Terry-Thomas (1911–90) was an English comedian and character actor,
known to a world-wide audience through his portrayals of upper class
cads, toffs and bounders. His dress sense and style were striking, as
was the gap of a third of an inch between his two front teeth. He worked
his way through uncredited film parts in the 1930s before wartime
service with Entertainments National Service Association and Stars in
Battledress led to a post-war career on stage and then into How Do You
View? (1949), the first comedy series on British television. He appeared
in British films such as Private's Progress (1956), Blue Murder at St
Trinian's (1957), and Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959). During the
early 1960s he worked extensively in Hollywood, providing a coarser
version of his screen persona in films such as Bachelor Flat (1962),
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and How to Murder Your Wife
(1965). After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1971, he spent
much of his fortune on medical treatments. He lived in poverty towards
the end of his life, existing on charitable hand-outs, before a
1989 charity gala in his honour brought him financial comfort for the
remaining months before his death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry-Thomas>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1824:
Mexico enacted its first constitution, defining the nation as a
federal republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1824_Constitution_of_Mexico>
1957:
Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to
orbit the Earth, was launched by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1>
1963:
Flora (radar image pictured), one of the wettest and deadliest
hurricanes in history, made landfall in Cuba, after having previously
struck Tobago and Hispaniola.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Flora>
1993:
Russian Constitutional Crisis: Tanks bombarded the White House
in Moscow while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rallied
outside.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Russian_constitutional_crisis>
2003:
A suicide bomber killed 21 people and injured more than 50
others inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_restaurant_suicide_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
catloaf:
The loaflike form of a domestic cat sitting with paws tucked underneath
the body.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catloaf>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
General education is the best preventive of the evils now most
dreaded. In the civilized countries of the world, the question is how to
distribute most generally and equally the property of the world. As a
rule, where education is most general the distribution of property is
most general.... As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse
knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire
knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to
acquire property.
--Rutherford B. Hayes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes>