ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE

AUGUST 12, 1985 POP star Simon Le Bon was saved from drowning by a tiny pocket of air after his £1million yacht capsized in fierce storms off Falmouth yesterday. The Duran Duran singer and five crewmen were rescued by a heroic Navy diver after 40 minutes trapped in the cabin of his stricken ocean racer. Another 18 Fastnet Race crew members, clinging desperately to the upturned hull in mountainous seas, were also rescued by an RAF helicopter and a lifeboat. AUGUST 12, 1999 BRiTAiN took a half-hour holiday yesterday as eclipse fever gripped the country. Work and play stopped from the Scillies, where the eclipse first cast its shadow on land, to the north of Scotland, as millions turned out to watch. Some were lucky enough to witness an awesome sight. But tens of thousands were disappointed as, at the crucial moment, clouds obscured the view.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

AMANDA REDMAN, 63. The actress from Brighton (pictured) is known for her roles in At Home With The Braithwaites, the BBC’s New Tricks, and The Good Karma Hospital. For one episode, about a burns victim, she used her own experience of being badly scarred by a pan of scalding soup as a child to make it as realistic as possible. GEORGE HAMiLTON, 81. The American actor starred in The Godfather Part iii and played country singer Hank Williams in Your Cheatin’ Heart. He has been described as ‘the last of Hollywood’s gentleman playboys’ and had affairs with Elizabeth Taylor, Britt Ekland, Mandy Rice-Davies, President Lyndon Johnson’s daughter, Lynda Bird, and his own stepmother. But his date with Marilyn Monroe was a failure. He said: ‘i was terribly intimidated.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

PORTER WAGONER (19272007). The U.S. country star (pictured) dubbed ‘the original rhinestone cowboy’, had a hit with The Green Green Grass Of Home a year before Tom Jones took it to No1 in the UK. He became a bigger star thanks to The Porter Wagoner Show, on which he introduced Dolly Parton to the wider world. GUY GiBSON (1918-1944). The commanding officer of the 617 Squadron, which was involved in the Dambusters Raid in 1943, had completed more than 170 operations by the age of 24. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, but lost his life later in the war.

ON AUGUST 12…

IN 1827, English artist and poet William Blake, who wrote The Tyger and Jerusalem, died, aged 69. IN 1927, the film Wings, starring Clara Bow and Gary Cooper, was released. it would win the Best Picture prize at the first Academy Awards — and remains the only fully silent movie to triumph in the category.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Cymatium (coined c1560) A) A halo round the moon. B) The gradual solution of a disease without apparent phenomena. C) Uppermost molding on a classical cornice. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED: Grey matter. Meaning the brain; it derives from the fact that the active part of the brain is coloured grey.