ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 16, 1948 THE Olympic champions who mount the winner’s rostrum at Wembley this summer will not receive the customary gold medals. They will get medals that look like gold, but which actually will be silver-gilt. Britain today is short of gold and Olympic organisers think it more in keeping with the times to award an austerity medal. JANUARY 16, 1961 THE League Against Cruel Sports has asked Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to stop a tiger shoot planned for the Queen on her visit to India. It sent the appeal to the Indian leader after receiving protests from members. The Queen and Prince Philip fly to New Delhi on Friday to start their tour.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KATE MOSS, 45. Photographer Patrick Demarchelier said of the Croydon-born supermodel that he’d not had such a strong feeling about anyone since Twiggy. He shot her for Calvin Klein — after singer Vanessa Paradis turned down the job. The 5ft 7in Moss (pictured in 1997) was unsure about posing nude and asked stylist Paul Cavaco if she should do it. He said: ‘You’re so small, you might not last. It could be all over in a season! Take the money and run!’ Moss still earns up to £5million a year. RuFuS NORRIS, 54. The artistic director of the National Theatre did a theatre foundation course at Kidderminster College of Further Education. ‘It wasn’t that I wanted to be an actor,’ he says. ‘I just thought that would be a very full, threedimensional kind of higher education.’ Before going on to Rada, he trained as a decorator in Birmingham.
BORN ON THIS DAY
FuLGENCIO BATISTA (1901-73). The Cuban dictator’s rule was defined by violence. Coming to power for a second time after a new coup, he said: ‘I am back again. And I thought, very sincerely, that in Cuba we had finished once and for all with this revolutionary business.’ Ousted by Castro, in 1959, he fled with 180 associates and $300 million. He died in exile in Spain. ETHEL MERMAN (1908-84). The ‘Queen of Musicals’ (pictured) had a 50-year career, with hits including There’s No Business Like Show Business. One critic wrote: ‘She had a battleship in her vocal chords and a cross-bow in her larynx.’ Every Broadway theatre darkened its marquee in her honour when she died.
ON JANUARY 16…
IN 1547, Ivan IV — known as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ — was crowned tsar of Russia. IN 1945, Adolf Hitler moved into his bunker, under Berlin. He died there 105 days later. IN 1957, the Cavern Club opened in Liverpool. It hosted The Beatles four years later.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Cruffin (2017) A) A cake shaped like a muffin but made of pastry layers like a croissant. B) Cross or angry. C) An urchin. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED: Putting the kibosh on it — to end something decisively; coined in Britain in 1834. Some say it’s linked to the Hebrew kabásh, meaning to subdue.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I certainly didn’t ask to be a legend. I was totally unprepared for it. Judy Garland, U.S. actress (1922-69)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I ASKED my Brummie friend: what’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? He replied: You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo. Guess The Definition answer: A.