ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 188 OF 2016
A BRITON based in Florida, Richard Hart, landed a 188kg (415lb) world record arapaima — the largest freshwater scaled fish on Earth — using fly tackle in the Rewa River in the mountain jungle of Guyana. To put his catch in perspective, Hart is himself 6ft 4in tall and weighs 125kg (275lb).
COUNCILLORS in Orkney were left with 9,500 spare wheelie bins, worth more than £188,000, after a new alternate week waste collection scheme was introduced in 2014.
LIVERPOOL’S Anglican Cathedral is just over 188 metres in length, making it the longest in the world. Architect Giles Gilbert Scott won the open design competition to build a 20th-century cathedral for the city in 1903 when he was 22 years old. He designed every aspect of the building, down to the fine details, which was finished in 1978, almost two decades after his death. BRITAIN spends £188 per head on international aid — three times as much as the £61 per head spent by the U.S.
THERE ARE 178 DAYS LEFT
ACTOR Tom Baker (right) is the longest serving Doctor Who — starring in 178 episodes over seven seasons of the BBC series. Tom left home at 15 to become a novice monk but gave it up after six years and was working as a bricklayer when he won the part of Dr Who.
THE record for the largest dog ‘wedding ceremony’ involved 178 pairs of dogs in Colorado in the U.S. in 2007. All the doggy duos had met in a speed-dating session prior to the ceremony.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HILARY MANTEL, 64. The Derbyshire-born author is the first woman to have won the Man Booker prize twice, for Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. She married her geologist husband Gerald McEwen in 1972, but the couple divorced in 1980. Two years later they remarried, with the registrar wishing them better luck this time. They’re still together.
GEORGE W. BUSH, 70. The 43rd president of the U.S. was head cheerleader at high school and considers his hidden talent to be his knowledge of baseball trivia. His desert island necessities, he said, would be a Bible, running shoes and a fishing rod.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NANCY REAGAN (1921-2016), President Ronald Reagan’s second wife. The American First Lady was, like her husband, originally in showbusiness. As Nancy Davis, she made 11 films between 1946 to 1959. Hellcats Of The Navy (1957) was her penultimate movie and the only one in which she appeared with her husband.
MEXICAN artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). Famous for her self-portraits and heavy eyebrows (right), she was the first Hispanic woman honoured with a U.S. stamp. She married the painter Diego Rivera (twice), but he allegedly slept with her sister and Frida cheated on him with actress and singer Josephine Baker.
ON JULY 6 . . .
IN 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.
IN 2000, Tony Blair’s eldest son, Euan, was arrested for being drunk and incapable after the 16-year-old was found on the ground in Leicester Square. He had been celebrating the end of his GCSEs.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Simplicity isthe ultimate sophistication Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the chicken get sent off? For persistent fowl play!