ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MARCH 24, 1972

HOUSEWIVES and shoppers will be urged to return unwanted packaging to shops. The protest is being organised by environmental groups in 70 towns and cities, in which supermarkets will be picketed. Cliff Clothier, of trade journal Packaging, said: ‘One of the problems is English snobbery and quirk of not wanting people to see what they have bought.’

MARCH 24, 1999

ROSS KEMP is quitting EASTENDERS and moving to ITV in a deal said to be worth £1.2 million. The 34-year- old, who plays Queen vic landlord Grant Mitchell in the BBC1 soap, has been unhappy with his £120,000 wages. Barbara Windsor, who plays his mother Peggy, said: ‘I loved working with him. He was a bit like a real son.’

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CAROL KAYE, 88. The u.S. musician has been described by producer Quincy Jones as the greatest bassist in the world.

She performed on Ritchie valens’s la Bamba and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots are Made for Walkin’. Nicknamed ‘the Beach Girl behind the Beach Boys’, her work on their Pet Sounds album was an inspiration to Paul McCartney. TOMMY HILFIGER, 72. The american fashion designer went bankrupt at 25 before building a £2 billion empire thanks to his ‘preppy’ look. Hilfiger describes his own wardrobe as ‘pretty boring’: ‘I have 50 white shirts, 50 chinos, 50 pairs of jeans and 25 pairs of white sneakers.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE (1903-1990). The Surrey-born satirist and BBC broadcaster withdrew as a judge for the Booker Prize in 1971 because he was ‘nauseated and appalled’ by the quality of entries. His niece admitted he was ‘anything but a saint in his first 60 years’ but that his conversion to Christianity had been life-changing.

WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896). The Walthamstow-born wallpaper and textile designer was a pioneer of the British arts and Crafts movement. His designs are still popular today — John lewis stocks more than 400 products and he has been dubbed ‘the face that launched 1,000 tea towels’.

ON MARCH 24 . . .

IN 1966, Simon and Garfunkel entered the UK charts for the first time, with Homeward Bound.

IN 1905, Jules verne, French author of around The World In Eighty days, died, aged 77.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION Hypnopompic (1901) a) THE fuzzy state between waking and sleeping. B) Standing on ceremony. C) Thumping. answer below.

PHRASE EXPLAINED All hands:

the entire crew of a ship; it is a variant of the american ‘all hands and the cook’ as the cook wouldn’t normally do other people’s work except in an emergency

QUOTE FOR TODAY

Making money from money should be replaced with making money from making.

Sir James Dyson, English inventor and businessman

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHAT noise did the two clowns make when they fell over? Boom boom! Guess The Definition answer: a. Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD