ON THIS DAY
July 2, 2016
IT’S DAY 184 OF 2016
THE world’s oldest animal, Jonathan the Seychelles giant tortoise who lives on the island of Saint Helena, is 184. Earlier this year he was given his first ever bath, using a loofah and soft brushes to protect his shell. THE first passenger drone was approved for test flights in the U.S. last month. The Chinese-made Ehang 184 AAV (autonomous aerial vehicle) can carry one passenger. It has no override function, so, in an emergency, the passenger cannot take control.
THERE ARE 182 DAYS LEFT
COMPETITORS in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, have been chasing a round cheese down a 182 m (200 yards) hill every spring bank holiday since the early 1800s (except for a brief hiatus in 2010 when organisers could not get public liability insurance). CHARLES Babbage began the conceptual design of his ‘Analytical Engine’ 182 years ago. It was a mechanical forerunner of the computer, but was never built in his lifetime.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JERRY HALL, 60. The Texan model married Mick Jagger in 1990 on the Indonesian island of Bali. The ceremony was conducted by a Hindu priest who reportedly slit the throat of a chicken and spilt its blood to purify the venue. Nine years later a court ruled that the union was not legal. Hall married Rupert Murdoch, 85, earlier this year. CHRIS HUHNE, 62, the former Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. In 2014, the disgraced exMP appeared to take it as a compliment when artist Grayson Perry created a vase in his honour which featured motifs of his face, his personalised number plate and a penis — referring to his affair, which triggered the jailing of him and his former wife over his speeding points. LINDSAY LoHAN, 30, the actress and former child star. She made her breakthrough in 1998 in Disney’s The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 film. For her film The Canyons (2013), Lohan refused to leave her room to appear in a sex scene until the director agreed to strip off, too.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BRoCk PETERS (19272005). The American actor played Crown in the 1959 film version of Porgy And Bess and starred in To kill A Mockingbird, pictured, opposite Gregory Peck. Peters delivered the eulogy at Peck’s funeral in 2003. THoMAS CRANMER (1489-1556). Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I, he played a key role in making the case for the annulment of Henry’s first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon. Mary I tried him for treason and had him burnt to death.
ON July 2nd . . .
In 1937, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific while attempting the first round-the-world flight at the equator. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act, one of the most important pieces of U.S. legislation, became law. President Lyndon B. Johnson said it would ‘close the springs of racial poison’. In 2005, Live8 concerts were held in ten cities around the world. Successors to the 1985 Live Aid shows, they were meant to put pressure on political leaders before the G8 summit on poverty and climate change.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
My brother thinks he’s a chicken; we don’t talk him out of it because we need the eggs. Groucho Marx
JOKE OF THE DAY
A FREUDIAN slip is when you say one thing, but mean your mother.