ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
JULY 17, 1995
TONY BLAIR has depicted himself as the scourge of the British establishment in a daring attempt to woo Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The Labour leader defied his own party critics and flew 11,000 miles to tell News Corporation executives that Labour should ‘reclaim the ground of the anti-establishment’. JULY 17, 2017
YESTERDAY, on Centre Court at Wimbledon, Roger Federer became the first man to win the tournament eight times, becoming the oldest man to win a Wimbledon final in the open era at 35 years and 342 days.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FERN BRITTON, 67.
The London-born TV host fronted ITV’s This Morning before becoming a novelist and finalist on Celebrity Big Brother. When she told her father, actor Tony Britton, she wanted to be on TV, he said: ‘You’re too fat to be a Sue Lawley.’ MARK BURNETT, 64. The Britishborn TV producer created The Apprentice, which was hosted by donald Trump in the u.S. The New Yorker magazine said he ‘mythologised Trump — then a floundering d-lister — as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the presidency’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
DONALD SUTHERLAND (1935-2024). The Canadian star of the films M*A*S*H, Kelly’s Heroes and don’t Look Now wrote a three-page letter to the director of The Hunger Games franchise detailing why he wanted the role of Coriolanus Snow. He studied drama in London, but his voice coach advised him to become a lorry driver. JOHN JACOB ASTOR (1763-1848). The German-born businessman was America’s first multimillionaire, thanks to his aggressive business style which led him into the fur trade, real estate and opium.
ON JULY 17…
IN 1945, the ‘Big Three’ — Churchill, Truman and Stalin — met at the Potsdam Conference in Germany to discuss plans for post-war europe. IN 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over eastern ukraine by Russian-controlled forces, killing all 298 people on board.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION
Dop (coined 1764)
A) A copper cup for holding a diamond while cutting it. B) A lively jig. C) The leading villain in a play.
answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
A kettle of fish: meaning a real mess; from a fish kettle (pan) for cooking fish; a ‘different kettle of fish’ means ‘something different from the thing before’ and dates from the late 1900s.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I was never averse to women. But I never overdid it either.
Jacques Chirac, former French president (1932-2019)
JOKE OF THE DAY
I GOT a clown to deliver a bouquet of flowers to my wife . . . She asked for a romantic jester.
Guess The Definition answer: A.