ON THIS DAY
July 24, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 24, 1933 U.S. airman Mr Wiley Post now has the unique distinction of having flown twice round the world in record time. He landed in New York on midnight last night, having circled the globe in seven days, 18 hours, 49 minutes to beat his previous record. Mr Post, who only has one eye, lost the white patch he wears over the socket, and arrived with a handkerchief tied round his head. JULY 24, 1986 THEY knew what the people wanted, all right. Prince Andrew cupped a hand to his ear and his bride Sarah Ferguson smiled when the words washed up to her. A huge crowd, a quarter of a million, saw them on the balcony and then the chant rushed down the Mall and burst on Buckingham Palace. ‘We want a kiss! We want a kiss!’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JENNIFER LOPEZ, 50. The American singer and actress, (pictured) was named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine last year. Lopez, worth almost $400 million, was the first woman to have a No 1 album and a No 1 film in the same week. J-Lo was reported to have insured her bottom for $27million.
LYNDA CARTER, 68. The winner of Miss World America 1972 became the world’s highest-paid actress, making $1million a season, when she starred as Wonder Woman in the Seventies TV series. She is also a jazz singer and has toured since she was 14.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIMON BOLIVAR (1783-1830). The Venezuelan revolutionary liberated Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia from Spain. He also attained independence for Bolivia, a country named after him. In 2010, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez ordered Bolivar be exhumed to examine whether he had been murdered. After no evidence of foul play was found, Chavez gave his remains a new coffin, made of mahogany and encrusted with diamonds, pearls and golden stars.
AMELIA EARHART (1897-1937). The American aviator, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, launched a clothing line of cotton and parachute-silk separates. Earhart was not immediately struck by the beauty of flight — after seeing a plane for the first time, she described it in her diary as ‘a thing of rusty wire and wood’.
ON JULY 24…
IN 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, who became King James VI of Scotland.
IN 1964, a riot broke out at a Rolling Stones gig in Blackpool after Keith Richards (pictured) kicked a man who had been spitting at them. Fifty fans were taken to hospital. The band was banned from the city until 2008.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Bleisure (2017) A) To self-promote B) Combining business travel with leisure C) A skin injury larger than a blister Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED: bone up on — meaning to master a skill quickly before an important event that demands it; from American military slang to ‘refine one’s knowledge’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Uniform pleasantness is rather a defect than a faculty. it shows that a man hasn’t sense enough to know whom to despise
Thomas Hardy, English novelist (1840-1928)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I THINK I’ve invented a new word . . . Plagiarism! Guess the Definition answer: B.