ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE May 24, 1945
Hitler died in a bunker under the Berlin Chancellery on May 1 from a lethal injection administered by his personal physician and his body was burned, according to information given by a russian general to the Allied Control Party at Flensburg.
May 24, 1994
in one of the most nail-biting finishes to the Cannes Film Festival, John travolta’s comeback movie Pulp Fiction won the top accolade. the thriller, in which the Saturday night Fever star plays a drug addict hitman, scooped the Palme d’or.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JACoB reeS-Mogg, 53. the Minister for Brexit opportunities has been nicknamed ‘the honourable member for the 18th century’. When he was 12, he said: ‘When i’m 70, i’d love to become prime minister. Why? Because at that age, you can have made all your millions and you’ll have time to spend on politics.’
DAiSy eDgAr-JoneS, 24. the london actress got a job on itV’s Cold Feet at 17 before she shot to fame playing Marianne in the BBC’s normal People. Her co-star, Paul Mescal, gave one of his character’s iconic neck chains — which had its own instagram account — to edgar-Jones as a gift, before she promptly lost it.
BORN ON THIS DAY
Sir ArnolD WeSker (1932-2016). the london-born ‘kitchen-sink’ dramatist wrote 50 plays, including Chips With everything and Chicken Soup With Barley. the son of Jewish Communists, he was angry his later work was ignored, saying: ‘i’m frozen in the trilogy of the 1960s.’ lilli PAlMer (1914-1986). the german actress and writer, whose leading men included Clark gable, Fred Astaire and gary Cooper, fled the nazis with her Jewish family in 1933 to Paris, where she performed at the Moulin rouge and was spotted by British talent scouts. Palmer starred opposite her first husband, Hollywood star rex Harrison on tV, film and on Broadway.
ON MAY 24 . . .
IN 2002, russian and U.S. Presidents Vladimir Putin and george W. Bush signed an arms reduction treaty. IN 2019, theresa May announced her intention to resign as Conservative leader: ‘i will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold. the second female prime minister, but not the last.’
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Ustulate (c 1620)
A) to demand. B) Discoloured; blackened. C) to walk with long strides.
answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED To be in cahoots:
meaning to work together or conspire; this 1827 American phrase originally meant ‘partnership’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
ThE marvellous thing about a joke with a double meaning is that it can only mean one thing Ronnie Barker, English comedian (1929-2005)
JOKE OF THE DAY
My WiFe said she’d leave me if i kept
making Star Wars jokes . . . I said: ‘May divorce be with you.’
Guess The Definition answer: B.
Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD