ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE AUGUST 25, 1975
IT IS the most spectacular of Bank Holiday treats… Champagne and caviar while flying 11 miles high aboard Concorde, writes Peter Birkett. Tonight I am with 35 of the luckiest people in Britain, flying at twice the speed of sound on the aircraft’s first public passenger flight. They were chosen for the free trip in a draw organised by British Airways as a thank you to Britain’s taxpayers, who have contributed £500 million towards developing the world’s most exciting airliner.
AUGUST 25, 1990
BELFAST hostage Brian Keenan was freed in Beirut last night after 1,596 days in captivity. And, today, he will have a joyous reunion with his two sisters Brenda Gillham, 46, and Elaine Spence, 29, whose four-year crusade for his release finally paid off.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CLAUDIA SCHIFFER, 51. The German supermodel lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, English film director Matthew Vaughn. She expected to study law before being discovered by a scout in a dusseldorf disco in 1987. The late fashion designer Karl lagerfeld said: ‘When Claudia first appeared on the fashion scene it was like sunrise — and the sun is still shining’. FREDERICK FORSYTH, 83. The novelist from Kent, who has sold 70 million books, wrote, among many, The day Of The Jackal and The Odessa File, said he had ‘never written a word of fiction in my life’ before penning Jackal as a money-making exercise. ‘I was skint, in debt, no flat, no car, no nothing. And I came up with probably the zaniest solution — write a novel.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR SEAN CONNERY (1930-2020). The Edinburghborn actor, cinema’s first James Bond, worked as a nude model and coffin polisher. After watching the young actor play football, Matt Busby offered Connery a contract with Manchester united, but he said no. 007 author Ian Fleming was not impressed by his casting, saying: ‘I’m looking for Commander Bond, not an overgrown stuntman.’
JOHN BARDON (1939-2014). The actor from Middlesex made his name in his 60s as dot Cotton’s husband Jim Branning in almost 900 episodes of EastEnders (he courted her in a graveyard and proposed on the london Eye). Neighbours in Turkey where he had a holiday home told him they learnt English by watching the soap.
ON AUGUST 25…
IN 1939, Britain entered into a formal military alliance with Poland, promising to defend the country in case of invasion. IN 2009, Ted Kennedy, JFK’s youngest brother and the fourth longest-serving senator in US history, died, aged 77.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Horripilate (c1620)
A) To look aghast. B) To cause one’s hair to stand on end. C) To terrify. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Drop one’s guard: meaning to neglect one’s defences; it comes from the sport of boxing in which a ‘guard’ is an habitual defensive or protective stance
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.
Anne Lamott, U.S. novelist
JOKE OF THE DAY
SOME people have trouble sleeping... but I can do it with my eyes closed. Guess The Definition answer B