ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE NOVEMBER 1, 1972
TV COMIC Jim Bowen, 35, was cleared yesterday of assaulting a pupil at a special school where he is a teacher. As he left the court at Morecambe, Lancashire, Bowen (real name James Whittaker) said: ‘This is a victory for every teacher who has ever slapped a child — not to hurt but to correct.’
NOVEMBER 1, 2011
WHEN the UN declared a baby from the Philippines the world’s seven billionth human, it sparked howls of ‘oh no she isn’t’ as parents from Britain to India scrambled to claim their child was the landmark baby. But the UN welcomed Danica May Camacho, born to a struggling family in Manila, with a chocolate cake marked ‘7B Philippines’ and a gift certificate for free shoes.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
SHARRON DAVIES, 60. The Devon-born swimmer, who has presented for the BBC at every Games since 1996, won silver at the 1980 Olympics. She came second to Petra Schneider, who later admitted she was part of an East German doping programme. Davies said this year she was on the brink of financial ruin after she spoke out against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
TIM COOK, 62. The CEO of Apple, and son of a shipyard worker, is worth $1.8 billion. He was paid nearly $99 million last year — 1,447 times the salary of the average Apple employee. Cook advocates limits on technology use in schools and says: ‘I have a nephew I put some boundaries on. There are some things that I won’t allow; I don’t want them on a social network.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
RONALD BELL (1951-2020). The American founding member of Kool & The Gang cowrote all their songs, including UK top ten hits Ladies’ Night and Celebration. The group appeared on Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? and the soundtracks of films including Rocky, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. A stretch of road in New Jersey, where Bell grew up, was renamed Kool & the Gang Way.
BETSY PALMER (1926-2015). The U.S. actress starred in movies with Joan Crawford and Henry Fonda, but is best remembered as Pamela Voorhees in 1980 horror film Friday The 13th. She thought the script was ‘a piece of junk’ and only took the role so she could afford a new car.
ON NOVEMBER 1 …
IN 1922, the BBC first introduced a licence fee — at a cost of 10 shillings, for listeners who purchased an official radio set. IN 1981, Antigua and Barbuda was granted independence from the UK.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Frit (c 1983)
A) Frightened. B) A potato chip. C) Anything badly formed or out of shape.
(Answer below)
PHRASE EXPLAINED See the elephant — Americanism meaning to see the world; an ‘elephant’ symbolises something extremely exotic or remarkable.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer (1709-1784)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT kind of primate can fly? A hot air baboon.
Guess The Definition answer: A