ON THIS DAY
MARCH 4, 2017
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 4, 1939
PRINCESS ELIZABETH, who is aged 12, performed her first public duty without the King or Queen. The occasion was the National Pony Society show at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, where, with Princess Margaret Rose, she presented rosettes.
MARCH 4, 1948
TATTOOISTS are working overtime to remove red and blue designs, which a wartime boom has left branded on one in every 30 Britons. At least a fifth of these are women.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PATSY KENSIT, 49 (pictured). Once married to rock stars Liam Gallagher and Jim Kerr, she began acting age four, when she appeared in a Bird’s Eye advert. At 16, she appeared with David Bowie in the film Absolute Beginners, and later starred in TV’s Holby City. Her father, James (aka Jimmy the Dip), was a friend of the Krays. PENNY MORDAUNT, 44. The Work and Pensions minister is regularly voted Britain’s sexiest MP and famously posed in a swimsuit while appearing in the TV diving show Splash! A sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve, she was named after warship HMS Penelope. In a 2014 Commons speech on poultry, she used the word ‘c**k’ six times and ‘lay’ or ‘laid’ five times, to fulfil a forfeit given to her by Navy colleagues.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BOBBY WOMACK (19442014). The American soul singer-songwriter (pictured) started out with The Valentinos, who were spotted by ‘King of Soul’ Sam Cooke. He married Cooke’s widow Barbara soon after Cooke was shot dead, but the marriage ended after Womack had an affair with her teenage daughter. He wrote It’s All Over Now, later the Rolling Stones’ first No 1 hit. BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN (1993-2015). The aspiring actress and daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown died age 22 after being found face down in her bath. Her mother had accidentally drowned three years before in a hotel tub. Cannabis, alcohol and anxiety drugs were found in Bobbi’s body and her partner, Nick Gordon, was told to pay £29 million by a civil court for her unlawful death.
ON MARCH 4 . . .
IN 1975, silent film legend Charlie Chaplin was knighted, aged 85. The honour had been delayed by nearly 20 years, partly due to his perceived communist sympathies. IN 1980, Robert Mugabe became zimbabwe’s first prime minister.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Tech neck: Neck wrinkles and/or stiffness from staring down at laptops and mobiles. GUESS THE DEFINITION Gubbertushed (coined 1621) A) Of a wife when a husband publicly refuses to pay her debts. B) Silvery-grey approaching white. C) Having projecting teeth. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Basket case: Term for financial problems or inability to cope. Came from World War I slang for soldiers who had lost all their limbs and, as a result, might be carried in a basket.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
No MATTER how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth. John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. President (1917-1963)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a nose without a body? Nobody knows.
Guess The Definition Answer: C