ON THIS DAY
IT’S DAY 130 OF 2016 ONCE tycoon Brazil’sEike Batista, richest 59, person,this year commoditiesthrew gold coinsoff the to coastthe valueof Rio of de £130,000 Janeiro, into after the beingsea advisedthe ‘Queenby a of mysticthe Sea’ that this and would return appeasehim to financial glory. IF THE UK broke up and England became its own nation, then, with a size of 130,000 sq km, or 80,000 sq miles, it would be the 16th largest country in Europe, one place behind Greece and ahead of Bulgaria. WHEN King Philip II of Spain sent his Armada to England in 1588, he sent 130 ships with 2,500 guns and 26,000 men. Only half the vessels returned to Spain. THERE ARE 236 DAYS LEFT THE first major acting role for Richard Gere (pictured), almost a decade before he became globally famous in An Officer And A Gentleman, was as Danny in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973. It ran for 236 performances. AMERICAN statesman Benjamin Franklin is generally accepted as having invented bifocal spectacles 236 years ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENDA JACKSON, 80. The Birken-head-born actress and former Labour MP won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1970 for Women In Love and in 1973 for A Touch Of Class. She was quoted as saying: ‘Acting is not about dressing up. It is about stripping bare.’ She returns to the stage at the Old Vic this year in King Lear — playing the King. ALBERT FINNEY, 80. The Salford-born actor, known for films such as The Bourne Ultimatum and Skyfall, in 2000 turned down a knighthood, suggesting it might be better if we were ‘all Misters together’. BILLY JOEL, 67. The singer (pictured), who has sold more than 150million records, including Uptown Girl and We Didn’t Start The Fire, became a father again with fourth wife Alexis Roderick last year — so he will be 80 when his new daughter becomes a teenager. BORN ON THIS DAY J. M. BARRIE (1860-1937). Kirriemuir-born James Matthew Barrie, best known for Peter Pan and for popularising the name Wendy, left the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which still benefits. HOWARD CARTER (1874-1939). The London-born artist and archaeologist found global fame after discovering the Tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt in 1922. The cataloguing of every item found took ten years. JOAN SIMS (1930-2001). The actress was in 24 Carry On films. In 1970’s Carry On Up The Jungle, she played Lady Evelyn Bagley, the mother of Ug The Jungle Boy, played by Terry Scott — who was three years her senior. ON MAY 9 . . . IN 1662, the first recorded Punch & Judy show in Britain was witnessed by diarist Samuel Pepys at Covent Garden. IN 1914, William Newell made the first parachute jump in Britain from an aeroplane, over Hendon Aerodrome. He survived. IN 1949, Britain’s first coin-operated launderette, Central Wash, opened in Bayswater, London. IN 1978, the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro was found in the boot of a car in Rome. He was killed by members of the Italian Red Brigades 55 days after they had kidnapped him. QUOTE FOR TODAY You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.
Warren Beatty, actor JOKE OF THE DAY I ONLY realised my parents were horrible cooks when I stayed at a friend’s house and they prayed before the meal, not after.