May 7, 2021 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MAY 7, 1966
IAN BRADY and Myra Hindley were jailed for life yesterday. Brady, a 38-year-old stock clerk, was convicted of murdering 17-yearold Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey, ten, and John Kilbride, 12. Hindley, 23, a blonde shorthand typist, was found guilty of murdering Evans and Lesley Ann. After sentencing the pair were driven away from Chester Castle by van. Women in a 300strong crowd hammered on the windows.
MAY 7, 2001
RONNIE BIGGS was flying back to London [from Rio] last night to jail — and a backlash over the cost of letting him live out his last days in Britain. Prison, medical and legal costs will reach £100,000 in a year, if he lasts that long. The Great Train Robber, 71, looked gravely ill but waved to reporters as he prepared to end 35 years on the run.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
AMY HECKERLING, 67. The U.S. filmmaker directed national Lampoon’s European Vacation, Look Who’s Talking and Clueless. Much of the dialogue for the latter, a modern version of Jane Austen’s Emma came from Heckerling’s life, such as the insult: ‘You’re a virgin who can’t drive.’ She said: ‘You take the thing that embarrassed you most, and you use it.’
MICHAEL ROSEN, 75. The former Children’s Laureate from Middlesex spent 48 days in intensive care last year with Covid. He had just argued on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that older people have just as much right to live as the young. Inspired by his book, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, people put teddies in windows for children to spot on lockdown walks.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ANGELA CARTER (1940-1992). The novelist from East Sussex wrote The Bloody Chamber and nights At The Circus. She also contributed to feminist magazine Spare Rib and soft porn titles such as Men Only. After her death, aged 51, an obituary said ‘her imagination was one of the most dazzling of this century’.
SIR HUW WHELDON (1916-1986). The BBC broadcaster from Wales, took part in D-Day and was awarded a Military Cross. He became managing director of television when the BBC produced Civilisation, The Ascent Of Man and The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. Sir Huw said the duty of public service television was ‘to make the popular good and make the good popular’.
ON MAY 7. . .
IN 1765, HMS Victory was launched. It became nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar. IN 2000, Vladimir Putin was first inaugurated as Russian president.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Banausic (coined c1840)
A) Having a pearly lustre. B) not operating on an elevated level, mundane. C) Sullen, shy and repellent manner. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Pecking order:
Refers to seniority in a group; it alludes to the social order of chickens that ranks them according to strength. Birds can be pecked by those one higher in the order, and peck those below.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. William Shakespeare, English playwright (1564-1616)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT did the astronaut do when he crashed into the Moon? Apollo-gise. Guess The Definition answer: B