ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 274 OF 2016
THE world’s largest working boomerang — 2.74 metres (9ft) from tip to tip — was thrown by the British Boomerang Society at The Oval cricket ground in 2014. THE Stasi, East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, founded in 1950 and disbanded in 1989, had 274,000 members at its peak. Photos taken at the birthday party of a senior official, to which members of groups under Stasi surveillance had been invited, featured athletes, peace activists, footballers and religious figures. ROBERT WALPOLE resigned 274 years ago over the alleged rigging of the Chippenham by-election. He had served 20 years and 314 days as prime minister, the longest single term and longer even than the accumulated terms of other British PMs who held the office more than once.
THERE ARE 92 DAYS LEFT
IN 2013, online payments firm PayPal mistakenly credited an American man’s account with $92 quadrillion. Chris Reynolds, 56, was briefly the richest man in the world. A quadrillion is one thousand million million — 1,000,000,000,000,000. BUCKINGHAM Palace has 92 offices in its 775 rooms, 188 staff bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. The biggest room is the Ball Room (120ft long, 59ft wide, 44ft high) which was opened in 1856 with a ball to mark the end of the Crimean War.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MARION Cotillard, 41. The French actress, pictured, who denied having anything to do with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s divorce won an Oscar for playing Édith Piaf in the 2007 film La Vie en Rose. She said she felt ‘haunted’ by Piaf’s spirit afterwards and took part in a ‘shamanic’ ceremony to cleanse herself of her. OMID DJALILI, 51. The comedian had his private parts fondled by Oliver Reed in the film Gladiator. The UK-born son of Iranian immigrants, recalls: ‘Ollie said: “Do you mind if I grab you hard, to make it authentic?” I said “fine”, so he did. By take three I became aware of a massaging sensation. By take four he said: “You do realise this is a wind-up, don’t you?” Everyone thought it was so funny, they kept it in the final cut.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
MARC BOLAN (19471977). Lead singer of glam rock group T Rex, Bolan, pictured, died when his girlfriend Gloria Jones crashed her Mini into a tree two weeks before his 30th birthday. At his peak, he outsold The Who and Jimi Hendrix. David Bowie was the last guest on his ITV show, Marc. TRUMAN CAPOTE (1924-1984). The U.S. author and playwright had a cameo role in Annie Hall. Woody Allen’s character says of a man he sees: ‘Oh. There’s the winner of the Truman Capote Lookalike Contest.’
ON SEPTEMBER 30....
IN 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came home after signing the Munich Agreement, a non-aggression pact with Hitler, declaring it meant ‘peace for our time’. IN 1951, the Festival of Britain ended. Held on London’s South Bank, it was designed to raise Britain’s spirits by celebrating our art, design and innovation. It pulled in 8.5 million visitors in just five months. IN 1955, Rebel Without A Cause star James Dean died aged 24 when his Porsche 550 Spyder hit another car.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Man is certainly stark raving mad. He cannot make a worm, yet he makes gods by the dozens. Michel de Montaigne, French philosopher (1533-1592)
JOKE OF THE DAY
Why did the vampire’s wife leave him? He was a pain in the neck.