August 15, 2022 ON THIS DAY

FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE aUGUST 15, 1952

BALCONIES and windows of the Foreign Office overlooking Downing Street were thronged yesterday with people cheering as Foreign Secretary Anthony eden, and his bride, formerly Clarissa Spencer-Churchill [Winston Churchill’s niece], left No 10, where their wedding reception was held, on the first stage of their honeymoon.

AUGUST 15, 1995

POP fans are about to give their verdict on the battle of the bands. Cockney champs Blur and Manchester-based challengers Oasis both put out new singles yesterday, Country House and Roll With It respectively. Sales are expected to prove once and for all which has the greater following. [Blur got the top spot.]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, 32. The American actress won an Oscar at just 22. While on the red carpet, she sent her publicist to the McDonald’s across the road to buy her a Happy Meal with plenty of ketchup. During the filming of The Hunger Games, she went deaf in one ear for several months after she punctured her eardrum on set.

RICHARD DeACON, 73. The Bangor-born ‘master of abstract sculpture’ was the fourth winner of the Turner Prize, in 1987. Deacon, who uses everything from marble to leather, made one of his first pieces in primary school, a replica Bronze Age hut, out of pebbles and mud. The former trustee of the Tate has been dubbed an ‘avant-garde Bob the Builder’.

BORN ON THIS DAY

EDITH NESBIT (18581924). The Surrey-born author wrote The Railway Children (a sequel to the hit 1970 film it inspired was released last month). She said the secret to her success was that she was one of those people who feel ‘that they are children in a grown-up world’. She was part of a ménage à trois after her friend became pregnant by edith’s philandering husband and moved in with them.

SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832). The author of Ivanhoe and Rob Roy has been described as ‘the man who invented Scottish tourism’. In 2012, an academic abridged Ivanhoe from 179,000 words to 80,000, saying: ‘Very few people read Scott these days because he’s wordy and difficult for the modern ear.’ Fans of the novel have included Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.

ON AUGUST 15…

IN 1967, Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte died, aged 68. IN 1969, the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair opened in upstate New York. Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 50 Moments That Changed The History Of Rock And Roll.

WORD WIZARDRY

GUESS THE DEFINITION: zoomer (c. 2021) A) Someone who combines business travel with leisure time; B) A small skin injury; C) Someone who is part of Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012. answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Easy on the eye: meaning pleasing to look at; this late 19th-century American expression was used to describe a pretty woman, which is a sense the phrase still carries.

QUOTE FOR TODAY

IT IS very vulgar to talk about one’s business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright (1854-1900)

JOKE OF THE DAY

WHY do cucumbers hate being pickled? It’s a jarring experience.

Guess The Definition answer: C.