The List

Saturday 17 December 1994 19:02 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

UNLUCKY WINNERS: everything Midas touched turned to gold, including his daughter; the messenger to Marathon in 490BC conveyed the good news but died from the effort; King Pyrrhus won great victories over the Romans in 3BC but lost most of his army ; Shylock won his court case for a pound of flesh from Antonio in The Merchant of Venice but could not collect the winnings without forfeiting his life; Nelson won the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but did not survive to celebrate; Viv Nicholson, who has decided not to buy a lottery ticket, won the pools 33 years ago but was miserable until she had spent, spent, spent it all; Shergar, the Aga Khan's horse, won the Derby in 1981 but was captured by the IRA and never seen again; Ben Johnson won the fastest 100 metres in history at the 1988 Olympics but was later disqualified for taking drugs; the winner of last week's lottery won £17.9m but his family say it is making their lives a misery.

TODAY is the feast day of Saint Flannan, 7th-century Irish monk and son of Turlough, the chieftain. Flannan was working in a monastery farm when he decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome on a flat floating stone. He so impressed Pope John IV that he was made first Bishop of Killaloe. Meanwhile his aged father, who had lost three sons, became a monk and asked Saint Colman for a special blessing for his family. Colman took seven strides and told Turlough that from him would spring seven kings, all called Brian. Flannan feared that he might become one so prayed for a physical deformity. Accordingly, he was covered with boils which saved him from this fate.

18 December, 1779: Joseph Grimaldi (above), the father of English clowns, was born in London, the son of an Italian actor. He first appeared at Sadler's Wells aged 18 months. His father died when he was nine years old and from then Grimaldi appeared at both Drury Lane and Sadler's Wells, often on the same evening. His greatest success was as Mother Goose which he first played in 1806 and constantly revived. By his last performance in 1828 he was severely crippled. He died in 1837, dependent on charity. His memoirs, edited by Charles Dickens and illustrated by Cruikshank, were published a year later.

1944: Le Monde was published for the first time.

1969: the death penalty was abolished in Britain.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in