ON THIS DAY

1743: Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the power loom, was born. 1792: La Marseillaise was composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle. 1815: Novelist Anthony Trollope was born in London. 1889: Sir Stafford Cripps, Labour Chancellor who introduced austerity measures in Britain after the Second World War, was born. 1916: The Easter rebellion began in Dublin against British rule in Ireland . 1950: President Truman denied there were communists in the US government. 1965: The Pennine Way - 250 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border - was officially opened. 1986: The Duchess of Windsor, the American widow of Edward, Duke of Windsor, died in Paris, aged 89. 1990: The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery. BIRTHDAYS: Shirley MacLaine, entertainer, 81; Barbra Streisand, singer/actress, 73; Michael O’Keefe, actor, 60; Stuart Pearce, football manager, 53; Djimon Hounsou, actor, 51; Sachin Tendulkar, cricketer, 42; Gabby Logan, television presenter, 42; Dave Vitty, radio personality, 41; Kelly Clarkson, singersongwriter, 33. QUOTES OF THE DAY: “Fame brought with it a kind of uncontrolled hysteria which I found difficult to deal with” - Singer Boy George. “The problem with Tesco is that no-one really likes the company” - Retail expert Mary Portas. “For the next series of The Apprentice I am going to set a Tesco task. I want each team to go out and lose £92 million a week” - Lord Sugar. “We can celebrate every age. That’s my encouragement to 20-year-olds who are terrified of getting older - don’t have a nervous breakdown and don’t hit the Chardonnay too hard. Getting older is not that bad” - Actress Charlize Theron. “There is no nakedness, it’s only alluded to. But when we allude to it, it’s kind of intense. Every time I read a script I think ‘Oh my God, how am I going to get away with this?’” - William Moseley, star of The Royals. “If I confirmed that, I would have to come round to your office and kill you” - Michael Dobbs, creator of House Of Cards, warns a journalist who inquired about the plot in the forthcoming fourth series of the programme. “The British must return the Elgin Marbles, full stop. Give them back from where they were stolen” - Irish actor Liam Neeson. “I saw the headline ‘Madonna kisses Drake’. I thought it’s not going to be a duck show, is it?” - Comedian Frank Skinner.