ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
APRIL 20, 1954 MR JAMES WALTON, 50-year-old amateur animal trainer, bought an untamed lion at the weekend. Yesterday it leapt at him — and it had him by the throat when his wife shot and wounded it.
The unconscious man was dragged clear. Pompey the lion came from Edinburgh Zoo to the private menagerie at Mr Walton’s home at Chester-le-Street, Durham.
Mr Walton went into the cage 20ft from his back door, and began to stroke the beast.
It grabbed his hand, then jumped on his chest. He kept talking to it quietly, but it gripped his throat. Mrs Walton’s son, Terence, 20, later killed the lion. APRIL 20, 1966 STOCK Exchange hemlines rose four inches yesterday. The new hemlines will be worn this summer by the four pretty girls who show visitors around the Exchange.
Their new black-and-white dress is at least three inches above the knee. Mr John Spencer, who works for a public relations firm attached to the Exchange, said: ‘It will, at least, dispel the old idea that we’re a bit stuffy.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
LESLIE PHILLIPS, 93. The veteran Carry On actor (right) is known for his catchphrase ‘Ding Dong!’ and as the voice of the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films. At 89, he went down the aisle for a third time, marrying a woman more than 30 years his junior. PETER SNOW, 79. The former Newsnight presenter and king of the BBC’s ‘swingometer’ is the father of TV historian Dan Snow and has six children from three relationships. In 1997, he found out he had a love child from a romance with a French woman in the Sixties.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOAN MIRO (1893-1983). The Spanish Surrealist painter (right) was hailed by the founder of the movement as ‘probably the most Surrealistic of us all’. SIR ANTONY JAY (19302016). The co-writer of TV political comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister was a former editor of the BBC’s Tonight. Margaret Thatcher was such a fan that when invited to present an award to the writers, she penned her own sketch, and performed it with the series’ reluctant stars.
ON APRIL 20 ...
IN 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Austria. IN 1968, Conservative MP Enoch Powell made his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
WORD WIZARDRY
NEW WORD OF THE DAY
Poshitis: Back pain caused by carrying a big designer bag in the crook of the arm. GUESS THE DEFINITION Urtication (coined 1837) A) The cupping of the hands; B) The act of whipping a benumbed limb with nettles to restore its feeling; C) The act of stuffing one bird into another. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Duck and dive: Slang for hide; a duck when diving is hidden beneath the pond’s surface and so to duck is to avoid a blow by a quick dropping movement.