03 November 2003 11:57
Anniversaries
On This Day 1493: On his secondvoyage of discovery, Christopher Columbus sighted Dominica in the West Indies. 1896: J
H Hunter patented the portable weighing scales. 1942: British troops, led by Field Marshall Montgomery, broke through
Rommel's front line in Africa. 1953: The first edition of Playboy magazine was launched. It featured a now-famous
nude calendar pose by Marilyn Monroe. 1957: The Russian dog, Laika, became the first creature in space, aboard Sputnik
II. She didn't survive the journey. Laika was a stray that had been picked up off the streets of Moscow. 1975: The
North Sea pipeline -the first to be built underwater -was officially opened by the Queen. 1977: Elton John announced his
retirement from live performance. Fifteen months later, he changed his mind. 1991: Ayrton Senna won the shortest Formula
1 race ever. It Lulu is 55was just 17 laps long. 1993: A mystery woman paid a record five million Swiss francs for an
envelope with two stamps on it. It had been sent from Mauritius to a Bordeaux wine exporter in 1847. 1994: The
Government dropped plans to privatise the Post Office. 2000: Newspapers revealed that MPs found images of Margaret
Thatcher more arousing than Denise van Outen or a lesbian kiss -apparently 80 per cent of them sweated when they saw her
picture in a study. 2002: The entire Manchester United first team squad made the Sunday Times Pay List of Britain's
top 500 earners.
[UKIR [UK & Ireland Intelligence Wire]] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
