ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JULY 4, 1944
THE oldest soldier of the war has been captured by the Americans in the Cherbourg Peninsula. He is old enough to be Hitler’s father — being 78 — and was employed in the Todt Organisation [a Nazi military engineering body].
JULY 4, 1998
THE Queen declared: ‘One is not amused’ as England’s crucial third goal against Argentina was disallowed, it was revealed last night. She made the tongue-in-cheek remark, usually associated with Queen Victoria, as she watched Tuesday’s World Cup game on TV at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
NEIL MORRISSEY, 60. The actor from Staffordshire, who had two No 1 singles as the voice of Bob The Builder (right), said he couldn’t travel by Tube for years after Men Behaving Badly. In 2000, he had a six-week affair with actress Amanda Holden, who was married to game-show host
Les Dennis. Morrissey said: ‘My perspective was that while, yes, there was a ring on the finger, there was no marriage, because otherwise how would an affair have taken place?’ FRANCESCA HAYWARD, 30. The Kenyanborn English ballerina ‘of unearthly poise and beauty’ starred as Victoria the White Kitten in the 2019 film of the musical Cats and is the first female mixed-race principal dancer in the Royal Ballet. In 2019, she was one of the 15 women chosen by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as ‘forces of change’ and photographed for the cover of Vogue.
BORN ON THIS DAY
GERTRUDE LAWRENCE (1898-1952). The Londonborn actress ( right) created the lead role in Private Lives by Noel Coward. Lawrence had affairs with actors yul Brynner and Douglas Fairbanks Jr, as well as the future Edward VIII. She was declared bankrupt after — in the words of her lawyer — spending money ‘like an entire fleet of drunken sailors’.
CALVIN COOLIDGE (1872-1933). The 30th U.S. president, born on Independence Day, was the first to deliver a radio address from the White House in 1923. He admitted he had spent his presidency ‘avoiding the big problems’ that led to the Great Depression, which began months after he left office in 1929.
ON JULY 4 . . .
IN 1999, Spice Girl Victoria Adams married footballer David Beckham in Ireland.
IN 2010, George Michael was arrested after
he crashed his car in North London.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Carouse (c 1550s) A) To sing in the street. B) To engage in a drunken revel. C) To evade a question.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Damn someone with faint praise: Meaning to praise someone with such little enthusiasm as to suggest condemnation. It comes from Alexander Pope in his 1735 Epistle To Dr Arbuthnot.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
Mark Twain, U.S. author (1835-1910)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT should you do if you get rejected from the sunscreen company? Reapply. Guess The Definition answer: B.