Welcome all, to a rather lacklustre edition of the newsletter. Not much happened last week, so I’ve padded things out somewhat with interesting stories about pain and death. It might be time for me to send out the flying monkeys again!!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Marcy Borders, 42, American 9/11 survivor, subject of “Dust Lady” photograph, stomach cancer.
• Justin Wilson, 37, British IndyCar Series driver, head injuries from race collision.
• Colin Fry, 53, British medium and television presenter, lung cancer.
• Alison Parker, 24, American news reporter (WDBJ), shot.
• Adam Ward, 27, American news cameraman (WDBJ) and photojournalist, shot.
• Nelly de Vries-Lammerts, 110, Dutch supercentenarian.
• Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 21, American actor (Les Miserables), fall.
• Oliver Sacks, 82, British neurologist and author (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), liver cancer.

In Other News

Carol Vorderman, the television presenter, has revealed she is “covered in burns” after falling off a treadmill while running naked. The former Countdown number-cruncher disclosed she tripped while using the machine and ended up trapped up against a wall. Vorderman, 54, was intending to comfort a Twitter friend over a mishap, but she managed to trump the tale with her own story “It’s hilarious. Pain? I fell off a treadmill running naked (don’t ask). Now covered in burns and doctor’s dressings!” – Thus revealing her naked exercise mishap to her more than 330,000 followers! Vorderman later told the media she was exercising in the nude because she was “hot”. However, she said she would think twice before doing so again and was “not sure it will be an Olympic sport soon”.

Two-time major winner John Daly has been taken to hospital after collapsing during a minor tournament in the USA. The American, 49, has  been checked for rib and finger injuries, but a friend said his vital signs – temperature, blood pressure and heart and breathing rates – are good. Leigh Brannan of Deerfield Golf Club in Jackson, Mississippi said Daly was having breathing problems on a hot day. “He was struggling pretty badly right before he collapsed,” Brannan said. “We’re all hoping it’s nothing serious and that he was just a little dehydrated. He was even saying he still wants to play.”

Justin Gatlin could not get close to Usain Bolt in the 200m final in Beijing – but it appears he might have had better luck if he had been on a Segway and armed with a camera. Bolt completed another double at the World Athletics Championships and when he was celebrating with the crowd an overzealous cameraman got too close for comfort, lost control of his Segway and swept the Jamaican off his feet. The 10-times world champion did not appear badly injured by the incident, managed to see the funny side and was soon posing for pictures with his adoring crowd again. “It didn’t actually hit me in my Achilles, it hit me in my calf area,” Bolt said. “It’s all right, I will get over it. Never a doubt [for the relays], never a doubt. I am just going to get it massaged, ice it up a bit and I should be fine.” Bolt added: “The rumour I’m trying to start right now is that Justin Gatlin paid him off.”

An elephant in northern Thailand killed its handler before running off into the jungle with three terrified Chinese tourists still on its back! The Police said that on Wednesday morning a Chinese family of three – a father, mother and a young child – were taking a ride on the male elephant when it turned suddenly on its new keeper. The elephant had not taken well to his new mahout and turned on him suddenly, goring him to death. The media broadcast footage of the three frightened tourists being led back to camp, still on the elephant’s back, once it had been calmed down by other mahouts and their own elephants.

And in a continuation of goring, a man has died after being struck by a bull, the 10th such death in Spain this year, making it one  of the deadliest for the sport of bull running. The unidentified man in his late 40s was struck by a bull several times during a run in the north-eastern town of Borriol on Saturday and died in hospital, a local police spokesman said. This year’s toll matches the record of 10 deaths in bull runs, set in 2009. Last weekend alone four men died after being gored by half-tonne fighting bulls in four different towns. One of the victims, a 55-year-old man, was caught on video being repeatedly gored by a bull as he lay on the ground in front of a protective barrier that separated onlookers from bull run participants. And they say Cheese Rolling is dangerous!

And finally, celebrity psychic Derek Acorah has been trolled on Twitter following the death of his close friend Colin Fry. The grieving TV star was bombarded with comments after Psychic Private Eyes star Colin lost his battle with lung cancer, aged only 53. One user wrote, ”Hey Derek, he has sent a message for you, it’ll cost you 30 pound to hear it.” Another “You and Colin deal in the business of fooling the vulnerable for private gain. I couldn’t care less he’s dead.” The comments were widely condemned as fans rallied around the star. Believe what you will about psychics and mediums, but it’s rather telling that Acorah is sad at the loss if his fellow medium, surely he of all people should be able to carry on talking to his dead friend.

On This Day

• 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
• 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
• 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world’s first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
• 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
• 1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.
• 1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
• 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
• 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing an estimated 1,836 people and causing over $108 billion in damage.

Deaths

• 1930 – William Archibald Spooner, English priest and author (b. 1844)
• 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (b. 1881)
• 1982 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish-English actress and singer (b. 1915)
• 1987 – Lee Marvin, American actor and singer (b. 1924)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sean Connery (85), LeAnne Rimes (33), Jason Priestley (46), Shania Twain (50), Aaron Paul (36), Billy Ray Cyrus (54), Barbara Eden (84), Steve Guttenberg (57), Elvis Costello (61), Paul Rubens (63), Shelley Long (66), Chris Pine (35), John McCain (79), Claudia Schiffer (45), Rachel Bildon (34), Rebecca DeMornay (56), Carla Gugino (44), Florence Welch (29), Jack Black (46), Gene Simmons (66), Stephen Fry (58), Rupert Grint (27), Tim Burton (57), Alexander Skarsgard (39), Barbara Bach (68) and Elliott Gould (77).

Next Week peeps!

Good afternoon everyone, a lovely day for sitting down and reading the current Dead Pool Newsletter. Not many deaths this week, however loads of deadly news to catch up on. Let’s do this!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Emma Didlake, 110, American supercentenarian, oldest veteran in the United States.
• Kitty McGeever, 48, British actress (Emmerdale).
• Goldie Steinberg, 114, American supercentenarian, oldest verified Jewish person.
• Yvonne Craig, 78, American actress (Batman, Star Trek, Olivia), breast cancer.
• Anna Kashfi, 80, British actress (The Mountain, Cowboy, Adventures in Paradise).
• Arthur Morris, 93, Australian Test cricketer.

In Other News

Former US President Jimmy Carter has revealed he is to be treated for cancerous tumours on the brain, in his first public comments on his illness. Mr Carter said he would start his radiation treatment on Thursday. Mr Carter, 90, was recently treated for liver cancer, after which it was discovered the disease had spread. He said he would “cut back fairly dramatically” on public works. “It is in the hands of God and I am prepared for anything that comes,” he said. Mr Carter told a press conference on Thursday he had at first thought the cancer was confined to his liver and that an operation this month had completely removed it. But an MRI scan the same afternoon showed four spots of melanoma on the brain. “I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease. I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said. “I have got thousands of friends and I have had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence.” Mr Carter said it was likely doctors would find cancer elsewhere in his body as his treatment continued. But he said: “I feel very good. I have had no pain or debility.”

Broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire has announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The award-winning radio and TV journalist, 46, announced on Twitter on Wednesday evening that she would undergo a mastectomy as part of her treatment in the coming weeks and that she hoped to continue broadcasting her Victoria Derbyshire TV programme “as much as possible” while she recovered. Derbyshire said friends, family and colleagues were offering support and the NHS staff looking after her “were being brilliant”.

Terence Stamp was involved in a near-death experience on the set of his new film, according to an interview with the actor in the Daily Mail. The 77-year-old actor was involved in a near-fatal accident involving a horse during the shoot of Bitter Harvest. “My horse had a habit, when I brought it to a stop, of lifting its front legs up,” he said. “On my last day, I brought it to a stop but slid off the back … I looked up and saw that this horse, which weighed half a ton, had lost its balance and was going to fall directly on me.” Stamp went on to say that the horse fell on his chest and pelvis, leading to multiple injuries. “If it had landed any further up, it would have killed me,” he said. “It broke my pelvis in six places, two ribs and ripped a tendon in my arm. “I always imagined that my last thoughts would be somehow profound, but what went through my mind was, “Distinguished actor killed by horse’s arse.’” He joked that if he had been American, he might have considered legal action but he “couldn’t be bothered”.

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to spend the next two weeks in hospital, according to a family statement. The Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation said he was on a new course of antibiotics to treat an inflammation. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate “is in good spirits and not in any pain,” the family said. This is his third stay in hospital in recent weeks. He was previously treated for an infection resulting from his prostate cancer treatment. Details of his current condition have not been released. The archbishop deeply appreciate the prayers and good wishes of so many, said his daughter, Reverend Mpho Tutu. “While my father was very grateful to the media for its concern, he had humbly requested journalists not to anticipate daily updates on his condition so that he could rest peacefully while receiving treatment,” his daughter added.

Diego Maradona has revealed he has been  clean from drugs for almost 12 years in a video released on his Facebook page, adding he has “chosen to live life for my daughters, grandchildren and those still to come”. Maradona has blamed his past drug use on failing to realise his true potential as a player who failed a doping test at the 1994 World Cup. Signing off the video from inside his swimming pool, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Maradona goes on to reveal his clean living. “I think there is nothing more to prove. I think my environment is my people. I’m about to be 12 years clean from drugs because it does not let me wake up every morning the way I do today. I have chosen to live life for my daughters, grandchildren and those still to come. And be careful, I still haven’t closed the factory.”

And finally, every year for more than 50 years, Japan’s new centenarians have been honoured with a silver sake cup and a congratulatory letter from the prime minister. But as the country prepares to mark Respect for the Aged Day next month, the latest crop of citizens who turned 100 in the past 12 months face disappointment, as the soaring number of centenarians puts a new strain on the government’s coffers. The saucer-like sakazuki, a gift from the government since 1963, could be replaced by a cheaper version or be scrapped altogether this year after the health and welfare ministry complained it could not afford to keep up with the number of new recipients. In 1963 Japan had just 153 centenarians, and as recently as 1998 the number stood at just 10,000. At the last count Japan’s 100-plus age group numbered almost 59,000, and that figure is expected to rise when the government
releases new population data before Seniors’ Day on 15th September. Last year the ministry spent 260 million yen (£1.3m) on giving the cups – each worth about 8,000 yen – to almost 30,000 people, including 25,000  women. Local media pointed out that some people die before the
gifts can be distributed, forcing them to be scrapped. Demographers predict that Japan’s centenarian population
will continue to grow as the general population ages – the result of regular medical examinations, universal healthcare and, among Japanese over a certain age, a fastidious attachment to the traditional low-fat diet of fish, tofu, vegetables and rice.

On This Day

• 1305 – Sir William Wallace is executed for high treason at Smithfield in London.
• 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
• 1973 – A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term “Stockholm syndrome”.
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee opens the WWW, World Wide Web to new users.
• 2007 – The skeletal remains of Russia’s last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Deaths

• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish commander (b. 1272)
• 1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian-American actor (b. 1895)
• 1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American producer, and composer (b. 1895)
• 2005 – Brock Peters, American actor and producer (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Robert DeNiro (72), Amy Admas (41), Sean Penn (55), Madonna (57), Steve Carell (53), Kristen Wiig (42), Robert Redford (79), Valerie Harper (76), Bill Clinton (69), Ty Burrell (48), Hayden Panettiere (26), Usain Bolt (29), Robert Plant (67), Kim Cattrall (59), Kenny Rogers (77), Andrew Garfield (32), Donnie Wahlberg (46), Edward Norton (46), Matthew Perry (46), Kevin Dillon (50), Christian Slater (46), Madeline Stowe (57), Denis Leary (58), Belinda Carlisle (57), James Cameron (61), Carrie-Anne Moss (48), Tori Amos (52), GZA (49), Julie Newmar (82), Ulrika Jonsson (48) and Jim Carter (67).

Next Week peeps!

Afternoon Poolers! Firstly, I have to apologise, I didn’t notice that Liz had George Cole on her list from last week, so I have to belatedly add 60 points to her tally and grovel for her forgiveness. Hopefully, I haven’t missed anyone else, so let’s get on with it.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jack Gold, 85, British film director (The Naked Civil Servant, Aces High, The Medusa Touch).
• David Nobbs, 80, British novelist and comedy writer (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Two Ronnies, Fairly Secret Army).
• Susan Sheridan, 68, British voice actress (The Black Cauldron, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Noddy’s Toyland Adventures).
• Stephen Lewis, 88, British comedy actor (On the Buses, Last of the Summer Wine, Don’t Drink the Water). 
• Jazz Summers, 71, English music manager (Scissor Sisters, The Verve, Snow Patrol), lung cancer.

In Other News

Former US President Jimmy Carter says recent liver surgery revealed he has cancer and it has spread to other parts of his body. The 90-year-old statesman underwent surgery to remove a small mass in his liver earlier this month. He said he would reveal more “when facts are known, possibly next week”. President Barack Obama wished Mr Carter “a full and fast recovery” in a statement released on Wednesday. Carter was America’s 39th president. He was in office from 1977 to 1981, before being defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan.

Elton John’s lawyer has said that he is pursuing three  French media outlets for publishing what he called “unfounded rumours” about the British pop singer’s health and that of his husband. “Sir Elton John and David Furnish … have instructed my office to pursue through the justice system the violation of the right to respect for their private life due to the publishing of unfounded rumours about their health,” Vincent Toledano said in a statement on Friday. John and his husband “will no longer tolerate the violation of their privacy and the exploitation of their renown and their image for commercial ends in France,” the lawyer added. What does the French media know that we don’t??

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is recovering from treated for hydrocephalus, an excessive build-up of fluid on the brain, say authorities. The 87-year-old, who has been in hospital since 31st May, also had a lung inflammation which has since subsided. Last October he had his gallbladder removed. He was in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital for seven months, and was discharged in May this year, only to return to the hospital a few weeks later for medical tests.

A prominent Spanish matador was in serious but stable condition in hospital after being gored in the groin by a bull. Francisco “Paquirri” Rivera Ordóñez suffered the injury while fighting the bull in the town of Huesca and was in intensive care. The bull’s horn sank some 25cm (10in) into Paquirri’s groin but did not threaten any vital organs, doctors said. Television footage showed the bull hoisting Paquirri into the air for a few seconds on one of his horns. His father, of the same name, was gored to death in Andalucia in 1984. His grandfather was Antonio Ordóñez, considered one of the greatest bullfighters of all time. Obviously this ‘talent’ is not hereditary.

And finally, the Jack Russell terrier, who narrowly avoided a life in the dog pound to be raised for show business, was put down after a battle with prostate cancer. Uggie the dog, the canine star of Oscar-winning film The Artist, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 13. Starting out, as so many stars before him, in commercials, Uggie’s breakout role came as “The Dog” – loyal companion to George Valentin in Michel Hazanavicius’s ode to silent cinema, The Artist. The film won five Academy awards, including best picture in 2012, and Uggie himself was honoured with a Palm Dog award at Cannes film festival. He was also the first dog to leave his paw prints outside Grauman’s Chinese theatre in Hollywood.

On This Day

• 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, England.
• 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
• 1906 – An estimated 8.2 M_W earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people.
• 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.

Deaths

• 1888 – John Pemberton, American chemist, invented Coca-Cola (b. 1831)
• 1899 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist and academic (b. 1811)
• 1948 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (b. 1895)
• 1956 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (b. 1882)
• 1977 – Elvis Presley, American singer, guitarist, and actor (b. 1935)
• 2003 – Idi Amin, Ugandan field marshal, 3rd President of Uganda (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jennifer Lawrence (25), Ben Affleck (43), Hulk Hogan (62), Chris Hemsworth (32), Antonio Banderas (55), Mila Kunis (32), Steve Martin (70), Anna Kendrick (30), Halle Berry (49), Debra Messing (47), David Crosby (74), Natasha Henstridge (41), Magic Johnson (56), Gillian Anderson (47), George Hamilton (76), Rosanna Arquette (56), Princess Anne (65), Eric Bana (47), Audrey Tautou (39), Mark Knopfler (66), Pete Sampras (44) and Fidel Castro (89).

Next Week peeps!

Afternoon all, sorry for the epic size of this week’s edition of the newsletter, it seems I didn’t know when to stop. So make a cup of tea, sit down and relax, this one might take a while to read.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Coleen Gray, 92, American actress (Nightmare Alley, Kiss of Death, The Killing).
• Giovanni Riggi, 90, American mobster, inspiration for The Sopranos.
• Arnold Scaasi, 85, Canadian fashion designer.
• Les Munro, 96, New Zealand pilot, last surviving pilot of Operation Chastise.
• George Cole, 90, English actor (Minder, St Trinian’s, Mary Reilly).
• Terrence Evans, 81, American actor (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Star Trek, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
• Neville Neville, 65, English cricketer and football club director (Bury F.C.).
• Sean Price, 43, American rapper (Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp Clik).

In Other News

Cilla Black was ailing and “willed herself to die”, according to a long-time friend. Childhood friend Terry McCann said Black told him she knew she was going to die and her beloved late husband Bobby Willis was “waiting for me”. “I wasn’t surprised when I found out she had died,” he told BBC News. “The last thing she said to me was she was going blind, she showed me her hands, she had arthritis,” he said. “She willed herself to die. She said, ‘Bobby’s waiting for me.’ “She just said, ‘Look at me, I’m a wreck.’ I was trying to cheer her up. She knew something we didn’t. The singer and TV star died of a stroke after falling over at her Spanish home on Saturday last week. The 72-year-old was sunbathing at her villa in Estepona when she stood up, lost her balance and fell, hitting her head, which knocked her unconscious and caused a stroke. Her body has now been flown back to the UK, but no details of Black’s funeral have yet been made public.

The British band Supertramp have announced the cancellation of their European  concert tour, due to start in November, because of an “aggressive” cancer treatment co-founder and vocalist Rick Davies is undergoing. The group, famous for 1970s and 80s hits such as Bloody Well Right, Dreamer, The Logical Song and It’s Raining Again, had been planning to take their Supertramp Forever tour through 25 European cities over five weeks. But in a statement they said the concerts “have been cancelled due to health issues affecting the band’s founder, Rick Davies”. Davies, 71, has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a cancer concentrated in bone marrow that affects white blood cells – “and has begun aggressive treatment to combat the disease,” they said. Davies, who also plays keyboards, is the only original member of the band after co-founder Roger Hodgson departed in 1983 to pursue a solo career.

Former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram’s car has been fired at in Karachi, the country’s commercial capital, police say. The shooting took place near the National Stadium in Karachi’s Karsaz area on Wednesday, reports said. The ex-bowler was not hurt in the attack. Police said the incident appeared to be a case of road rage. Gun violence is not uncommon in Karachi, with much of it linked to militant groups. Wasim told the Express News channel: “A car hit mine, I stopped him and then his guy stepped out and fired at my car.” The cricket legend, who retired in 2003, is massively popular in Pakistan. Many in Pakistan, including politician and former cricketer Imran Khan, were quick to condemn the attack and express relief that Wasim was unhurt.

French police are investigating whether anaesthetic gas was used during a burglary on Formula One driver Jenson Button and his wife Jessica in a rented villa on the French Riviera. Two men, who stole jewellery reportedly worth £300,000, including an engagement ring, may have pumped gas through the air conditioning system before the break-in on Monday in St Tropez where the couple were holidaying with friends, the racing driver’s spokesman claimed. Personally I’m finding it hard to sympathise with them, it would take me nearly 20 years to earn £300k, and they spent it on sparkly things they took on holiday.

A jury in the US state of Colorado has spared gunman James Holmes the death penalty for killing 12 people at a screening of a Batman film in 2012. He will serve life in jail without the possibility of parole. I’m sure if he was black, he’d been straight on Death Row. The defence team had argued that the former neuroscience graduate student, now 27, was insane at the time. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Holmes, though mentally ill, was responsible for his actions. But it was not unanimous on the death penalty. That lack of agreement meant the jury accepted he would receive an automatic life sentence without parole. District Attorney George Brauchler said: “I still think death is justice for what that guy did, but the system said otherwise. I honour that, and I’ll respect that outcome.” Let’s hope that the same system will see the guy shanked in the goolies, nobody likes people who disturb a film in a cinema…

And finally, a woman who has just celebrated her 110th birthday says she has a daily dose of three beers and a shot of whisky to thank for her astonishing longevity. Agnes Fenton, from New Jersey, turned 110 on Saturday and is now among the small group of supercentenarian around the world. For nearly seventy years she has knocked back three Miller High Lifes and a shot of scotch every day, following the advice of a doctor who treated her for a benign tumour back in the 1930s. Her whisky of choice is Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which costs up to $150 (£96) per bottle. However, Ms Fenton has now been urged to abandon her daily tonic as she eats so little that her carers fear she can no longer handle alcohol. Ms Fenton is in remarkably good shape for a 110-year-old and is yet to have lost her hearing or eyesight. She spends her days reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, praying and enjoying plenty of naps. Amen to that!

On This Day

• 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
• 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.
• 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
• 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England, many young boys bottoms were never the same again.
• 1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.
• 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 35,000 people are killed outright, including 23,200-28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
• 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
• 1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men’s hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
• 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.

Deaths

• 1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer, founded Hugo Boss (b. 1885)
• 1969 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
• 1996 – Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (b. 1907)
• 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1957)

Why do wrestlers so often die young?  By David Rhodes BBC World Service

Mr Perfect, The Ultimate Warrior and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper may sound like names from a comic book, but the cognoscenti will recognise them as former superstars of the world of professional wrestling. All of them also died unexpectedly and at a relatively young age.

Mr Perfect died in 2003 of acute cocaine intoxication at the age of 44. The Ultimate Warrior died last year of a heart attack, aged 54. Most recent to go was “Rowdy” Roddy Piper who died suddenly on 31 July of a heart attack. He was 61.

So do former wrestlers die younger than athletes who take part in other sports?

“Yes the statistical evidence is quite strong when we look at the mortality rate for wrestlers compared to other sports and the general population,” says John Moriarty of Manchester University.

Researchers like Moriarty face some difficulties getting hold of data, as no official body collects statistics about the deaths of those who have spent a career in the ring. His approach has been to aggregate the findings of others who have studied the problem. He points to research by academics at the University of Eastern Michigan who studied a group of 557 former wrestlers.

Of the 62 wrestlers in this group who died between 1985 and 2011, 49 died before the age of 50. Furthermore, 24 of the 49 died  before the age of 40, and two even died before the age of 30. Mortality rates for wrestlers aged between 45 and 54 were 2.9 times greater than the rate for men in the wider US population, the study found. Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death.

But how does this compare with other American sports?

In 2014 Benjamin Morris investigated this for the statistical blog FiveThirtyEight, looking at a group of wrestlers whose careers had ended in 1998 or earlier. He found that 20% of those who in 2010 would have been aged between 50 and 55 had died, compared with just 4% of former American footballers of a similar age. Both activities involve their competitors exposing themselves to physical harm, and the training regimes for both wrestling and American football are punishing. But New York-based wrestling journalist Eric Cohen points to two important differences. “There is no off season in pro-wrestling. American footballers play, what, 16 a games a season? And then get half a year off. Wrestlers can be in the ring five to six times a week,” he says. The other difference concerns the activities  outside the ring and off the field.

“Wrestlers who competed in the 1970s and 80s were also living and partying like rock stars,” Cohen says. “In the past the business has had a lot of issues with its stars abusing steroids and recreational drugs.” Piper admitted taking steroids and cocaine, and drinking heavily while competing as a wrestler. The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.) accepts that the culture of some of its former employees contributed to the problems they experienced in later life.

“Unfortunately, some past performers were part of a generation of wrestlers who made unhealthy and poor personal lifestyle choices, which in some cases continued beyond their years in the ring,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“Today’s athletes take great pride and personal responsibility for their overall health and well-being.

“Notwithstanding, WWE talent are subject to random drug testing and expected to live healthy lifestyles, reinforced through our Talent Wellness Program, which was instituted in 2006.”

Cohen believes things are broadly are getting better.

“Thankfully we don’t have nearly as many wrestlers in their 20s or 30s dying any more,” he says. “But as crazy as this may sound there was an incident in Mexico recently where a wrestler died in the ring.”

The hope among wrestling fans is that today’s crop of superstars will live longer than their predecessors.But the deaths of Roddy Piper and others serve as dark reminders of the journey that professional wrestling has been on.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Charlize Theron (40), Barak Obama (54), Loni Anderson (70), Dustin Hoffman (78), Martin Sheen (75), Martha Stewart (74), Tony Bennett (89), David Duchovny (55), Billy Bob Thornton (60), Geri Halliwell (43), Sam Worthington (39), Edward Furlong (38), The Edge (54), Roger Federer (34), Princess Beatrice (27), Abbie Cornish (33), Kevin Smith (45), John Landis (65), Evangeline Lilly (36), M. Night Shyamalan (45), Michelle Yeoh (53), Michael Shannon (41), Tobin Bell (73), Barbara Windsor (78) and Mark Strong (52).

Next Week peeps!

Welcome all, we have a lorra lorra stuff to get through today, so get your reading glasses on. Yes, it was a huge Surprise! Surprise! to find out that Cilla Black has passed away, but even more so because John had her listed! 78 points awarded!

The last week really has been a week of shocking deaths, some very unexpected indeed and at too young an age. Shame we don’t have access to the future, a fuckload of points have just gone to the ether!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, American media personality and singer.
• Sir Peter O’Sullevan, 97, Irish-born British horse racing commentator, cancer.
• Lynn Anderson, 67, American country singer (“Rose Garden“), heart attack.
• Stuart Baggs, 27, Manx reality television contestant and businessman (The Apprentice).
• Roddy Piper, 61, Canadian professional wrestler (WWE, NWA, WCW); Hall of Fame (2005, 2007) and actor (They Live, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Body Slam), heart attack.
• Cilla Black, 72, British singer, television presenter and actress.

In Other News 

Joe Jackson, the father of late singer Michael Jackson, has suffered a stroke. The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo said Jackson, 87, was admitted on Sunday afternoon and is being treated in the intensive care unit. A statement from the hospital also said he was suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Apparently he was in Brazil to celebrate his 87th birthday, but he missed his own party due to being in hospital.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli. Saif, once seen as  his father’s heir apparent, was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the former dictatorship, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi. There is uncertainty about whether the sentence will be carried out, as Gaddafi is being held by a militia in the mountain town of Zintan that is opposed to Libya Dawn, the militia coalition in control of Tripoli. Yes, you can list him next year, these death sentences can take forever to be upheld so you might have a long wait.

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has returned to hospital just a week after being discharged. He has what has only been described as a “persistent infection” which his foundation says is unrelated to the prostate cancer he has had for 15 years. Tutu was first hospitalised by the infection on 14th July. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate also continues to battle prostate cancer, first diagnosed 15 years ago, but his foundation said the current infection was unrelated. The foundation said the veteran rights campaigner would undergo bed rest while his doctors determine further treatment, and remain in the hospital at least for the weekend. Tutu survived an illness believed to be polio as a baby, and battled tuberculosis as a teenager. He has been in and out of hospital for minor complaints since 2011.

And now on to Cecil the Lion. One would believe that Walter Palmer, the dentist that shot the lion with an bow and arrow, missing his mark so the lion escaped for 40 hours until shot by a marksman in his hunting group, is on plenty of death lists by now. Having paid $50k for the ‘privilege’ of killing a lion, Palmer is now in hiding and his dental practice has closed down. Sadly, court records have shown that Mr Palmer has a felony record in the US after killing a black bear in the state of Wisconsin in 2006. The dentist was given a one-year probation and fined $3,000, having shot the creature outside an authorised zone and then tried to pass it off as having been killed elsewhere, so this is not the first time he’s tried it on. I should offer an extra 200 points for the death of Palmer, alas this would contravene the rules of the Dead Pool.

Finally, a Texas man was hospitalised this week, after being hit in the head by a ricocheting bullet he had aimed at an armadillo. The man decided to  shoot the armadillo after seeing it on his property, near the east Texas town of Marietta, just before 3am on Thursday, Cass County sheriff’s officials said. He fired three shots at the armadillo. At least one rebounded and hit the man in the jaw. The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where his jaw was wired shut. It is not known whether the armadillo survived, but we can hope. The incident is the second this year in which a person has been injured in the southern US by a bullet ricocheting off an armadillo. In April, a Georgia man wounded his mother-in-law after he fired a pistol at an armadillo and the bullet bounced off the animal, traveled through the back door of a mobile home and struck the 74-year-old woman in the back. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why Americans should not be allowed to own guns!

On This Day

• 1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
• 1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.
• 1869 – Japan‘s samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.
• 1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
• 1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
• 1934 – Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.
• 1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
• 1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
• 1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

Deaths

• 1788 – Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (b. 1727)
• 1921 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
• 1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (b. 1847)
• 1976 – Fritz Lang, Austrian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1890)
• 1997 – William S. Burroughs, American author and painter (b. 1914)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sandra Bullock (51), Kate Beckinsale (42), Arnold Schwarzenegger (68), Taylor Schilling (31), Mick Jagger (72), Helen Mirren (70), Wesley Snipes (53), Lisa Kudrow (52), Jason Statham (48), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (45), Dean Cain (49), J.K. Rowling (50), Laurence Fishburne (54), Jonathan Rhys Mayers (38), Paul Anka (74), Jean Reno (67) and Christopher Nolan (45).

Next Week peeps!