ON THIS DAY

• 1533 - Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (five wives would follow … AND five mother-in-laws. Git!
• 1858 - Hyman L. Lipman patented the pencil.
• 1867 - The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
• 1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington DC by John W. Hinckley Jr.
• 1986 – Jimmy ‘You Dirty Rat’ Cagney shuffled off this mortal coil.
• 1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's ‘Sunflowers’ was bought for $39.85 million. It was also Vinnie’s birthday (1853)

Birthdays

Big day for musos and actors: Frankie ‘Rawhide’ Laine (1913), John ‘Gomez Addams’ Astin (1930), Warren Beatty (1937), Eric Clapton (1945), MC ‘Can’t Touch This’ Hammer (1962), Celine Dion (1968) and, of course, Australia’s favourite son, Rolf Harris (1930).

This is also Shouter Liberation Day in Trinidad and Tobago (heh?) and National Doctors’ Day in the US … so chances are you won’t be able to get a tee time on any golf course east of Hawaii.

Quotes

“My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two 20s.”
- Warren Beatty

“Honey I forgot to duck.”
- Ronald Reagan to wife Nancy after being shot