ON THIS DAY
March 19, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 19, 1948 Mr JUSTICE Wallington refused — for the third time in a week — in Birmingham yesterday to grant a divorce for alleged cruelty. He described charges made by Mrs Gladys Homer, 31, of Plumstead, South-East London, that her husband had attempted to strangle her as ‘mostly piffle, and arising in the ordinary course of married life’. MARCH 19, 1965 rUSSIA’S real-life Flash Gordon, 30-yearold Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Leonov, told his commander as they sped 15ft apart through outer space today: ‘Man…I am walking on air!’ And that is almost what Leonov was doing after clambering from his orbiting space-ship Sunrise 2 to become the first human to set foot in outer space.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
GLEnn CLOSE, 72. The American actress (right), star of Dangerous Liaisons and 101 Dalmatians, holds the record for the most Oscar nominations without a win — seven. She says she has always had sympathy for ‘bunny boiler’ Alex Forrest, the role she played in 1987 film Fatal Attraction: ‘She’s considered one of the greatest villains ever but she was just in distress.’ Dr BILL FrAnKLAnD, 107. Dubbed the ‘grandfather of allergy’, he was behind the research that led to the pollen count being introduced into UK weather forecasts. He served as a registrar to Scots penicillin pioneer Alexander Fleming. Dr Frankland was once summoned to Iraq to treat Saddam Hussein for an allergy but ending up telling him to quit his 40-a-day smoking habit instead. He kept seeing patients until he reached 100 and said: ‘I really don’t know what people do when they retire at 65.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
PATrICK McGOOHAn (1928-2009). The new Yorkborn actor (right) starred in the Sixties series Danger Man, for which he was the highest paid British TV star, earning £2,000 a week, or £35,000 in today’s money. He declined the role of James Bond in the first film, Dr. no, because he despised the character, hated the sex and violence and thought Bond ‘contemptible and simplistic’. PHILIP rOTH (1933-2018). The Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. author of American Pastoral and the controversial Portnoy’s Complaint was once hailed as ‘America’s greatest living writer’. His home life attracted controversy, too. He lambasted first wife Maggie Martinson, who died in a car crash in 1968, for ‘flabbergasting boldness’ and ‘masterly pitilessness’.
ON MARCH 19…
IN 1877, the first Test match took place — Australia beat England by 45 runs. IN 1962, Bob Dylan’s eponymous debut album was released.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Quakebuttock (1616) A) A coward. B) A scarecrow. C) A monster. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Stitched up like a kipper: Meaning to be exploited or taken advantage of. ‘Stitched up’ was slang for having been falsely incriminated and a kipper is a herring that is ‘dead, gutted, skinned and cooked’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men. Roald Dahl, British writer (1916-1990)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the witch go to the doctor? She had a dizzy spell. Guess the Definition answer: A.