On this day

Published on Monday 4 March 2002 00:00

Happy Birthday

Kenny Dalglish, football manager, 51; Evan Dando, rock singer (The Lemonheads), 35; Emilio Estefan, musician, 49; Patsy Kensit, actress, 34; Adrian Lyne, film director, 61; Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer, 79; Chris Rea, rock musician, 51; Shakin’ Stevens, pop singer, 54; Bobby Womack, soul singer, 58.

They said it

"What the practitioners of this black art sometimes fail to recognise is that the main casualty is their own credibility: people are increasingly reluctant to accept what they put out as gospel truth" - Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, former Cabinet Secretary, on spin.

"The whole message with Nigella is that baking a chocolate cake makes you more sexy, not even more tired with cake mix stuck under your fingernails" - Author Joanna Trollope on Nigella Lawson.

"Heroin did its job for me. I was in a lot of pain. It stopped me killing myself. But then I started to miss sex. So you could say my life was saved by sex" - Pop icon Marianne Faithfull.

"I’m not the bastion of good taste. No one knows that better than I" - Singer Cher.

In the past

1394: Prince Henry the Navigator, who sponsored Portugal’s voyages of discovery, was born in Oporto.

1678: Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, composer and violinist, best known for The Four Seasons (1725), was born in Venice.

1789: The first Congress of the United States was held in New York.

1824: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded.

1890: The 1710-ft Forth Bridge was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.

1924: Happy Birthday To You was published by Clayton F Summy.

1941: British forces, assisted by local Norwegians, raided the German-occupied Lofoten Islands, destroying 11 ships.

1946: Housewives’ Choice, presented by Robert McDermott, began on BBC radio.

1967: North Sea gas was first piped ashore near Durham.

1974: After the General Election, Edward Heath failed to persuade the Liberals to join a coalition and resigned. Harold Wilson became Prime Minister with a narrow majority.

1980: Robert Mugabe became the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, winning 57 of the 80 black seats in the 100-member Assembly.

1989: Five people were killed in a rail crash in Purley, Surrey.

From the News

1882: A singular adventure occurred yesterday when two Edinburgh gentlemen were fishing on the Tweed, near Elwardfoot. A number of seagulls were fishing also, and eventually three of the gulls were hooked and brought to land. Two of the birds were set at liberty, but the other was kept as a memento of the incident.

1922: There are two Edinburgh Clubs in the First Division of the Scottish Football League - the Heart of Midlothian and the Hibernians. They are both very near to Edinburgh’s sporting heart, the Hearts perhaps a little nearer than the Hibernians. This is largely because, during a long course of years, the Hearts have cut a bigger swathe.

1962: The Ross Fountain which graces West Princes Street Gardens is currently being renovated in preparation for the new season. Built in France for the Paris Exhibition, the fountain was given to the city in 1869 by Mr Daniel Ross, a gunmaker. Incidentally, the Ross Fountain and the Ross Bandstand were donated by different persons.