Welcome all, as today is a points extravaganza I’ll just get on with it! With the death of Doris Day, the following have scored 53 points each! Christine, Paula, Rachel, Paul G, Dave, Julie, Louise, and a special hooray for Millie who had her listed as her Woman, so she earns a whopping 153 points!! 

Not to be outdone by such scoring, Paul C and Debbie correctly guessed Herman Wouk would die too, so 47 points each there as well! So that’s changed the league table somewhat and livens up the Dead Pool as it were… 

And a special RIP to Bob Hawke. The former Aussie PM who set a world record in 1953 by drinking a yard of ale in 11 seconds at Oxford’s Turf Tavern, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Doris Day, 97, American actress (Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane), singer (“Que Sera, Sera“) and animal welfare activist, Golden Globe winner, pneumonia.
• Grumpy Cat, 7, American internet celebrity cat, complications from urinary tract infection.
• Bob Hawke, 89, Australian politician, Prime Minister (1983–1991), President of the ACTU (1969–1980).
• Ashley Massaro, 39, American professional wrestler (WWE), model (Playboy) and reality show contestant (Survivor).
• I. M. Pei, 102, Chinese-born American architect (Bank of China Tower, East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Louvre Pyramid), Pritzker Prize winner (1983). 
• Herman Wouk, 103, American author (The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, War and Remembrance), Pulitzer Prize winner (1952). 
• Brian Walden, 86, British broadcaster (Weekend World) and politician, MP (1964–1977), emphysema.

In Other News 

Former US President Jimmy Carter has undergone surgery for a broken hip after falling at his home in Georgia, his office says. The 94-year-old, the oldest living former US president, was on his way to go turkey hunting when he fell. Mr Carter was recovering comfortably at a medical centre in Americus, near his home in Plains, with his wife, Rosalynn, a statement said. His surgeon was quoted as saying that the operation was successful. “President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit. He hopes the State of Georgia will allow him to rollover the unused limit to next year,” the Carter Center said. Since leaving the White House, Mr Carter has remained active, carrying out humanitarian work with his Carter Center in recent years. In 2015, Mr Carter – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 – disclosed that cancer that had been found on his liver had also been discovered on his brain. After four months of treatment, he announced that he was cancer-free. At the time, he said: “I’ve had a wonderful life… I’ve got thousands of friends and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence, I’ve just gotta make sure I kill all those turkeys before I go.”  

Video footage has shown Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger being attacked at an event in South Africa. The 71-year-old former California governor was interacting with fans during a skipping competition at his Arnold Classic Africa sporting event when a man drop-kicked him from behind. The attacker is seen being restrained following the incident. Schwarzenegger thanked fans on Twitter for their concern, but insisted there was “nothing to worry about”. The video footage, shared widely on social media, shows Schwarzenegger posing for photos and filming at the Johannesburg event on Saturday when the man attacks him with a flying kick. The Terminator star stumbles forward a step after the kick, while the attacker falls to the ground, where he is immediately restrained by a security guard. The man was later handed over to police officers, event officials said. Schwarzenegger tweeted to his more than four million followers: “I thought I was just jostled by the crowd, which happens a lot. I only realised I was kicked when I saw the video like all of you.” He later urged fans to focus on the athletes at the event instead of the attack. 

Jeremy Kyle has said he is “devastated”  following the death of a guest and cancellation of his TV show. The controversial long-running chat show was axed by ITV bosses after the death of guest Steve Dymond last week. MPs and broadcasting regulators are now looking into the care of participants in reality and factual TV shows. “Myself and the production team I have worked with for the last 14 years are all utterly devastated by the recent events, especially since my cash cow has suddenly evaporated” Kyle said in a statement. “Our thoughts and sympathies are with Steve’s family and friends at this incredibly sad time, fuck knows what I’ll do now, perhaps I’ll just stand outside a McDonalds or a Job Centre and belittle those who walk by.” he added. On Wednesday, MPs announced the welfare of guests on TV shows is to be scrutinised in the wake of the death of Mr Dymond. The Commons media select committee is to investigate whether TV companies give guests enough support and media regulator Ofcom is examining whether to update its code of conduct. Mr Dymond was found dead on 9th May, a week after filming the show, during which he took a lie detector test.  

And finally, two tales made better or worse by mobile phones! A man has died after his head was trapped in a freak accident with an electronic seat at a Vue cinema in Birmingham. The cinema-goer went into cardiac arrest after his head was crushed by an electric footrest while he was attempting to rescue his phone. The accident is said to have taken place when the man dropped his phone between two seats in the middle of a film at Vue cinema in Star City, which is in the north east of the city. He is thought to have got trapped when the seat’s footrest clamped down on his head. After his partner and staff at the cinema struggled to release him he was eventually liberated and taken to hospital. Birmingham City Council has begun a health and safety investigation. But he might count himself lucky compared to farmer Kurt Kaser, from Nebraska, who was unloading corn last month when he climbed out of his truck and accidentally stepped into the opening of a grain hopper. The 63-year-old said he could remember telling himself “this ain’t good, this is not good at all” as he tried and failed to pull his leg out. With no mobile phone near him to call for help and the knowledge that no one would come to his aid, the farmer of 40 years made the agonising decision to amputate his own leg. He said: “I thought ‘how long am I going to stay conscious here?’ because I didn’t know what to expect. Then I felt it jerk me again and I thought it was going to grab me again and pull me in further. I had my pocket knife and I thought ‘well, the only way I’m getting outta here is to cut it off’ so I just started sawing on it. When I was cutting it, the nerve endings I could feel them just ping every time I’d start sawing around that pipe and all at once it went and let me go so I got the heck out of there.” After freeing himself, Mr Kaser then had to crawl 150ft across the farm to the nearest phone to call for help. He said he could not remember much pain or blood but he never lost consciousness and could recall the journey to the hospital. Well done that man! 

On This Day

• 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.
• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
• 1780 – New England’s Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada.
• 1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe‘s rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

Deaths

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (1533–1536); second wife of Henry VIII of England (b. c. 1501)
• 1935 – T. E. Lawrence, British colonel and archaeologist (b. 1888)
• 1984 – John Betjeman, English poet and academic (b. 1906)
• 1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist, 37th First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tina Fey (49), Miriam Margolyes (78), Yun-Fat Chow (64), Toyah Willcox (61), Paul Whitehouse (61), Andrea Corr (45), Megan Fox (33), Pierce Brosnan (66), Danny Trejo (75), David Boreanaz (50), Janet Jackson (53), Stephen Mangan (51), Cate Blanchett (50), Tim Roth (58), George Lucas (75), Sofia Coppola (48), Francesca Annis (74), Danny Huston (57), Greg Davies (51), Martine McCutcheon (43), Siân Phillips (86), Iwan Rheon (34), Samantha Morton (42), Robert Pattinson (33), Harvey Keitel (80), Zoë Wanamaker (70), Mark Heap (62), Stephen Colbert (55), Stevie Wonder (69), Rami Malek (38), Malin Akerman (41), Emilio Estevez (57), Catherine Tate (51), Gabriel Byrne (69), Ving Rhames (60), Jason Biggs (41), Stephen Baldwin (53), and Holly Valance (36).

A quick round up this week, I’m sure you all have better things to do. A few unexpected deaths this week, but aren’t they all!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Adam Sky, 42, Australian DJ, severed artery from broken glass.  
• Alvin Sargent, 92, American screenwriter (Julia, Ordinary People, The Amazing Spider-Man).  
• Freddie Starr, 76, English comedian.  
• Peggy Lipton, 72, U.S. actress & model (The Mod Squad, Twin Peaks, The Postman), cancer.  
• Pua Magasiva, 38, Samoan-born New Zealand actor (Shortland Street, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, 30 Days of Night).

In Other News 

For those of you who follow wrestling, you’ll be rather surprised to hear that Cesar Barron, known as Silver King, a professional wrestler and actor has died after collapsing during a bout in London. He was a star in his native Mexico and appeared alongside the comic actor Jack Black in the 2005 film Nacho Libre. The 51-year-old was performing at the Roundhouse in Camden when he reportedly fell to the canvas. A fellow Mexican wrestler paid tribute to his “great rival”, saying: “He went as he wanted: fighting!” El Hijo del Santo, aka Jorge Rodriguez, tweeted his “deep regret” at the death of his “partner in so many battles”. Barron had been in the middle of a match at the Greatest Show of Lucha Libre event on Saturday. Reports in Mexican media suggest he may have suffered a heart attack. Roberto Carrera Maldonado, who attended the fight, said it initially looked like his collapse was part of the show. “It felt like it was staged,” he told the media. “Obviously it was quite normal in the fight.” But the wrestler stayed on the floor despite the referee’s efforts to revive him. Footage posted online shows the referee and several other men coming to his aid after he collapsed. “All of us were really shocked – it wasn’t clear what was happening,” Mr Carrera said. “I had the impression they didn’t know what to do.”  

Former Beverly Hills 90210 star Luke Perry was laid to rest in a “mushroom suit”, his daughter has revealed, but what exactly is this eco-friendly burial option? Sophie Perry spoke in an Instagram post of how mushrooms now hold an entirely new meaning for her, as she praised her late father’s alternative mode of interment. He died in March after suffering a massive stroke. “Any explanation I give will not do justice to the genius that is the mushroom burial suit, but it is essentially an eco friendly burial option via mushrooms,” she posted from the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in California. “My dad discovered it, and was more excited by this than I have ever seen him. He was buried in this suit, one of his final wishes. They are truly a beautiful thing for this beautiful planet, and I want to share it with all of you.” The mushroom suit, or infinity burial suit, was developed by Jae Rhim Lee, founder of Coeio, a California-based green burial company. The firm claims to have found a better way to reduce the body’s toxic pollutants, including lead and mercury, which are often released into the environment during decomposition and cremation. Made from organic cotton embedded with material from specially cultivated mushrooms, the firm says its infinity burial suit “delivers nutrients from body to surrounding plant roots efficiently”. The firm promises to plant two trees for every suit it sells. Its website says the mushroom suit – which costs $1,500 (£1,144) – is currently out of stock, although it does have a version for pets. Green burials are not a new concept. In Washington state compost burials have been presented as an alternative burial option by the company Recompose. The idea is that the human body composts so loved ones take home a pot of soil instead of an urn of ash. 

On This Day

• 1926 – The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.   
• 1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Jr., is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs’ home.  
• 1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet.  
• 2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.  
• 2010 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crashes on final approach to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 out of the 104 people on board.  
• 2015 – Massive Nepal earthquake kills 218 people and injures more than 3500.

Deaths

• 1994 – John Smith, Scottish-English lawyer and politician (b. 1938)  
• 2001 – Perry Como, American singer and television host (b. 1912)  
• 2014 – H. R. Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer (b. 1940)  
• 2018 – Dennis Nilsen, Scottish serial killer (b. 1945)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Pam Ferris (71), Holly Valance (36), Meg Foster (71), Maureen Lipman (73), Bono (59), Rosario Dawson (40), Glenda Jackson (83), Billy Joel (70), Vicky McClure (36), David Attenborough (93), Stephen Amell (38), Enrique Iglesias (44), Richard O’Sullivan (75), Adrianne Palicki (36), George Clooney (58), Alan Dale (72), Pippa Haywood (58), Henry Cavill (36), Zach McGowan (39), John Rhys-Davies (75), Richard E. Grant (62), Lance Henriksen (79), Michael Palin (76), Adele (31) and Chris Brown (30).

We’re now into May and the lack of celebrity deaths is starting to take its toll. Looks like wealth and an easy life does wonders for your longevity. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• John Singleton, 51, American film director and television producer (Boyz n the Hood, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Snowfall), stroke. 
• Boon Gould, 64, English musician (Level 42). 
• Peter Mayhew, 74, English-American actor (Star Wars), heart attack. 
• Lord Toby Jug, 53, British politician.

In Other News

The unmarked grave of Joseph Merrick – who is better known as the Elephant Man – has been traced after nearly 130 years, it has been claimed. Merrick had a skeletal and soft tissue deformity which saw him as a freak show attraction, then a medical curiosity. His skeleton has been preserved at the Royal London Hospital since his death. But author Jo Vigor-Mungovin says she has now discovered Merrick’s soft tissue was buried in the City of London Cemetery after he died in 1890. After a miserable adolescence and time as a travelling exhibit, Leicester-born Merrick ended up at what was then called the London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, where he surprised staff by proving to have an intelligent and sensitive personality. He became a minor celebrity and in May 1887 was visited by Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who afterwards sent him Christmas cards. After his death, Merrick’s body was dissected and his skeleton preserved as an anatomical specimen.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito has declared his abdication in a historic ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In his last public address as emperor, Akihito handed over the symbols of power and thanked the public for their support during his 30-year reign. The 85-year-old was given permission to abdicate after saying he felt unable to fulfil his role because of his age and declining health. He is the first Japanese monarch to stand down in more than 200 years. His eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, formally ascended the throne later on Wednesday. A new era – called Reiwa, meaning order and harmony – will begin in Japan’s unique calendar. While the emperor holds no political power, he serves as a national figurehead. Akihito has endeared himself to many Japanese people during his reign as he has interacted with those suffering from disease and disaster. The 85-year-old had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and a heart bypass operation in 2012. In a rare speech in 2016, he said that he feared his age would make it hard for him to carry out his duties and strongly hinted that he wanted to stand down.  

Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy Brexit once more, the death toll from the most recent Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has passed 1,000, the health ministry says. DRC’s Ebola outbreak began in August and is the second deadliest in history. World Health Organisation deputy director Dr Michael Ryan said mistrust and violence was harming efforts to tackle the disease as it spread through the east of the country. There have been 119 documented attacks on medical centres and staff since January, Dr Ryan said. WHO staff anticipated “continued intense transmission”, he added, in a briefing to reporters in Geneva. Health workers have plenty of vaccines – more than 100,000 people have already been given the treatment. But continuing violence in the east of the country where militias are present, as well as mistrust of doctors, was hindering their programme, Dr Ryan said. The DRC is also suffering from an outbreak of measles which has killed more than 1,000 people, with 50,000 cases reported. WHO staff have confirmed measles in 14 of the country’s 26 provinces, in both rural and urban areas. Ebola is still contained within two provinces in the DRC but it is becoming harder to monitor the spread of the virus because of violence. The WHO said the risk of a global spread is low, but it was very likely cases would spread into neighbouring countries. 

On This Day

• 1215 – Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England — part of a chain of events leading to the signing of the Magna Carta. 
• 1260 – Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire. 
• 1821 – Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.  
• 1905 – The trial in the Stratton Brothers case begins in London, England; it marks the first time that fingerprint evidence is used to gain a conviction for murder.   
• 1961 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight.   
• 1980 – Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service storms the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

Deaths

• 1316 – Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, daughter of King Edward I of England (b. 1282)
• 1821 – Napoleon, French general and emperor (b. 1769)   
• 1985 – Donald Bailey, English engineer, designed the Bailey bridge (b. 1901)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Will Arnett (49), Randy Travis (60), Christina Hendricks (44), Rob Brydon (54), Frankie Valli (85), Ben Elton (60), Sandi Toksvig (61), Dwayne Johnson (47), Christine Baranski (67), Ellie Kemper (39), Matt Berry (45), David Suchet (73), Lily Allen (34), David Beckham (44), Donatella Versace (64), Jamie Dornan (37), Julie Benz (47), Joanna Lumley (73), Una Stubbs (82), Gal Gadot (34), Kirsten Dunst (37), Burt Young (79), Michelle Pfeiffer (61), Uma Thurman (49), Daniel Day-Lewis (62), Kate Mulgrew (64), Jerry Seinfeld (65), Willie Nelson (86), Anita Dobson (70), Jessica Alba (38), Penélope Cruz (45), Ann-Margret (78), Mary McDonnell (67), and Jay Leno (69).

Welcome to the last newsletter for April, the general trend of the year is still with us, no amazing surprise deaths and still no points! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ken Kercheval, 83, American actor (Dallas, Network, The Seven-Ups), pneumonia.
• Edward Kelsey, 88, English actor (The Archers, Danger Mouse, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit).
• Terry Rawlings, 85, British film editor (Alien, Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire), heart failure.
• Jean-Pierre Marielle, 87, French actor (Cookies, Without Apparent Motive, The Da Vinci Code).
• Dick Rivers, 74, French rock and roll singer (Les Chats Sauvages), cancer.
• Larry “Flash” Jenkins, 63, American actor (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fletch, The White Shadow), heart attack.  
• Jessie Lawrence Ferguson, 76, American actor (Prince of Darkness, Darkman, Boyz n the Hood).

In Other News

A California prisoner is accused of beheading his cellmate in an attack officials described as “heinous”. Jaime Osuna allegedly mutilated, killed and beheaded Luis Romero at Corcoran State Prison on 9th March, in an overnight murder. Fuck knows what the other inmates and the guards were up to! Osuna is accused of removing several of Romero’s body parts with a sharp metal object which was wrapped in string and attached to a handle. Officials say it is unclear how long the victim remained alive during the torture. “We do believe that [Romero] was conscious during at least a portion of the time,” Phil Esbenshade, a district attorney, said. “This is the most gruesome case that I have seen in terms of heinousness in the slaying.” Prison guards found Romero’s body in his cell at around 7.30 am. An autopsy report concluded that the 44-year-old had bled to death after suffering “multiple sharp force trauma injuries”. Osuna was initially imprisoned in 2017, without the possibility of parole, after pleading guilty to killing a 37-year-old woman in a motel in 2011.   

More than 270 election staff have died in Indonesia, ten days after the country held the world’s biggest single-day vote, officials say. The workers have mostly died of fatigue-related illnesses caused by long hours spent counting millions of ballot papers by hand, according to one official. A further 1,878 workers involved in overseeing the ballot have fallen ill, Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (KPU) spokesperson said. Voting is still ongoing but concern is growing over the number of deaths. The country’s health ministry has also urged medical facilities to care for sick election staff. Indonesia’s elections commission has been criticised for its treatment of workers. The country held elections on 17th April, marking the first time it had combined a presidential ballot with national and regional parliamentary ones. Officials estimated that around 80 per cent of 193 million people participate. Each person cast up to five ballot papers in more than 800,000 polling stations across eight hours. If any of the Poolers have any idea how you can die from counting bits of paper, please send your answer on a postcard to the usual address…  

Last week we said farewell to Geoffrey Servante at the age of 99. I’d forgive you for not knowing who he was, however he was almost certainly the last surviving British member of the legendary International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. Geoffrey joined the fight against General Franco’s fascist-backed rebellion in Spain in June 1937, 11 months after the outbreak of the war. As an 18-year-old merchant seaman, he jumped ship in Valencia and caught a train to the International Brigades’ main base in Albacete. Because he was not yet 21 he was refused admission into the British Battalion and was instead assigned to an Anglo-American artillery unit known as the John Brown Battery. Initially deployed in Extremadura in south-west Spain, the battery was transferred to the Toledo front south of Madrid in December 1937. There Geoffrey remained until the final months of the Spanish Civil War, which ended with Franco declaring victory in April 1939. Thanks to Millie for finding this one! 

On This Day

• 1503 – The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as one of the first European battles in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.
• 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
• 1869 – Chinese and Irish labourers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.
• 1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
• 1945 – Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad consisting of members of the Italian resistance movement.
• 1988 – Near Maui, Hawaii, flight attendant Clarabelle “C.B.” Lansing is blown out of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, and falls to her death when part of the plane’s fuselage rips open in mid-flight.

Deaths

• 1945 – Benito Mussolini, Italian journalist and politician, 27th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1883)
• 1992 – Francis Bacon, Irish painter (b. 1909)
• 1999 – Alf Ramsey, English footballer and manager (b. 1920)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jenna Coleman (33), Sheena Easton (60), Russell T. Davies (56), Pablo Schreiber (41), Channing Tatum (39), Giancarlo Esposito (61), Kevin James (54), Jet Li (56), Joan Chen (58), Melania Trump (49), Renée Zellweger (50), Al Pacino (79), Hank Azaria (55), Talia Shire (73), Gina Torres (50), William Roache (87), Rory McCann (50), Aidan Gillen (51), Djimon Hounsou (55), Barbra Streisand (77), Shirley MacLaine (85), Rebecca Mader (42), Richard Donner (89), Gemma Whelan (38), John Cena (42), John Hannah (57), Lee Majors (80), John Oliver (42), Amber Heard (33), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (53), Jack Nicholson (82), Sheryl Lee (52), and John Waters (73).

A quick writeup this week, I know you’re all enjoying the holidays and can’t be bothered to read up on dead people. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Bibi Andersson, 83, Swedish actress (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona), complications from a stroke.  
• Warren Adler, 91, American author (The War of the Roses, Random Hearts), liver cancer.  
• Les Reed, 83, English songwriter (“It’s Not Unusual“, “Delilah“, “The Last Waltz“).  

In Other News

Actress Joan Collins has praised the NHS and fire crews after a “terrifying” blaze at her flat in central London. The London Fire Brigade said they were called to a seven-storey building on Eaton Place, Belgravia, at about 16:30 on Saturday. About 10 firefighters tackled the blaze which was brought under control by about 17:35. The actress needed treatment for smoke inhalation and praised her “hero” husband. In a tweet, posted on Sunday, Collins thanked the NHS and ambulance service, as well as the Metropolitan Police for blocking off the street and the fire brigade for putting out the fire. She also thanked her husband Percy Gibson, who “doused the flames consuming the entire wall with handheld extinguisher.” A spokeswoman for the fire brigade said: “Part of a flat on the first floor of the seven-storey building was damaged by the fire. “Two people left the property before the brigade arrived.” A Metropolitan Police spokesman said two people were treated by the London Ambulance Service but did not require hospital treatment, adding that the fire was deemed non-suspicious.  

In an apparently Frankensteinian effort, US scientists have partially revived pig brains four hours after the animals were slaughtered. The findings could fuel debate about the barrier between life and death, thus provoke arguments over points, and also provide a new way of researching diseases like Alzheimer’s. The study showed the death of brain cells could be halted and that some connections in the brain were restored. However, there were no signals from the brain that would indicate awareness or consciousness. The surprise findings challenge the idea that the brain goes into irreversible decline within minutes of the blood supply being cut off. How was it done? Thirty-two pig brains were collected from an abattoir. Four hours later the organs were connected to a system made by the team at Yale University. It rhythmically pumped (to mimic the pulse) a specially designed liquid round the brain, which contained a synthetic blood to carry oxygen and drugs to slow or reverse the death of brain cells. 10 hours after the pigs were decapitated, there was no sign of the brain-wide electrical activity in an electroencephalogram (EEG brain scan) that would signal awareness or perception. Fundamentally they were still dead brains. The Yale scientists were so concerned the pigs might become conscious that they gave drugs to the disembodied brains to reduce any brain activity. And the team were constantly monitoring the brains to see if there was any sign of higher brain functions. 

On This Day

• 753 BC – Romulus founds Rome. 
• 1509 – Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII.  
• 1918 – World War I: German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as “The Red Baron”, is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France.  
• 1934 – The “Surgeon’s Photograph”, the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).  
• 1989 – Nintendo launched the original Game Boy in Japan. The portable video game system had four Japanese launch titles; Super Mario Land, Alleyway, Baseball, and Yakuman.

Deaths

• 1910 – Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (b. 1835)  
• 2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933) 
• 2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958)  
• 2018 – Verne Troyer, American actor (b. 1969)

Last Week’s Birthdays

James McAvoy (40), Toby Stephens (50), Andie MacDowell (61), Tony Danza (68), Iggy Pop (72), Queen Elizabeth II (93), Veronica Cartwright (70), Andy Serkis (55), Jessica Lange (70), Clint Howard (60), Carmen Electra (47), Ryan O’Neal (78), George Takei (82), Nicholas Lyndhurst (58), Leslie Phillips (95), Michael Brandon (74), James Franco (41), Ashley Judd (51), Hayden Christensen (38), Tim Curry (73), David Tennant (48), Eli Roth (47), Rick Moranis (66), James Woods (72), Hayley Mills (73), Conan O’Brien (56), Sean Bean (60), Rooney Mara (34), Jennifer Garner (47), David Bradley (77), Victoria Beckham (45), Claire Foy (35), Ellen Barkin (65), Maisie Williams (22), Seth Rogen (37), Emma Watson (29), Luke Evans (40), Emma Thompson (60), Samantha Fox (53), Sarah Michelle Gellar (42), Adrien Brody (46), Robert Carlyle (58), Julie Christie (79) and Peter Capaldi (61).