ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 23, 1939
BRITAIn must lose many of its glowing fields of flowers. Vegetables will be planted in their place to increase the food reserves. Growing flowers are not to be destroyed. But no seed for annuals should now be planted. Onions, carrots, potatoes, cereals, and so forth should take their place.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1991
DOnALD TRumP says his romance with starlet marla maples is over for good. ‘I want to remain good friends with her,’ the troubled 45-year-old tycoon was quoted as saying. ‘But it’s time to step aside and look in other directions.’ [They married in 1993 and divorced in 1999.]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
nICHOLAS WITCHELL, 68. The BBC’s veteran royal correspondent was described by Prince Charles in 2005 as ‘so awful’. When gay rights protesters invaded the Six O’Clock news studio in 1988, Witchell wrestled one woman under a table and clamped his hand over her mouth. The mirror’s front page read: ‘Beeb man sits on lesbian.’
BAROnESS (FLOELLA) BEnJAmIn, 72. The Trinidad and Tobago-born presenter (right) made her name hosting children’s programmes Play School and Play Away. She has a damehood, sits in the Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer and was awarded a Bafta Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to TV.
BORN ON THIS DAY
ALDO mORO (1916-1978). Fifty-five days after being kidnapped by the far-Left Red Brigades terror group, the body of the fivetime former Italian prime minister was found in the boot of a Renault 4 in Rome. He was considered a front-runner for the presidency in elections that year.
WALTER PIDGEOn (1897-1984). The Oscar-nominated actor starred in The Bad And The Beautiful and mrs miniver. The latter starred his longtime screen partner Greer Garson, of whom he said: ‘I did eight pictures with her and we never had a bad word between us.’ Pidgeon got his break after Fred Astaire heard him sing at a party and gave his name to Broadway producers.
ON SEPTEMBER 23…
IN 1896, Queen Victoria became the longest-reigning monarch in British history, overtaking her grandfather, King George III, who had been on the throne for 59 years, 96 days. IN 2001, Kylie minogue (right) went to number one on the uK singles chart with Can’t Get You Out Of my Head. It would become the most-played pop tune of the noughties.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Oology (c1830)
A) The study of birds’ eggs. B) The science of medical remedies. C) The study of wealth. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Bowled over:
meaning to be taken completely by surprise, to be unable to explain one’s actions. It comes from the game of cricket in which a batsman is dismissed when the ball hits his stumps and his innings is thereby over.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Fate is a name for facts not yet passed under the fire of thought, for causes which are unpenetrated. Ralph Waldo Emerson, American
philosopher (1803-1882)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT kind of driver never gets a parking ticket? a screw driver. Guess The Definition answer: a. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD