ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
DECEMBER 16, 1944 THE first British town to switch on peacetime lights is Renfrew, a small industrial borough outside Glasgow. Last night, its streets were better lit than even before the war, thanks to new electric lighting.
DECEMBER 16, 1976 PRINCE Charles was ‘invalided’ out of the Navy yesterday sitting in a squeaky wheelchair as part of a send-off by his shipmates from minesweeper HMS Bronington. To remind him of the full weight of the throne, a black polished lavatory seat was hung round his neck, complete with toilet roll.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHRISTOPHER Biggins, 71. The actor from Oldham starred in Upstairs, Downstairs and Porridge and co-presented Surprise Surprise with his friend Cilla Black. Once the highest-paid pantomime dame in Britain, he tried to trademark the word Biggins and said: ‘I love being like Marilyn or Sabrina or Madonna — and my breasts are bigger.’
ANNA POPPLEWELL, 31. The English actress has appeared in Mansfield Park and Girl With A Pearl Earring, and played Susan Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia film series. For that role, she insisted on a body double after bursting into tears at the thought of doing a scene with mice.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR NOEL COWARD (1899-1973). The playwright from Middlesex was already a celebrity when he was sent to be a spy in the U.S. during World War II. He wrote in his diary: ‘I was to go on as an entertainer and on the side doing something rather hush-hush.’ It apparently earned him a place on the list of people Hitler wanted executed once Germany invaded Britain.
CATHERINE OF ARAGON (1485-1536). Henry VIII’s first wife gave the King a daughter, the future Mary I, but was replaced as Queen by her lady-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn, after a series of miscarriages and stillbirths meant she failed to provide a male heir. It is thought the miscarriages may have been caused by her fasting (which she did for religious reasons).
ON DECEMBER 16…
IN 1983, a Christmas tree was erected on the pavement outside 10 Downing Street for the first time.
IN 2001, Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman went to No 1 singing Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s hit Somethin’ Stupid.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Spigot (14th century)
A) A small peg or plug. B) a lean deer not fit to hunt. C) A youth between boyhood and manhood.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Don’t count your chickens before they hatch –
meaning don’t rely on predictions because the future holds many surprises. It’s from the Aesop fable The Milkmaid And Her Pail, in which a milkmaid daydreamed so intently about selling her milk, buying chickens and then selling the eggs that she fell and spilt her milk, ruining her plan.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
Tallulah Bankhead, U.S. actress (1902-1968)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy can’t two waiters play tennis?
They only want to serve.
Guess the Definition answer: A.