ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MAY 14, 1947
SHORTER hair is likely to be the fashion again. M. Lebroully, vice-president of the Paris Hairdressers’ Artistic Club, summing up the first world hairdressing contest, explained that: 1) Busy women can do their hair in less time; 2) shampooing will be easier; 3) they can use fewer hairpins.
MAY 14, 1974
MORE than a thousand people volunteered to adopt four ‘unwanted’ children who appeared on TV in Granada’s World in Action. Phone lines were jammed by calls from prospective parents after the controversial adopt-a-child programme.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
GEORGE LuCAS, 77. The American filmmaker, who created the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, dreamed of being a racing driver, competing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds until a near-fatal accident behind the wheel just before his high school graduation. The look of Han Solo’s co-pilot Chewbacca in Star Wars was based on Lucas’s dog, an Alaskan Malamute, who used to sit in the passenger seat of the director’s car.
MARTINE MCCUTCHEON, 45. The actress and singer from London played Hugh Grant’s love interest in Love Actually and Tiffany Mitchell in East Enders, and had a no. 1 single with Perfect Moment in 1999. She claimed the character of Tiffany was killed off in East Enders as punishment for Martine asking for time away to launch a music career, and that she only discovered her fate from a tabloid headline: Tiff’s A Stiff.
BORN ON THIS DAY
BOBBY DARIn (19361973). The American singersongwriter had hits with Mack the Knife, Dream Lover and Splish Splash (which he claimed to have written in 12 minutes). He was died at the age of 37 following heart surgery.
WILLIAM TuTTE (1917-2002). The Suffolk-born mathematician and cryptographer worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, where he cracked the German Lorenz cipher, which was used for top-secret communications within the Wehrmacht High Command. Tutte received no honours and after the war returned to his studies at Cambridge.
ON MAY 14 . . .
IN 1643, Louis XIV became King of France, aged four. IN 1894, Blackpool Tower, lit by 10,000 light bulbs, was opened.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Truckle (c. 1400) A) To act in a subservient manner. B) unsettled weather. C) A turnstile.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
War chest: meaning money which is specifically to pay for a war or political campaign, such as advertising one’s party for an election. Originally, a ‘war chest’ contained items a soldier used during a war, such as writing utensils, a mug, hairbrush, lamp for signalling, etc.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
My father always used to say that when you die, if you’ve got five real friends, you’ve had a great life. Lee Iacocca, American car firm executive (1924-2019)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT time do ducks wake up? At the quack of dawn.
Guess The Definition answer: A