ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE OCTOBER 25, 1966 PRINCESS Margaret made an appeal for gifts of toys for the children who survived the Aberfan disaster, in which 144 people, including 116 children, died after a colliery spoil tip slid onto their village school.
She said: ‘The whole country mourns for the children who died but it is equally important to think of the loneliness of the brothers, sisters and young relatives who survived. I hope you will join with me in sending some toys to these sad children.’ OCTOBER 25, 1968 ARISTOTLE ONASSIS gave his bride Jackie Kennedy (pictured) a priceless set of rubies surrounded by diamonds as a wedding gift. One huge ruby was in a ring on her hand when she appeared on the Onassis yacht after the wedding. One guest said: ‘You couldn’t dial a telephone wearing it!’ HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELEN REDDY, 76. Australian-born singer and activist, best known for her Seventies hits Angie Baby and I Am Woman, which became a feminist anthem. When she collected a Grammy in 1973 for best female pop performance, she said: ‘I’d like to thank God because She makes everything possible.’ NICK HANCOCK, 55. The comedian, former host of Room 101 and They Think It’s All Over, quit showbusiness to work for a mortgage broker for two years before returning to television. A lifelong supporter of Stoke City, he bought Stanley Matthews’ 1953 FA Cup winner’s medal for £20,000 at a football memorabilia auction in 2001 and sold it for £220,000 13 years later. BORN ON THIS DAY WILLIAM HIGINBOTHAM (1910-1994). The U.S. physicist developed components for the first atomic bomb. He’s been dubbed ‘the grandfather of modern video games’ for inventing what some regard as the very first — a tennis game similar to the Seventies hit Pong. However, he received none of the proceeds because he ‘didn’t think it was worth’ patenting it. MARTIN GILBERT (1936-2015). The London-born historian wrote the official biography of Winston Churchill, which ran to 25,000 pages and took 26 years to complete. While researching his Atlas Of The Holocaust (1982), he found a distant cousin in a Polish village who had been hidden from the Nazis in Warsaw as a child and was now one of 50 Jews where there had once been 30,000. ON OCTOBER 25 . . .
IN 1854, Britain fought Russia in the Battle of Balaclava. The conflict, during the Crimean War, inspired Alfred Tennyson’s poem The Charge Of The Light Brigade.
IN 1976, the Queen opened the National Theatre on London’s South Bank. WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Wanweird (coined 1513) A) The last and least willing sheep to be sheared. B) An unhappy fate. C) Foppish. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED To cross the Rubicon: To pass a point of no return. Refers to Julius Caesar’s army’s crossing of the Rubicon River in northern Italy in 49BC; it was considered an act of insurrection.