May 9, 2022 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE May 9, 1980
ONE person in three thinks Britain should resist Russian expansion even if it means nuclear war. This was one of the findings in a special opinion poll carried out for the Daily Mail late last week. It suggests hardline backing for Mrs Thatcher’s stand against the Soviet Union.
May 9, 1992
THIS was the moment when the Princess Royal publicly acknowledged her relationship with Naval Commander Tim Laurence. Watched by 700 guests at the Royal Caledonian Ball in London, they took the floor together for a series of dances, beginning with The Dashing White Sergeant.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ALAN BENNETT, 88. The writer from Leeds is best known for The History Boys, The Madness of George III and The Lady In The Van. He almost became a medieval historian before teaming up with Oxbridge contemporaries Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller in comedy revue Beyond The Fringe. Bennett has turned down a CBE and a knighthood as ‘it would be like wearing a suit every day of your life’.
GLENDA JACKSON, 86. The Wirral-born, Rada-trained actress won two Oscars before serving for 23 years as a Labour MP. In 2018, she received her first Tony award, aged 82. She quoted Hamlet when attacking Tony Blair over Iraq, saying he ‘suffered from the insolence of office’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GERALDINE McEWAN (1932-2015). The Berkshire-born actress, who won a Bafta for the BBC’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, played Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in the ITV series and Emmeline ‘Lucia’ Lucas (pictured) in Channel 4’s Mapp And Lucia. She realised her calling, aged ten, when she had to learn a speech by Lady Macbeth during elocution lessons: ‘It was like being given a crock of gold.’
HOWARD CARTER (1874-1939). The Egyptologist from Norfolk found the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, making ‘the most dramatic discovery in the history of archaeology’. While many believed in the ‘Pharaoh’s Curse’ — with 12 of the original group present at the opening of the tomb dying within the following seven years — Carter lived until he was 64.
ON MAY 9 . . .
IN 1949, Prince Rainier III became monarch of Monaco (seven years before marrying actress Grace kelly). IN 2020, U.S. ‘Architect of Rock’n’Roll’ Little Richard died, aged 87.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Widdershins (c. 1510)
A) Impulsively; without deliberation. B) In the opposite direction, the wrong way. C) Diagonally across from something else.
answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED Blue-eyed boy:
meaning the favourite of someone in authority. First recorded in a 1924 novel by P.G. Wodehouse, it may be associated with the charm of a child.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Football is an art more central to our culture than anything the arts Council deigns to recognise. Germaine Greer, Australian feminist
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHEN do you go at red and stop at green? When you’re eating a watermelon. Guess The Definition answer: B