiden voyage in April 1912 with a loss of 1,514 crew and passengers, took just 160 minutes to sink after hitting an iceberg.
THERE ARE 206 DAYS LEFT
A Rare Hermes Birkin handbag sold for £206,000 at auction in Hong Kong last week, making it the most expensive bag in the world. The ten-year-old Birkin with white gold detailing and 245 diamonds was hand-stitched from albino crocodile skin.
the earliest Greek translations of the Old Testament say that the giant Goliath, famously felled by the much smaller David, was ‘four cubits and a span’ — which works out at 206 centimetres tall, or 6ft 9in.
We Have to wait another 206 years until we have a perfect single digit date: February 2, 2222 AD, or 2.2.2222.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KANYE WEST, 39, right. The American rapper and fashion designer is married to reality Tv personality Kim Kardashian. The couple named their first child, a girl, North West, and their second, a boy, Saint West.
COLIN BAKER, 73. Born in Waterloo, london, the actor, who played the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, was the flatmate and best man of actor David Troughton — the son of the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton.
BORN ON THIS DAY
FRANCIS CRICK (1916-2004). The Nobel prize-winning scientist’s work with James Watson led to the identification in 1953 of the structure of DNA, the building blocks of life. During World War II, Northamptonborn Crick worked for the Admiralty Research laboratory and was instrumental in designing a new mine that couldn’t be detected by the Germans.
JOAN RIVERS (1933-2014). The controversial New York comedian and chat show host (right), famous for her acerbic wit, died during a minor medical procedure on her vocal cords. She was open about her multiple cosmetic surgeries and once said: ‘I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.’
ON JUNE 8th . . .
IN 1949, George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen eighty-Four was published. IN 1972, a nine-year-old vietnamese girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, was burned by napalm and pictured running naked down the road by AP news photographer Nick Ut in what would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prizewinning photo.
IN 1982, the Argentinian Air Force attacked British troop transport ships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram in Bluff Cove in the Falklands, killing 56 servicemen and wounding 150, among them Welsh Guard Simon Weston, who, after suffering 46 per cent burns to his body and face, became well known for his charity work, particularly for those disfigured and wounded in action.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise. W. Somerset Maugham (English novelist, 1874-1965)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHICH football team loves ice cream? Aston Vanilla!