July 19, 2019 ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

JULY 19, 1952 President Peron of Argentina sat tonight for the fourth night in succession at the bedside of his wife, senora eva Peron, whose condition has ‘noticeably worsened’. diagnosis of her illness has never been disclosed. But it is known that she was operated on in november, when suffering from leukaemia. [Peron died exactly a week later, aged 33.]

JULY 19, 1972 singer Frank sinatra spent 100 tense minutes yesterday before the toughest audience he has ever had to face — 11 Congressmen of the House of representatives’ select Crime Committee. And he hit back at the Mafia rumours which dogged his long career. the hearing was to investigate whether sinatra had, wittingly or not, been used as a Cosa nostra front man to prop up a failing new england racecourse or for Mafia money in luxury hotels in Miami Beach and Las Vegas.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

NICOLA sturgeon, 49. As First Minister and the snP leader, Miss sturgeon says she poses for ‘hundreds of thousands’ of selfies a year and has to smile so much that ‘at night, very, very often the sorest part of my body is my cheekbones’. BriAn MAy, 72. the curlyhaired Queen musician and songwriter is described by rolling stone magazine as ‘probably the only guitarist to get a degree in astrophysics’. May, who is married to former eastenders star Anita dobson, has said he would rather be remembered for his work protecting badgers than for his music.

BORN ON THIS DAY

PerCy sPenCer (1894-1970). Having left school at 12 and taught himself chemistry, the u.s. inventor of the microwave oven was helping develop radar during World War ii when he noticed that chocolate in his pocket had melted when he stood next to a magnetron. the first microwaves, which were marketed as ‘radarange’, were 6ft tall, weighed 750lb and cost around twice as much as the average car. ArCHiBALd JosePH Cronin (18961981). the scottish physician made his name as author A.J. Cronin. He wrote the Citadel (turned into a film starring robert donat and rosalind russell). He also created the tV series dr Finlay’s Casebook.

ON JULY 19 ...

IN 1969, Apollo 11’s crew reached the moon’s orbit. they landed the next day.

IN 2017, scientists put the total amount of plastic produced since the 1950s at 8.3 billion tons — the weight of a billion elephants.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Finagle (coined c1925) A) Well-turned out. B) Fussy. C) to trick, swindle, or cheat. Answer below.

PHRASE EXPLAINED: up to par — Meaning an acceptable level of quality, it comes either from the Latin word ‘par’, meaning equal, or from golf, in which ‘par’ is the number of strokes normally needed to get the ball into the hole (hence a player failing that number wouldn’t be ‘up to par’).