ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 1, 1980
HOT ON the heels of the Margaret Thatcher beer mat comes the Margaret Thatcher doll. Produced by a British toy company, it stands eight inches tall, and has faithfully reproduced hairstyle, blue skirt, tunic, blouse and elegant black shoes — the outfit she wore on the day of her election triumph last year. The Americans just love it.
MARCH 1, 1986
GEORGE MICHAEL has broken his silence over his decision to split with his Wham! partner Andrew ridgeley. He says: ‘There is no rift whatsoever between us. I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history.’ The 22-year-old millionaire claims he and Andrew decided more than seven months ago it was time to call it a day on Wham!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HArry BeLAFONTe, 94. The singer and actor is known as the ‘King of Calypso’. The first African-American TV producer in the 1960s, he was heavily involved in the civil rights movement and was a close friend of Martin Luther King. He jokes that the proof that he is an actor is that he was able to convince so many people he was a singer. His 1956 album Calypso, featuring Day-O, was the first to sell a million copies.
LuPITA NyONG’O, 38. The Mexican-born daughter of Kenyan parents in political exile dreamed of being a botanist before winning an Oscar for her first feature film role, in 12 years A Slave. The star of Black Panther and three Star Wars movies says visiting Scotland is top of her ‘bucket list’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
AuGuSTuS PuGIN (1812-1852). The London-born architect was commissioned by George IV to furnish the apartments in Windsor Castle, but he is best remembered for his work on the decoration inside the Houses of Parliament. Just a few days after completing designs for its ‘Big Ben’ clock tower, he lapsed into psychosis and died. rOBerT CONrAD (1935-2020). The American actor became an overnight celebrity after being given the lead role in Hawaiian eye in 1959. He went on to star in The Wild Wild West but complained that he was forced to wear trousers so tight he had to be glued into them. Conrad said he was also hired because he could do his own stunts.
ON MARCH 1…
IN 1966, the Soviet probe Venera 3 landed on Venus — becoming the first man-made object to make contact with an extraterrestrial surface beyond the Moon. IN 1998, Titanic became the first film to gross $1 billion at the global box office.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Dragoman (14th c)
A) An interpreter. B) A scarecrow made of old garments. C) An old man given to telling anecdotes.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Overplay one’s hand: Meaning to press one’s advantage too far. From card games in which a player with good cards bids or calls higher than his hand justifies.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
HAPPINESS is not an ideal of reason but of imagination Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724-1804)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a fear of giants? Feefiphobia.
Guess The Definition answer: A.