ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MAY 27, 1978

CANADA is scrapping its nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said. He claimed they had already been withdrawn from its warplanes based in Europe and were being replaced in North America with conventional arms.

MAY 27, 1994

AFTER months of talks by a committee of British and French civil servants, the Eurostar staff hemline crisis is settled.

Designer Stephane Rolland of Balmain has won the day, even though the British thought his pleated blue skirt immodest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DENISE VAN OUTEN, 48. The daughter of a cleaner and docker funded her place at the Sylvia Young theatre school herself, through commercials and stage work. She said her childhood hero was Cilla Black: ‘She was witty and funny with good one-liners, and she always had amazing legs. I thought if I could have legs like Cilla, I’d have a long career.’

JAMIE OLIVER, 47. At his peak, the celebrity chef from Essex employed 4,500 people in his restaurants, while his name has sold 27 million pieces of Tefal cookware. Responding to criticism of ‘cultural appropriation’ for his take on West African jollof rice, he said: ‘I like parsley, and if I want to put it in my jollof, I will. No one’s invented nothing unless they’ve invented sun and rain, and they ain’t.’

BORN ON THIS DAY

LISA LOPES (1971-2002). The u.S. rapper had hits including Waterfalls and No Scrubs with the girl group TLC. She also had a uK No 1, Never Be The Same Again, with Spice Girl Melanie C. Lopes was given five years’ probation for starting a fire that burned down the mansion of her football player boyfriend; she also crashed his car while drunk. She died in a car accident, aged 30.

VINCENT PRICE (1911-1993). He starred in The Ten Commandments but is best remembered for horror movies such as Theater Of Blood. It was an image the u.S. actor played on when he voiced part of Michael Jackson’s 1983 song Thriller. Price said: ‘It’s the fact that you are type-cast that gives you your fame. I haven’t been as “successful” as some people, but I’ve certainly had more fun.’

ON MAY 27…

IN 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting u.S. president to visit Hiroshima, 71 years after the atomic bombing. IN 1973, Liverpool’s Cavern Club, once home to the Beatles, closed and reopened in new premises across the road.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: Russet (mid-13th century) A) Reddish-brown. B) Youngest of a litter of pigs. C) The water of a mill stream.

Answer below.

PHRASE EXPLAINED To have, or show, a lot of bottle: meaning to be bold and show initiative, it derives from the mid-19th-century slang ‘no bottle’, meaning ‘no good or useless’.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

Meditation and water are wedded for ever. Ishmael, a character from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, U.S. novelist (1819-1891)

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHAT do you get if you cross a centipede with a parrot? A walkie-talkie. Guess The Definition answer: A