ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JUNE 29, 1940 DUE to the effects of war, under a Government order issued yesterday, the size of newspapers will be restricted, and the Daily Mail will have only six pages. The price remains the same — one penny. JUNE 29, 1970 EVEN Bob Hope is probably unsure of his exact fortune. A U.S. magazine survey can’t be more precise than ‘between £150million and £300million.’ [£2.1billion today] But Hope is by far the richest in showbusiness. Nearest rival, Bing Crosby, is credited with half of that — £80million to £150million. And Frank Sinatra has, at best, £40 million.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
NICOLE SCHERZINGER, 40. The Hawaiian-born former Pussycat Dolls singer made the UK her home as an X Factor judge and pines for Percy Pig sweets and fish and chips when away. The ex-girlfriend of Formula 1’s Lewis Hamilton was cast against type as has-been Grizabella in musical Cats because, as a critic put it: ‘Age has not even begun to get going on the withering process.’ CARL HESTER, 51. The rider from Sark in the Channel Islands won Britain’s first-ever dressage olympic medal taking gold in the team event at London 2012 (and was then the only openly gay member of Team GB). He is at pains to point out he is not from a moneyed background, and learned to ride on donkeys. He said: ‘My parents aren’t horsey. They can’t stand horses, actually.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
IAN BANNEN (1928-1999). The oscar-nominated Scottish actor starred in movies Braveheart, and on TV in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Dr Finlay’s Casebook. A drinking buddy of Richard Burton and Peter o’Toole, he gave up booze after getting hepatitis. He died in a car accident near Loch Ness. He met Marilyn, his wife of 40 years, when she parked her old van in his reserved space at the Royal Shakespeare Company. JEAN KENT (1921-2013). The London-born actress, who starred opposite Marilyn Monroe and Laurence olivier, was the ‘bad girl’ of British movies in the Forties and Fifties. An obituary said the redhead specialised in ‘trollops, minxes and brazen hussies’. The Fanny By Gaslight star said: ‘If they opened a script and read, “A girl appears in cami-knickers”, they would send for me.’
ON JUNE 29…
In 1995 U.S. space shuttle Atlantis docked with Russian space station Mir to become the largest combined spacecraft ever in orbit, totalling almost 500,000 lb. In 2007 Apple’s iPhone first went on sale.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Izzard (coined in the 18th century) A) Archaic name for letter z. B) The dot above the letter i. C) A doting old man. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Meeting a deadline: originally a deadline was a line drawn round a prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War in the 1860s. Any prisoner who crossed it would be shot. In the 20th century it was used to mean the time at which something had to be completed.