ON THIS DAY
August 26, 2016
IT’S DAY 239 OF 2016
YORKSHIRE-BORN explorer Captain James Cook, then 48, discovered Christmas Island in the Pacific ocean 239 years ago. He arrived on Christmas Eve, hence the name. THE Moon is 239,000 miles from Earth. But this is only an average, as the Moon orbits in an elliptical pattern, which means the actual distance can vary by 27,000 miles. We can see the Moon only because light from the Sun bounces off it back to Earth. If the Sun wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be able to see the Moon.
THERE ARE 127 DAYS LEFT
THE 2010 film 127 Hours tells the true story of U.S. climber Aron Ralston, who was trapped in a canyon by a boulder for five days and seven hours before freeing himself by amputating his right forearm with a blunt pen-knife. THE LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin became the first commercial passenger transatlantic flight service in 1928. The German hydrogen-filled airship was named after German aircraft pioneer Ferdinand von Zeppelin. THE Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded in Manchester 127 years ago. It was originally called The Plumage League — and was set up to campaign against the use of great crested grebe feathers in women’s clothing.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHRIS BOARDMAN, 48. The cyclist won Britain’s first gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona olympics — our first cycling gold in 72 years — riding the space-age-looking Lotus superbike (pictured). The father of six, who also enjoys archery and cave diving, was diagnosed with a bone condition similar to osteoporosis, which cut his career short in his early 30s. MICHAEL GOVE, 49. The former Education and Justice Secretary has been described as a ‘mixture of Jeeves and Che Guevara’ for his courtesy and radical nature. He had a bit part as a boarding school chaplain in a 1995 comedy starring Christopher Lee. In one scene, Gove prays for Lee’s character after he is hit in the privates by a cricket ball. Most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor and he was left with just one line: ‘Amen.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
PRINCE ALBERT (1819-1861). After their first meeting, Queen victoria said her German-born husband-to-be was ‘extremely handsome’. She wrote in her diary: ‘His hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth.’ PEGGY GUGGENHEIM (1898-1979, pictured). Her father died on the Titanic and her uncle established New York’s Guggenheim Museum. The American socialite and art collector built up her own collection. She was thought to have slept with 1,000 men and when asked how many husbands she had, replied: ‘Do you mean mine, or other people’s?’
ON AUGUST 26...
IN 1985, South-African born athlete Zola Budd broke the world 5,000m record, running barefoot in London. IN 1994, former movie stuntman Arthur Cornhill, 62, was given the world’s first battery-operated heart — made from titanium and plastic — in a pioneering operation at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (1943-1970)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did the frog say at the dinner party? ‘Time’s fun when you’re having flies.’