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American humorist, juggler and film star W C Fields was renowned as a big drinker and indeed this was part of his film persona. It was said that his bulbous nose had all the colours of the rainbow. His domestic staff estimated that he drank two US quarts of gin, or 64 fluid ounces, or 1.7 litres. In his remaining years his housekeeper, a Miss Michaels, asked him if he had his life over would he have done anything differently. What was Fields’ reply?

Answer: “I would have liked to have seen how I made out without liquor’.

Source: W C Fields: His Follies and Fortunes by Robert Lewis Taylor

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1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Lisbon.

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Source: The Wicket Wit of Winston Churchill by Dominique Enright

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Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149BCE)

Roman statesman, soldier and writer of virtue, simplicity and wisdom. He condemned the luxury of his time and was nicknamed “the censor”. He became Consul in 195BCE, took part in the defeat of Hannibal at Zama, held command in Sardinia and Spain, and in 191 BCE assisted the Greeks in overthrowing Antiochus III at Thermopolyae.

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