ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
OCTOBER 2, 1939 BRITAIN last night ‘called-up’, by Royal Proclamation, 250,000 men of its 21 to 22 age group. This, with the Militiamen already registered, brings the total of men now to be called to the Colours under the Military Service Acts to about 500,000. OCTOBER 2, 1954 THE New York critics are raving today over one of the biggest triumphs Britain has ever sent to Broadway — The Boy Friend, a musical comedy. The critics raved especially over Julie Andrews, not long ago a pig-tailed child singer. She celebrated her 19th birthday by reading the notices.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SIR Trevor Brooking, 69. The former West Ham and England footballer turned down Chelsea at 15, even though they offered his parents a £500 signing fee and a car, in favour of West Ham, who said they would let him finish school. Teammates nicknamed him Cyril, after the carpet manufacturer Cyril Lord, because his manager once shouted at him: ‘You’re always on the floor.’ ANNA FORD, 74. The newsreader (pictured) who retired in 2005, said she would happily give her fame ‘to a passing tramp’. She was the first star of troubled TV-am to be sacked, and responded by hurling a glass of wine over the man she blamed, Tory MP Jonathan Aitken. In 2010, she wrote an open letter to ‘whingeing’ author Martin Amis, calling him a useless godfather to her daughter.
BORN ON THIS DAY
RICHARD III (1452-1485). The last English king to die in battle, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, he had one of the shortest reigns in English history — only 26 months. His remains were found in a Leicester car park in 2012, after Richard III devotee Philippa Langley had an ‘odd feeling’ when she walked across it. GRAHAM GREENE (1904-1991). Author of The Third Man, Brighton Rock, and The Heart of The Matter, Greene played Russian roulette in his younger days, only stopping when he realised: ‘I was beginning to pull the trigger about as casually as I might take an aspirin tablet.’
ON OCTOBER 2…
IN 1902, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published. The children’s favourite is pictured.
IN 1925, Helensburgh-born engineer John Logie Baird transmitted the first TV images, showing a ventriloquist’s dummy’s head. IN 1950, the Peanuts comic strip was first published.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Paracme (coined 1656) A) A union of opposites. B) A large white wig, such as is worn by the dignified clergy and formerly by physicians. C) The point at which one’s prime is past.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
To steal a march: Meaning to gain an advantage over someone before he realises what is happening. It is a military expression from around 1770, referring to the tactic of marching an army through the night to gain a strategic position and being ready to fight before the enemy wakes. ADVERTISING is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket. George Orwell, English novelist (1903-1950) WHAT are a horse’s favourite condiments? Horseradish sauce and mayoneighs. Guess The definition answer: C.