ON THIS DAY
May 8, 1945
LONDON broke into victory life last night. The people of London, denied VE-Day officially, held their own jubilation. ‘VE-Day may be tomorrow,’ they said, ‘but the war is over tonight’. Bonfires blazed from Piccadilly to Wapping. The sky, once lit by the glare of the Blitz, shone red with the Victory glow.
May 8, 1998
CHANNEL Tunnel chiefs have found that the name of the Folkestone-to-Calais motor-rail link Le Shuttle left the French giving that familiar shrug of Gallic incomprehension. Research by Eurotunnel found that few French people understood what Le Shuttle actually meant, so bosses have decided to scrap it. Services will now be known simply as Eurotunnel.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
KEVIN MCCLOUD, 65. The designer from Bedfordshire has hosted Channel 4’s Grand Designs for 25 years. He was a member of the Footlights drama club at Cambridge — designing sets — alongside Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson. VICKY MCCLURE, 41. The actress from Nottingham starred in BBC’s Line of Duty and iTV’s Trigger Point. She still lives in her home city, where she has a tram named after her. She said she could not live in London because ‘i begrudge paying that much for a pint’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
PETER BENCHLEY (1940-2006). The u.S. author made his name with his debut novel Jaws — which sold 20 million copies and was turned into a hit film by Steven Spielberg (in which Benchley, a former journalist, had a cameo as a news reporter). HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972). The 33rd u.S. president was a former farmer and haberdasher. For his birthday in 1947, his friends had a bowling alley installed in the White House. one of the first pins he knocked down is on display at the Smithsonian museum in Washington.
ON MAY 8…
IN 1886, Dr John Pemberton served the first Coca-Cola at a pharmacy in Atlanta, u.S. IN 2022, English actor Dennis Waterman died, aged 74.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Minerval (coined early 1600s)
A) Song sung in turn by the guests at a banquet. B) Money given for teaching. C) one who cuts off his thumbs to escape military service.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
No flies on one: meaning that they can’t easily be deceived or that there is nothing slow or dull about them; this slang expression alludes to flies settling on sluggish cattle; derives from Australia in the 1840s.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
A writer is a world trapped in a person.
Victor Hugo, French writer (1802-1885)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT do you call a game where Germans throw bread at each other? Gluten tag. Guess The Definition answer: B.