ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

MAY 13, 1937 SHoRTLY before midnight, when in heavy rain thousands of people were still outside Buckingham Palace, the King and Queen, arm-in-arm, appeared on the balcony for the fifth time since their return from the Coronation. The enthusiasm of the multitude, who had cheered throughout the evening, had been insistent for George Vi. Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose took their places between their father and mother.

MAY 13, 1994 LAST night the world of politics was in shock after the death of Labour leader John Smith. The 55-year-old suffered a heart attack at 8.05am yesterday. The belief among Tories is that the spirit of unity produced by Mr Smith’s authoritative leadership could give Labour a trouble-free succession and leave John Major facing the flair and vision of Tony Blair, the man Tories see as his most dangerous opponent.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

STEViE WoNDER, 70. The U.S. former child star, born Stevland Hardaway Morris, signed his first record deal at 11 and has had hits with Superstition and Signed, Sealed, Delivered i’m Yours. He almost died in a car crash in 1988, on the same day as the birth of his fifth child (he now has a total of nine children with five women).

SAMANTHA MoRToN, 43. The Golden Globe-winning English actress (right) played Mary, Queen of Scots in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. She was oscar-nominated for her role in Woody Allen’s 1991 film Sweet And Lowdown, despite having no dialogue as a mute character. ‘Learning lines is the easiest thing in the world,’ she said. ‘This was the hardest part i’ve ever played.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

MARY WELLS (1943-1992). The U.S. singer, dubbed ‘Queen of Motown’, notched up the label’s first UK number one in 1964 with My Guy. She also wrote the hit Bye Bye Baby and counted The Beatles, with whom she toured, as fans. Wells said: ‘Motown has produced some of the greatest artists of all time — all disturbed geniuses.’ WiToLD PiLECKi (1901-1948). The former Polish army cavalry officer joined the Resistance and volunteered to be captured and taken to Auschwitz, from where he smuggled out intelligence. He escaped after almost two and a half years and walked more than 100 miles to Warsaw, where he found his warnings had not been heeded by the Allies. Pilecki was later executed for trying to liberate his country from its new communist rulers.

ON MAY 13…

IN 1940, Winston Churchill told his Cabinet and, later, the House of Commons in his first speech as PM: ‘i have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.’

IN 1978, Boney M hit number one, for the first of five weeks, with Rivers of Babylon.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Galimatias (c1963)

A) A dish of white meat or fish. B) Gibberish. C) The sleep of the soul. Answer below

PHRASE EXPLAINED

No news is good news: A lack of information justifies optimism; coined in the early 17th century, ‘news’ became a plural concept and was short for ‘new stories’.