ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

AUGUST 8, 1966 TWENTY months ago, Mr Jeffrey Archer flew to Washington to enlist President Johnson’s support for an Oxfam fundraising drive. Yesterday, aged 26, he was invited to become a governor of public school Dover College. Headmaster Mr Timothy Cobb said: ‘The man who gets an interview with President Johnson simply by asking for it, and who gets The Beatles to raise money for Oxfam, is a very remarkable man indeed.’ AUGUST 8, 1973 BBC disc jockey Terry Wogan is known as the ‘Parking Meter King’ of Broadcasting House. The jovial Irishman earned the title by dashing from his studio while his show was on air — to slot 5p in a parking meter. He ran through the control room, down flights of stairs, out into the street and back again while a record was still spinning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

ROGER FEDERER, 38. The Swiss tennis player holds the record for the most Grand Slam men’s singles championships — with 20 titles. Federer, who has won Wimbledon a record eight times, became the oldest world No 1 at 36. Federer said the secret to his success is simple: ‘There is no way around the hard work. Embrace it. You have to put in the hours.’ SIMON WESTON, 58. The Welsh Guards veteran sustained burns to 46 per cent of his body in the Falklands War. A superior officer told the Welshman a few months later he was ‘totally unemployable’, but Weston, once voted the Nation’s Favourite Hero, has made a career as a motivational speaker. He has said: ‘There’s no doubt I’m resilient. It’s not what happens in life that counts, but how you look to the future and I’ve not let disaster finish me off.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

ESTHER WILLIAMS (1921-2013). The U.S. swimmer took up acting and became ‘Hollywood’s Mermaid’ by starring in a series of ‘aqua musicals’ in the 1940s and 1950s — despite saying she could not sing, dance or act. Scriptwriters tried to keep her in the pool for as long as possible because, as comedienne Fanny Brice said: ‘Wet she’s a star; dry she ain’t.’ KEITH BARRON (1934-2017). The Yorkshire-born actor is best known for sitcom Duty Free. In the 1980s, on a break from acting, he set up a restaurant in Cornwall, once reacting to a petulant customer by throwing a plate of cauliflower cheese into the car park. He said: ‘If I’m angry I usually just go quiet, but when I lose it I really lose it.’

ON AUGUST 8…

IN 1969, followers of cult leader Charles Manson murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in Los Angeles.

IN 1988, the Duke and Duchess of York announced the birth of their first child, daughter Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.