ON THIS DAY
January 26, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 26, 1937 MR WINSTON Churchill said that he was glad to have the opportunity of repulsing the suggestion that he was anti-German.
‘My whole instinct after the war was over was to lift up the German people to the great position which they should always occupy in Europe. I do not suggest for a moment that Germany is preparing to attack England. I believe that is the last thing she would do.’ JANUARY 26, 1967 LADy Brocklehurst, wife of 79-year-old former explorer Sir Philip Brocklehurst (who went with Shackleton to the Antarctic in 1907), is taking up flying again — to beat today’s traffic jams. She said: ‘I’m selling the Aston Martin and buying a small aeroplane. What’s the good of having a car like that when you have to crawl along at 70mph with everybody else?’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HEATHER STANNING (pictured), 32. The rower from Somerset won Olympic gold in the coxless pairs alongside Helen Glover at both London 2012 (the first British female rowers to win an Olympic title) and Rio 2016. She is also a serving Major with the 32 Regiment Royal Artillery and followed her London gold with a tour of Helmand Province in Afghanistan. DAME Paula Rego, 82. The Portuguese-born painter is regarded by many as the greatest living British female artist. She was taught by L. S. Lowry and Lucian Freud and said ‘it felt like an advantage’ to be a woman in a man’s world ‘because you could seduce them if you wanted to’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
NICOLAE CEAuSESCu (1918-1989). The Romanian dictator attempted to tackle his country’s large debts by exporting vast quantities of its food and goods — causing extreme shortages. On Christmas Day 1989, Ceausescu and his wife were hastily tried, convicted and shot by firing squad. JIMMy VAN HEuSEN (19131990). The American songwriter behind the Frank Sinatra hits Come Fly with Me and Love And Marriage (he’s pictured with Sinatra) won four Oscars, including one for Swinging On A Star, the words now on his gravestone. In World War II, he was a fighter test pilot in the morning and wrote Hollywood songs in the afternoon.
ON JANUARY 26 . . .
IN 1950, India became a fully independent republic, with a new flag, the ratification of a new constitution and its first president replacing King George VI as head of state. IN 2009, American Nadya Suleman, nicknamed ‘Octomom’, had octuplets conceived by IVF (she already had six children). The octuplets all have the middle name Angel.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY Buffling: speaking at length and off the point in a business context. GUESS THE DEFINITION Mubblefubbles (coined 1589) A) Knocking on a door and then rushing away as the homeowner answers it. B) Without thought; headlong. C) A fit of depression. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Albatross around your neck — a burden you can’t shake off. It is from Coleridge’s poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, in which a sailor is forced to hang around his neck the bird he shot dead. It was unlucky to kill an albatross as they were believed to embody the souls of departed mariners.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The secret to marital happiness is simple: drink in different pubs to your other half
Jilly Cooper, novelist
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy are pianos so noble? Because they’re upright or grand. WoRd wizardry answer: C