ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

MARCH 23, 1963 JOHN PROFUMO, War Minister, made a statement in the Commons yesterday about his past acquaintanceship with Christine Keeler. Profumo said: ‘I last saw Miss Keeler in December 1961... and I have no idea where she is now. There was no impropriety whatsoever with Miss Keeler.’ [Less than three months, Profumo had resigned after admitting lying to Parliament.]

MARCH 23, 1989 PAKISTANI Premier Benazir Bhutto yesterday named her mother Nusrat as her deputy and brought four other women into her Cabinet. The five women were among 24 new ministers appointed as Bhutto doubled her team to 48.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DAMON ALBARN, 52. The former Blur frontman and co-founder of animated supergroup Gorillaz grew up in Colchester, Essex. He bought his own bar in Iceland having visited on a whim after seeing an advert on TV and booking into the Saga hotel. ‘I didn’t know it meant Saga holidays, for older people,’ he said, ‘I thought it was Saga as in Nordic sagas.’

PRINCESS EUGENIE, 30. The tenth in line to the throne married cocktail bar manager Jack Brooksbank in 2018. She made sure her wedding dress showed off a scar on her back made after major surgery to treat a curvature of the spine when she was 12. She invited a young Britain’s Got Talent star who also had scoliosis to her wedding.

BORN ON THIS DAY

JOAN CRAWFORD (1908-1977). The American actress, born Lucille LeSueur, starred in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? She reportedly had her back molars removed to accentuate her cheekbones. In 1978, her daughter Christina wrote what is regarded as the first tell-all celebrity memoir, describing her mother as an uncaring alcoholic, and titled Mommie Dearest.

DAVID WATKIN (1925-2008). The cinematographer from Margate, Kent, won an Oscar for Out Of Africa, and also worked on The Beatles’ film Help! Watkin dreamed of becoming a classical pianist, but his father refused to pay for lessons. He said he ‘only came into films to avoid wearing a suit’.

ON MARCH 23…

IN 1970, up Pompeii, starring Frankie Howerd (right), began on BBC1.

IN 1977, the first of 12 interviews with former u.S. President richard Nixon by David Frost was recorded.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: wraith (c1505)

A) compassion or sympathy;

B) anger;

C) the ghostlike image of one approaching death (Answer below)

PHRASE EXPLAINED

Swallow your pride — meaning to humble oneself or to take an action despite being embarrassed to do so; the notion of ‘swallow’, or having to put up with something unpleasant, dates back to the 1600s and ‘pride’ in this phrase alludes to arrogance.