ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 3, 1922
In deference to what, it is believed, would have been the dead explorer’s own desire, Lady Shackleton, the Daily Mail understands, has decided that Sir Ernest Shackleton’s body shall not be brought home for burial as originally proposed, but shall be taken to South Georgia and interred on the island.
FEBRUARY 3, 2003
MICHAEL JACKSON would like to think his wealth can buy him immortality. on one shopping spree, however, he contented himself with spending £3.6 million on ‘vulgar and over-priced’ furniture.
The incident is one of many in a new documentary which confirms the star’s reputation for unconventional behaviour.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KIRSTY WARK, 67. The Scottish broadcaster has hosted the BBC’s newsnight since 1993, making her the longest-serving presenter in its history. Her specialism, she says, is a ‘one-two — a question that requires a second clarification. I asked Mrs Thatcher, “Do you understand why people in Scotland find you so patronising?” If the answer is yes, then why the hell are you patronising them? If it’s no, then why don’t you understand them?’
WARWICK DAVIS, 52. The 3ft 6in actor from Surrey played Professor flitwick in the Harry Potter films and hosts ITV quiz show Tenable. Davis’s first role came when he was 11, as Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars, for which he was paid £60 a day.
BORN ON THIS DAY
EDWARD PALMER THOMPSON (19241993), known by his initials EP, is considered by many to be Britain’s greatest postwar historian. The oxford-born academic made his name with his bestseller The Making of The English Working Class. Labour leader Michael foot called it ‘an event not merely in the writing of English history but in the politics of our century’.
Val Doonican (19272015). The Irish entertainer hosted his eponymous show on the BBC for 21 years from 1965. In 1967, his album val Doonican Rocks, But Gently knocked The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band off the no 1 spot.
ON FEBRUARY 3…
IN 1970, noel Coward was knighted. IN 1979, Blondie secured their first UK no 1, Heart of Glass.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Sybarite (c. 1590s) A) A virago, shrew or vixen. B) A grumbler. C) A person devoted to luxury or pleasure.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED To knock something into a cocked hat:
meaning to put a definitive end to something or to be very much better than someone or something; it derives from a ‘cocked hat’ having a brim permanently turned up, typically in the style of a threecornered hat from the late 18th century
QUOTE FOR TODAY
The great Western myth . . . that just because a place has a McDonald’s and MTV and takes American Express it’s exactly the same as everywhere else.
Robert Harris, English author
JOKE OF THE DAY
THE best gift I ever received was a broken drum . . . You can’t beat it. Guess The Definition answer: C.