ON THIS DAY
1684: Puppet shows performed and shopping stalls were set up on the Thames in London during a freeze. 1799: Prime minister William Pitt (the Younger) introduced income tax at two shillings in the pound to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars. 1898: Gracie Fields (Grace Stansfield) was born in Rochdale. She became one of Britain’s most popular entertainers and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1979. 1902: New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public. 1914: Striptease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee was born in Seattle. She became Queen of Burlesque in the 1930s and her autobiography, Gypsy, became a hit musical. 1927: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert – real-life lovers – shocked cinemagoers in New York by their uninhibited kissing in the silent film Flesh And The Devil. 1951: Life After Tomorrow, the first film to receive an X rating in Britain, opened in London. 1957: Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister in the wake of the Suez crisis. 1972: The liner Queen Elizabeth, after being moved to Hong Kong to be a floating marine university, sank after catching fire. 1997: Yachtsman Tony Bullimore was found alive, five days after his boat capsized in the freezing Southern Ocean, 2,200km from Australia. 2007: Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. 2016: A runaway cat with a taste for the high life was found after stowing away on a luxury motor cruiser. BIRTHDAYS: Joan Baez, singer, 76; Jimmy Page, rock guitarist, 73; Crystal Gayle, singer, 66; Joely Richardson, actress, 52; Jimmy Adams, former cricketer, 49; The Duchess of Cambridge, 35, Paolo Nutini, singer/songwriter, 30. QUOTES OF THE DAY: “Jeff breathes love. He has a heart miles wide. His bandwidth for love, compassion and positivity is something to behold” – Star Trek’s Chris Pine on fellow actor Jeff Bridges. “Being your First Lady has been the greatest honour of my life” – Michelle Obama in her final speech as the US First Lady. “I thought smart casual meant wearing a suit and taking your tie off but it turns out people wear corduroys” – Ed Balls, former shadow chancellor, learns about leisure wear. “I would like to be remembered as a half-honest bloke who had a go” – Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. “The consequence would be to ... threaten the kind of investigative journalism we so greatly value. Editors would understandably be concerned about the financial risk of causing embarrassment, even when they have a duty to report the truth” – Tory MP Damian Collins warns against plans he said would stifle a free press.