ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JANUARY 1, 1940 TWO women novelists, Miss Norah C. James and Miss Barbara Beauchamp, have resigned from the AFS [Army Fire Service] in protest at the ‘fantastic position’ and ‘wasted efforts’ of the 5,000 women auxiliary firemen in London. One complaint is that although they volunteered as drivers, the women have done practically no driving since October, but have been expected to scrub floors and do cooking and washing-up.
JANUARY 1, 1946 ONe of the longest Honours Lists on record is published this morning. It fills 165 pages of the London Gazette and pays tribute to the architects of victory in the six years of war, from Mr Churchill to the editor of the ration book. Mr Churchill’s Order of Merit is the only honour he would accept. It carries no precedence or rank with it, so he remains plain ‘Mister’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHRISTINe LAGARDe, 64. The French politician, ex-head of the International Monetary Fund, is now president of the european Central Bank — and the first woman to lead either. The former teenage synchronised swimming champion blamed the 2008 financial crisis on the male-dominated culture at global banks. A former IMF chief economist said: ‘At finance meetings all over the world, she is treated practically like a rock star.’
STePHeN KINNOCK, 50. The Labour MP for Aberavon is the son of former party leader Neil Kinnock. He is marred to the former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, whom he met while at college in Belgium, and they have two daughters. A keen sports fan, he regularly plays for the parliamentary football team and speaks five languages fluently.
BORN ON THIS DAY
J. eDGAR HOOveR (18951972). The first FBI director, in post for 48 years, blackmailed everyone from politicians to judges, one of whom said he ‘was like a sewer that collected dirt.’ On screen, he’s been played by, among others, Bob Hoskins, Kelsey Grammer and Leonardo DiCaprio.
JOe ORTON (1933-1967). The playwright from Leicester was compared to Oscar Wilde during his lifetime and fans included the Beatles, who asked him to write a film script for them, though it was never made. He was murdered with a hammer by his lover and mentor, Kenneth Halliwell, in their Islington bedsit.
ON JANUARY 1…
IN 1801, the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland came into effect.
IN 1964, the BBC broadcast the first Top Of The Pops, with the Rolling Stones opening from a converted church in Manchester.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Alembic (coined c1350)
A) Discourteous. B) Apparatus used in distilling. C) A short poem. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Sixty-four thousand dollar question: meaning the toughest question or nub of an issue; coined in the 1940s from a U.S. radio quiz show in which the top prize money was awarded for the $64 question. A later Tv spin-off was called The $64,000 Question.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
FoR last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. T. S. Eliot, British poet (1888-1965)
JOKE OF THE DAY
MY FRIeND asked me where I see myself in the new year. I said, how would I know? I don’t have 2020 vision.
Guess The Definition answer: B