ON THIS DAY
June 22, 2016
IT’S DAY 174 of 2016
THE word ‘dinosaur’ — from the Greek ‘ deinos’ meaning terrible, and ‘ sauros’ meaning lizard — was coined 174 years ago by British paleontologist Sir Richard Owen. HULK, the world’s largest pitbull dog, weighed in at 174lb (12 ½ stone) when he was last put on the scales at his home in New Hampshire, USA. SWIMMING coach Alice Hickson, 26, broke the UK freediving record last year after swimming underwater, without fins, for an incredible 174 metres. She held her breath for 7 minutes and 23 seconds.
THERE ARE 192 DAYS LEFT
A GROUP of ‘firemasters’, led by James Braidwood, began the first municipal fire brigade in Edinburgh 192 years ago (1824). Braidwood later became the fire chief of the London Fire Service. THE UK’s worst speeding offences were committed by Northampton man Shaun Davis, who was jailed last November for driving at up to 192mph. He provided much of the evidence, having filmed himself behind the wheel of luxury cars, including a £74,000 BMW M5 and an £80,000 Audi RS6.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MERYL STREEP, 67. The three-time Oscar-winning actress, pictured, known for films such as Mamma Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada, won her first Academy Award in 1980 for Best Supporting Actress in Kramer Vs Kramer. After her acceptance speech, she celebrated so hard she left her Oscar statuette on top of a toilet in the ladies’ washroom. ESTHER RANTZEN, 76. The TV presenter and founder of CHILDLINE, while studying her family tree for the BBC show Who Do You Think You Are?, discovered her greatgrandfather Montague Richard Leverson had, aged 18, accidentally killed the family’s parlour maid while toying with a gun as she was cleaning the windows.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOHN DILLINGER (19031934). The gangster, pictured, became famous in Depression-era America for audacious robberies, before being gunned down outside a Chicago cinema. The police were tipped off by the owner of a brothel where he had been hiding out. He became one of the first criminals known to have had facial surgery to change his appearance. ERICH MARIA REMARQUE (1898-1970). The German-American author wrote the classic anti-war novel All quiet On The Western Front, which was turned into a 1930 Oscar-winning film. Remarque based much of his book on the life of August Perk, whom he met briefly while working as a teacher. Perk fought for Germany during World War I and later joined an anti-Nazi resistance movement. He was sent to a prison camp during World War II by the Nazis and died five days after it was liberated by the Allies.
ON JUNE 22nd . . .
IN 1814, the first cricket match was played at the new Lord’s ground in St John’s Wood between Marylebone and Hertfordshire. In 1920, buying wedding presents became easier after mechanic Charles Strite, of Minnesota, filed an application for a patent on the pop-up toaster. He hated the way his works canteen always burnt his toast. In 1984, the first Virgin Atlantic flight from London (Gatwick) to New York (Newark) took to the air. A one-way ticket was £99. Richard Branson named first class Upper Class and wanted to call economy Riff Raff.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I do not believe friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.
Peter Ustinov, actor (1921-2004)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide.