ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 9, 1959
TWo Buckingham Palace secretaries, the only girls aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, are no longer hula-hooping in brief bathing suits on deck. The yacht, taking Prince Philip on his Far East tour, left Vizagapatam in India, where officers bought the hoops. But the crew who watched them, goggleeyed through binoculars, protested that having pretty girls aboard was trying enough without them hula-hooping each evening.
MARCH 9, 1965
THE ‘short back and sides’ standard military haircut is on the way out. The change, which almost every sergeant-major in the Army will regard as revolutionary, was announced in the Commons last night.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MARgARET ADERINPoCoCK (pictured), 49. Sir Patrick Moore’s successor as presenter of The Sky At Night says: ‘After I got my first job with the Ministry of Defence there were times I walked in and someone would say: “Three coffees, love.” People were not used to black female scientists or engineers.’ JuLIETTE BINoCHE, 53. The oscar-winning star of Chocolat and The English Patient is acting royalty in France. But gallic actor gerard Depardieu (who has never won an Academy Award) says of her: ‘Please can you explain what the secret of this actress is meant to be? She has nothing.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANDRE CouRREgES (1923-2016). The Frenchman has been given credit — along with Mary Quant — for inventing the miniskirt. He was also responsible for making women’s trousers fashionable. ERNEST BEVIN (1881-1951). orphaned at eight, and working as a labourer by the age of 11, he went on to create the Transport and general Workers’ union and to become a leading figure in the Labour Party. Churchill made him Minister of Labour in 1940 and Bevin was Foreign Secretary in the post-war Cabinet — where he played a major role in the formation of NATo.
ON MARCH 9...
IN 1831, the French Foreign Legion was formed by King Louis Philippe.
IN 1959, the first Barbie doll (full name: Barbara Millicent Roberts) was exhibited at the New York Toy Fair, in a black-and-white swimsuit.
IN 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, defected by asking for political asylum at the u.S. embassy in India. She later became a u.S. citizen.