ON THIS DAY
October 20, 2016
IT’S DAY 294 . . .
THE average price of a pint of beer has soared by 294 times over the past 100 years, from 1p in 1914 to £2.94 in 2014, according to analysts at Lloyds Bank, who predict it will increase to £11.50 by 2040. By that time, a white sliced loaf will cost £4.20 and a dozen eggs will set you back £6.02.
A GUITAR played by George Harrison during the recording of The Beatles’ Revolver and by John Lennon for the White Album fetched £294,000 at a New York auction.
THE Leaning Tower of Pisa has two staircases. One has 294 steps and the other has 296 — an extra two are needed to compensate for the height difference on that side of the building.
THERE ARE 72 DAYS LEFT
‘MARRIAGE bars’ — which banned married women from teaching — were made illegal 72 years ago. A judge explained in 1925: ‘The duty of a married woman is primarily to look after her domestic concerns. It is impossible for her to do so and to effectively and satisfactorily act as a teacher at the same time.’
RATS are able to swim non-stop for up to 72 hours. They can also jump up 3 ft and jump down 50ft without injury.
IT WASN’T just Henry VIII’s wives who risked their necks. Up to 72,000 people were executed during the king’s reign. His daughter “Bloody Mary”, by contrast, is thought to have had fewer than 300 heretics burned to death.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KATE MOSSE, 55. The Sussex-born novelist is sometimes confused with the supermodel (whose surname has no final ‘e’) despite having sold millions of copies of her books in 42 languages. She became used to journalists telephoning to ask if she would speak about Pete Doherty (her namesake’s ex-boyfriend), and cab drivers’ faces falling when they realised the Kate who had booked them wasn’t the one they expected.
DANNY BOYLE, 60. The Lancashire-born Trainspotting film-maker won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire before directing the opening ceremony for the London Olympics in 2012, but he very nearly became a priest. ‘There’s something very theatrical about it,’ he said. ‘It’s basically the same job — poncing around, telling people what to think.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
BELA LUGOSI (18821956). The Hungarian actor (pictured mid-bite) played Count Dracula in the original 1931 film. He also took on the role of Frankenstein’s monster (although he had described it as only worthy of a ‘half-wit extra’) in Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man and moaned: ‘That yell is the worst thing about the part. You feel like a big jerk every time you do it!’
SIR JAMES CHADWICK (1891-1974). The Cheshire-born physicist won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron, which paved the way for the atomic bomb. When he realised ‘that a nuclear bomb was not only possible, it was inevitable’, he said he ‘had then to take sleeping pills. It was the only remedy’.
ON OCTOBER 20 . . .
IN 1960, the obscenity trial began against Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The jury would side with Penguin, and within a year D.H. Lawrence’s novel would sell two million copies.
IN 1968, John F. Kennedy’s widow became Jackie O when she married billionaire shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
To achieve great things, two things are needed — a plan and not quite enough time. Leonard Bernstein, composer (1918-1990)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY were two flies playing a football match in a saucer? They were practising for the cup.