ON THIS DAY
November 7, 2016
IT’S DAY 312 . . .
THE most expensive film script is Marlon Brando’s annotated copy of 1972’s The Godfather, sold at auction for $312,000 (£249,000) in New York in 2005. THE average couple has 312 arguments a year. Most are over trivial irritations, such as flicking between TV channels, loo rolls not being replaced and lights being left on. Thursday evening is the most likely time for a row. THE world’s oldest man, Yasutaro Koide, of Japan, died in January at the age of 112 years and 312 days. His record was then taken by Israel Kristal, of Israel, a Holocaust survivor, who is 113 years and 53 days today.
THERE ARE 54 DAYS LEFT
BRITISH TV had a golden time 54 years ago with the launch of University Challenge, Z-Cars, That Was The Week That Was and Steptoe And Son (right). Also in 1962, The Beatles made their TV debut, performing Love Me Do. OSAMA BIN LADEN was one of 54 children of Mohammad bin Laden, a building tycoon. INDIA has the oldest plastic surgery patients in the world — more than 54 per cent who undergo operations are over 50.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TINIE TEMPAH, 28. The singer and songwriter (real name Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu) has had more UK No 1 singles than any other British artist this decade and more than any other rapper in history. He once wanted to be an accountant and said: ‘Even my accountant doesn’t want to be an accountant. He wants to be a rapper.’
LINDSAY DUNCAN, 66. The Edinburghborn actress starred in the 2010 remake of Alice In Wonderland and Channel 4’s GBH. She played Margaret Thatcher in the 2009 BBC drama Margaret, despite admitting: ‘If I’m honest, I hated her. ’ But she added: ‘It would be a terrible indictment of your acting ability if you couldn’t play someone just because you held Left-wing views.’
SU POLLARD, 67 (right). The star of Hi-de-Hi! and You rang, M’Lord? claims to have been the first woman to sing Ave Maria in hotpants in a working men’s club. Her big break came on Opportunity Knocks in 1974, when she came second to a ‘singing’ Jack russell.
BORN ON THIS DAY
MARIE CURIE (1867-1934). The French physicist discovered polonium and radium through her pioneering study of radiation. She became the first person to win more than one Nobel Prize — chemistry and physics — is the only woman with multiple Nobels and the only person to win the prize in different science categories.
DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND (1926-2010). The Australian, nicknamed La Stupenda, was the greatest opera singer of the 20th century, but struggled to fit into her school choir, as her voice was deemed ‘too loud’.
ON NOVEMBER 7th . . .
IN 1872, the Mary Celeste set sail from New York for Genoa. It was found a month later in the Atlantic undamaged, but with no one on board. None of the crew was ever seen again. Twelve years later, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a fictionalised version of the story and called the vessel the Marie Celeste — creating the enduring confusion over the name. IN 1944, Franklin D. roosevelt became the only U.S. president to win a fourth term. IN 2000, Hillary Clinton became the first First Lady elected to public office when she won a seat in the Senate. She said the two hardest decisions of her life were ‘to stay married to Bill [after discovering his infidelity] and to run for the Senate’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
AWARDS are like piles. sooner or later, every bum gets one.
Maureen Lipman, actress and writer
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call the small rivers that run into the Nile? Juveniles.