ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 29, 1943 IF YOu must go to work with a heavy cold, then wear a mask. This advice is given in The Lancet, which says that people who do wear masks should not be laughed at, but respected. ‘The alternative, to stay at home for the first three days of an acute cold, is not often practicable these days,’ it adds. JANUARY 29, 1957 AT 9.28 yesterday morning, Prince Charles became pupil No. 102 in a Knightsbridge school. For the first time in Britain’s history, the future monarch sat at a school desk with other boys under ten. He will go there five days a week. His fees of £27 a term, lunch (beef, carrots and apple pie) at 2s 6d a day, and stationery will cost the Queen about £102 a year.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TOM SELLECK, 73. The u.S. actor (pictured), star of Magnum, P.I. in the Eighties, waltzed with Princess Diana at a White House gala in 1985 on the same night she famously danced with John Travolta. He has said: ‘I was so nervous I couldn’t think of anything sensible to say. It remains one of my great regrets.’ TONY BLACKBuRN, 75. The first DJ to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (in 1967) was also the first winner of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (in 2002). The broadcaster from Surrey said he’s made only ‘one big broadcasting mistake’: after his wife Tessa Wyatt left him in 1977, he repeatedly played the song If You Leave Me Now on his show and begged for her to come back.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JOHN FORSYTHE (1918-2010). The American actor who played oil magnate Blake Carrington in TV soap Dynasty was once described as ‘one of the most sought-after sex symbols in Hollywood’. He voiced Charlie in the Charlie’s Angels TV series and films, becoming the highest paid actor on TV — without appearing on camera. ANTON CHEKHOV (18601904). The Russian playwright (pictured), who wrote The Seagull, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, was also a trained doctor who practiced medicine throughout most of his literary career — though he made little money from it as he treated the poor for free. He is said to have had ‘a love-life of astonishing activity and complexity’, with at least 33 lovers.
ON JANUARY 29 . . .
IN 1790, the first purpose-built lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne. IN 1886, the German, Karl Benz, patented the world’s first automobile.
IN 1985, Margaret Thatcher became the first post-war Oxford educated PM to be refused an honorary degree.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION Lambdoidal (1653) A) Curved in the shape of a figure eight. B) Relating to a union of opposites. C) Shaped like the letter L. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED
To get off Scot free: Applies to someone who has escaped from a difficult situation unpunished or unharmed. It derives from ‘scot’, an old word for tax, which was levied subject to a person’s ability to pay.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I chooSe a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it. BILL GATES, U.S. entrepreneur
JOKE OF THE DAY
IN WHICH country do sheep fall from the sky? Bahrain. Guess The Definition answer: c