Sadly the evil flying monkeys failed to find a massive celebrity for us, they’re still hiding from the virus. However, a few ‘oh, I vaguely know them’ stars are listed below. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Corey Fischer, 75, American actor (M*A*S*H, Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller), complications from a brain aneurysm.  
• Bonnie Pointer, 69, American singer (The Pointer Sisters), cardiac arrest.  
• Paul Chapman, 66, Welsh rock guitarist (UFO, Lone Star).  
• Michel Bellen, 74, Belgian serial killer.  
• Ricky Valance, 84, Welsh singer (“Tell Laura I Love Her“).

In Other News

If anybody gives a shit, the royal family has been paying tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh on his 99th birthday. While Prince Philip’s birthday celebrations are likely to be low-key this year due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, several members of the family have publicly marked the milestone occasion by posting online tributes. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among the first to share a message of celebration on their Kensington Royal social media accounts. “Wishing a very happy 99th Birthday to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh!”, Prince William and Kate Middleton wrote alongside two photos of them with the royal. The duke’s eldest son and heir to the throne, Prince Charles, also shared a tribute to his father on social media. “Wishing The Duke of Edinburgh a very happy 99th birthday!” a message from the Clarence House Instagram account read. In a recent interview Prince Charles said he was missing his family and revealed that he hasn’t seen his father for months. “Well I haven’t seen my father for a long time. He’s going to be 99 next week…it’s terribly sad,” Charles said. We’re not sure why he thinks his father turning 99 is sad, maybe he’s still pining for that throne. To mark Prince Philip’s birthday, the royal family released an official photo of the duke and The Queen posing side-by-side outside Windsor Castle. The portrait was the first public image of the duke for nearly six months as he was last seen leaving hospital on Christmas Eve following a four-night admission for an undisclosed but “pre-existing condition”.    

BBC journalist George Alagiah has confirmed his bowel cancer has spread to his lungs. The 64-year-old newsreader, who joined the BBC in 1989, was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014 and later said it spread to his liver and lymph nodes. After 17 courses of chemotherapy and five operations, it appeared the cancer had cleared – but it returned in 2018. He revealed doctors told him at the end of April the cancer has now spread to his lungs in an interview with The Times. Mr Alagiah also spoke about testing positive for coronavirus after he developed a fever on 17th March. “My doctors have never used the word ‘chronic’ or ‘cure’ about my cancer,” he said. “They’re never used the word ‘terminal’ either. “I’ve always said to my oncologist, ‘Tell me when I need to sort my affairs out’, and he’s not told me that, but what he did tell me is that the cancer is now in a third organ. It is in my lungs.” Mr Alagiah said his previously low dose of chemotherapy has been increased to “the grown-up stuff”. “I said to my doctor, ‘You’re going to have to do the worrying for me’. I don’t want to fill my mind with worry. I just know that he’s a clever guy, doing everything he can.”    

Shaun Ryder has opened up about his cancer scare after he discovered a painful growth in his testicle during lockdown. The Celebrity Gogglebox and The Happy Mondays frontman, 57, immediately thought the worst after finding the uncomfortable lump. It turned out the sudden growth was non-cancerous. But in spite of the good news, the medical issue has left Shaun in constant pain amid the coronavirus pandemic. Due to health service restrictions, the star has been unable to receive surgery to remove the growth which is situated in his testicle. Instead, the much-loved star has had to put up with the pains it has caused him over the past number of months. Shaun admitted he wasn’t too worried as he can have the lump removed when hospitals revert to normality again. He told us: “This non-malignant growth in my testicle is pressing on a nerve. It’s like having really bad toothache in your b***s. “I can have the growth chucked out but I should’ve gone before lockdown started.” Despite the ongoing pain and the shock of his circumstances, his cancer scare has made Shaun realise the value of life. The star – who became famous for his love of sex, drugs and rock and roll – has been hit with the reality he is not invinsible. Father-of-six Shaun admitted that he’s not afraid of dying but he is afraid of leaving his young children behind. “I now think I’m not invincible. It doesn’t worry me about dying, it’s just that because I’ve got young kids. I don’t want to go because of them. That’s what I panic about the most.” The Celebrity Gogglebox star has suffered a long list of health problems over the past number of years. Shaun has dealt with fighting severe pain due to arthritis, as well as battling a thyroid problem and enduring panic attacks.

On This Day

• 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.  
• 1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.  
• 1962 – The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.   
• 1966 – The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.

Deaths

• 1927 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author (b. 1859)  
• 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist and academic (b. 1857)  
• 1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish-English physicist and engineer (b. 1888)  
• 1977 – Alan Reed, American actor, original voice of Fred Flintstone (b.1907)

Execution Styles

To be hanged, drawn and quartered was, from 1352, a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, (Boris?) although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces). His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.

The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime. As an attack on the monarch’s authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law’s ultimate sanction. They included many English Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and several of the regicides involved in the 1649 execution of Charles I.

Although the Act of Parliament defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom’s statute books, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England in 1870. Sadly, the death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998, so lying to The Queen won’t get you into trouble Boris… 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Will Patton (65), Donald Trump (73), Yasmine Bleeth (51), Boy George (58), Alan Carr (43), Steffi Graf (50), Chris Evans (38), Ally Sheedy (57), Stellan Skarsgård (68), Malcolm McDowell (76), Richard Thomas (68), Tim Allen (66), Simon Callow (70), Kathy Burke (55), Shia LaBeouf (34), Joshua Jackson (42), Hugh Laurie (61), Peter Dinklage (51), Adrienne Barbeau (75), Jane Goldman (50), Elizabeth Hurley (55), Jürgen Prochnow (79), Johnny Depp (57), Natalie Portman (39), Michael J. Fox (59), Eddie Marsan (52), Griffin Dunne (65), Nancy Sinatra (80), and Kanye West (43).

A quiet week again! Not much of a pandemic this one, too many celebrities are actually surviving! I’m opening the cage, the evil flying monkeys will reap someone of note this week! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Chris Trousdale, 34, American actor and singer (Dream Street), COVID-19.  
• Dan van Husen, 75, German actor (Salon Kitty, Nosferatu the Vampyre), COVID-19. 
• Steve Priest, 72, British bassist and singer (The Sweet).  
• Rupert Hine, 72, English musician (Quantum Jump), songwriter and record producer (The Fixx, Howard Jones), cancer.

In Other News

The White House has released information about President Donald Trump‘s annual physical, including him experiencing no side effects while taking anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against Covid-19. Lumpy Trumpy weighs 17½ stone and stands at 6ft 3in tall, according a summary of the annual physical. The president made an unannounced visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in November for a little over two hours to perform tests necessary for the physical. Subsequent tests then happened later at the White House. “Sadly there were no findings of significance or changes to report,” Dr Sean Conely, the president’s physician, wrote in a memo about the president’s physical. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany described Mr Trump as “healthy” after the summary report was released. After Mr Trump’s first physical, it was indicated the president had a common form of heart disease, CNN reported. The president’s doctor recommended a higher dose of medication that would help lower his cholesterol and lifestyle changes. The latest annual physical showed Mr Trump’s cholesterol was now at 167 with an LDL, low-density lipoprotein, below 100, indicating a healthy level. Results are still pending on his psychological tests.  

Australian actress Cate Blanchett is lucky to be alive after a DIY accident with a chainsaw at her country estate in East Sussex, England. The two-time Oscar winner, 51, took a ‘little nick to the head’ while using the mechanical saw, but fortunately avoided a serious injury. She casually revealed her brush with death in a podcast interview with former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week. Cate mentioned the incident in passing, telling Gillard it wasn’t very ‘exciting’. She said: ‘I’m fine. I had a bit of a chainsaw accident yesterday, which sounds very, very exciting, but it wasn’t. Apart from the little nick to the head, I’m fine.’ Gillard replied: ‘Be very careful with that chainsaw. You’ve got a very famous head, I don’t think people would like to see any nicks taken out of it.’ Cate, who was born and raised in Melbourne, lives in a $6.25million manor called Highwell House near Crowborough, about an hour south of London. Obviously can’t afford a gardener…  

Bhad Barbie has entered rehab to seek treatment for childhood trauma and prescription pills abuse, her management has confirmed. The “These Heaux” rapper, real name Danielle Bregoli, has been in the facility for several weeks now and sources told TMZ that they expect her to stay there for 30 to 90 days. In a statement, Bregoli’s management said: “We are very proud of Danielle for recognising that she needed help and seeking it out.” A further statement on her Instagram read: “Danielle has been working hard for the past few years and made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to attend to some personal issues. “For the past weeks, she has been in a treatment centre receiving and continuing to receive professional support. “She loves her fans, and has promised to return better, and healthier than ever.” Bregoli has been quiet on social media lately, which caught the attention of fellow rapper Chika who called her out for her silence on the death of George Floyd. 

On This Day

• 1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.  
• 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the  Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. Five hundred to nine hundred thousand civilians are killed.
• 1977 – Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television. Kids enjoy a street party where mugs are given out. Yay!

Deaths

• 1329 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (b. 1274)  
• 1937 – Jean Harlow, American actress and singer (b. 1911)  
• 1954 – Alan Turing, English mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1912)  
• 1970 – E. M. Forster, English novelist, short story writer, essayist (b. 1879)  
• 1980 – Henry Miller, American novelist and essayist (b. 1891)  
• 2015 – Christopher Lee, English actor (b. 1922)

The Youngest British Executions

Alice Glaston was an 11-year-old English girl from Little Wenlock who was hanged in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. She is likely the youngest girl ever to be legally executed in England. The crime for which she was hanged is unknown, but she was hanged with two other people. A note of the incident from 1545 in the parish register of Sir Thomas Butler, vicar of Much Wenlock in Shropshire reads: 

Here was buried John Dod of the parish of Little Wenlock, who was hanged here, as also Alice Glaston, 11 yrs of age, of the parish of Little Wenlock, and Wm. Harper, a tailor. Three Convicts buried one a girl of 11 years old. 

However, this is not the youngest reference to a child who was hanged, a John Dean from Oxfordshire was not even 10 when he was executed for arson: 

At Abingdon assizes Feb 23 1629 before Whitlock justice one John Dean an infant between eight and nine years was indicted arraigned and found guilty of burning two barns in the town of Windsor and it appearing upon examination that he had malice revenge craft and cunning lie had judgment to be hanged and was hanged accordingly. 

But, such cruelty can be topped! The Guernsey Martyrs were three women who were burned at the stake for their Protestant beliefs during the Marian Persecutions, in 1556 Guernsey, Channel Islands. The execution was carried out on or around 18th July. All three were burnt on the same fire; they ought to have been strangled beforehand, but the rope broke before they died and they were thrown into  the fire alive. John Foxe recorded that one of the women was “great with child” and that “the belly of the woman burst asunder by the vehemence of the flame, the infant, being a fair man-child, fell into the fire”. The baby was rescued and laid on the grass, taken by the Provost to the Bailiff, Hellier Gosselin who took the advice of Roman Catholic priests nearby who said the boy should burn due to having inherited moral stain from his mother, Gosselin ordered that “it should be carried back again, and cast into the fire”.  Burn Baby Burn, 1556 Disco Inferno! 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Karl Urban (47), Liam Neeson (67), Anna Torv (40), Michael Cera (31), Lance Reddick (57), Bill Hader (41), Helen Baxendale (49), Iggy Azalea (29), Jason Isaacs (56), Paul Giamatti (52), Robert Englund (72), Sandra Bernhard (64), Josie Lawrence (60), Mark Wahlberg (48), Mel Giedroyc (51), Angelina Jolie (44), Bruce Dern (83), Noah Wyle (48), Sean Pertwee (55), Russell Brand (44), Geoffrey Palmer (92), Bradley Walsh (59), Imogen Poots (31), Penelope Wilton (74), James Purefoy (56), Clive Mantle (63), Bill Paterson (75), Suzi Quatro (70), Morena Baccarin (41), Awkwafina (32), Jewel Staite (38), Justin Long (42), Zachary Quinto (43), Dominic Cooper (42), Liam Cunningham (59), Dana Carvey (65), Sally Kellerman (83), Tom Holland (24), Morgan Freeman (83), Brian Cox (74), Jonathan Pryce (73), Amy Schumer (39), Heidi Klum (47), Alanis Morissette (46), and Robert Powell (76).

Strangely enough, no points this week, even with record numbers of  people dying and a gimme like the oldest man in the world passing away, although in fairness he wasn’t the oldest until fairly recently. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Richard Herd, 87, American actor (Seinfeld, All the President’s Men, The China Syndrome), cancer.  
• Anthony James, 77, American actor (In the Heat of the Night, High Plains Drifter, Unforgiven), cancer. 
• Tony Scannell, 74, Irish actor (Flash Gordon, The Bill).  
• David Owen Brooks, 65, American serial killer.  
• Robert Weighton, 112, English supercentenarian, world’s oldest man (since 2020), cancer. 
• Michael Angelis, 76, British actor (Boys from the Blackstuff, The Liver Birds, Thomas & Friends), heart attack.

In Other News

Brian May has said he was recently taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack. The Queen guitarist revealed that doctors found him to be “very near death” after discovering three blocked arteries, which caused a pain in his chest that lasted 40 minutes. May, 72, told his Instagram followers that the pain began shortly after ripping his buttock muscles in a gardening accident a few weeks back. “In the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack,” he said. “I say small – it’s not something that did me any harm. It was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness and that feeling in the arms and sweating.” May continued: “To cut a long story short, my wonderful doctor drove me to the hospital himself and I went straight into what they call the ‘CAT room’ I think and I had an angiogram, and that’s when they stick something in your wrist and it goes all the way up to your heart and into arteries in your heart, and it can find out in a way that nothing else can.” During the angiogram, doctors found the arteries “that were congested and in danger of blocking the supply of blood” to his heart. May said he turned down open heart surgery and instead opted to have three stents put in. Speaking about the many headlines and Twitter jokes made about his buttock injury, May said: “I didn’t realise that was amusing really. “I kind of forgot that anything to do with the bum people find amusing, so I got a bit pissed off with all the ‘Brian May gets a pain in the bum’ kind of stuff.”   

A Belgian prince has tested positive for coronavirus after attending a party in Spain during lockdown. Prince Joachim, a nephew of Belgium‘s King Philippe, contracted Covid-19 after going to the gathering in Cordoba on 26 May, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace said. The party breached lockdown rules because of how many people were there, according to Spanish media. The royal spokesperson said the palace could not confirm the number of people in attendance. The 28-year-old prince travelled to Spain from Belgium on May 24 for an internship – two days before the party took place. He is still in Spain, the palace said on Saturday. El Pais newspaper said the prince, who is tenth in line to the Belgian throne, attended the party along with 26 other people. This would go against lockdown rules in the province of Cordoba, where a maximum of 15 people are allowed to meet up. Spanish police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and those who breached restrictions could face fines of between €600 and €10,000. All 27 people who attended the party are now in quarantine, Rafaela Valenzuela, the Spanish government’s regional envoy in Cordoba, said on Saturday. She called the gathering “completely irresponsible” and said it could have caused an outbreak of infections, triggering a return to a stricter lockdown. “I feel surprised and angry. An incident of this type stands out at a moment of national mourning for so many dead,” she said.

On This Day

• 455 – Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. One wonders why we don’t do this today. 
• 1669 – Citing poor eyesight as a reason, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary. Maybe he should have driven his cart to Barnard Castle.
• 1911 – The RMS Titanic is launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 
• 1970 – The 7.9 M_w  Ancash earthquake shakes Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and a landslide buries the town of Yungay, Peru. Between 66,794–70,000 were killed and 50,000 were injured.

Deaths

• 1983 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer and lieutenant (b. 1895)
• 2009 – Danny La Rue, Irish-British drag queen performer and singer (b. 1927)
• 2016 – Carla Lane, English television writer (b. 1928)

The Last British Executions

Henry John Burnett was the last man to be hanged in Scotland, and the first in Aberdeen since 1891. He was tried at the high court in Aberdeen from 23–25 July 1963 for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyan, who was the husband of Margaret May, Burnett’s mistress. 

Burnett came to believe that, given the chance, Margaret would leave him, so he took to locking her in the house whenever he went out. This was not a state of affairs which Margaret relished so when by chance she met her estranged husband on 31st May, she agreed to go back to him. As soon as Margaret announced her intention to go back to her husband, Burnett cried “Margaret, Margaret, you are not going to leave me!” He then drew a knife to Margaret’s throat. A family friend banged repeatedly on the front door and demanded the release of Margaret. Minutes later, Burnett threw open the door and ran off down the street. Margaret was shaken, but relatively unhurt. 

Burnett went to his brother Frank’s workplace and told him what had happened, but Burnett, still set on revenge, went to Frank’s house in the city’s Bridge of Don area to borrow his brother’s shotgun. He arrived at Guyans’ flat and forced his way in. Thomas Guyan jumped to his feet to see what the problem was. As he opened the kitchen door, he was met by Burnett, carrying the gun. A shot rang out and Guyan fell dead, having been shot in the face at close range. Burnett then took Margaret out of the flat at gun point; on the way down the stairs, he threatened a young boy from a neighbouring flat. 

Burnett dragged Margaret down a lane and as far as a garage on Seaforth Road, near the main route north out of Aberdeen. John Innes Irvine was filling his car with petrol at the garage when Burnett demanded his car. Irvine tried to stop Burnett from stealing the car, but was threatened with the shotgun. The police were soon notified of the theft and began following the car, after driving for about 15 miles, Burnett pulled the car over near the town of Ellon and offered no resistance as he was arrested. 

At his trial, Burnett’s defence was that at the time of the crime he was insane or alternatively, that this was a case of diminished responsibility. Both defences failed after the jury had considered the evidence for 25 minutes. After he was sentenced to death, both his own family and that of the victim petitioned for his reprieve. However, there was no appeal from Burnett and at 8.00am on Thursday, 15th August 1963, the 21-year-old was executed on Britain’s newest gallows (built in 1962 to Home Office-approved specifications) as a crowd of 200 people gathered outside the prison. Executioner Harry Allen and his assistant Samuel Plant performed the hanging. Shortly afterwards, Burnett’s body was buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of the prison, as was customary. Craiginches Prison closed permanently in January 2014 and the grounds were ear-marked for redevelopment. In early August 2014 the remains of Burnett were exhumed from the prison and taken to Aberdeen Crematorium, where a private ceremony was held on 7th August. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Clint Eastwood (89), Lea Thompson (58), Colin Farrell (43), Brooke Shields (54), Tom Berenger (70), Sharon Gless (76), Colm Meaney (66), Mark Sheppard (55), Stephen Tobolowsky (68), Keir Dullea (83), Harry Enfield (58), Jake The Snake Roberts (64), Leigh Francis (46), Jennifer Ellison (36), Annette Bening  (61), Danny Elfman (66), Laverne Cox (47), Mel B (44), Nanette Newman (85), Jake Johnson (41), Kylie Minogue (51), Michelle Collins (57), Paul Bettany (49), Louis Gossett Jr. (84), André Benjamin (45), Helena Bonham Carter (54), Pam Grier (71), Bobcat Goldthwait (58), Philip Michael Thomas (71), Lenny Kravitz (56), Stevie Nicks (72), Cillian Murphy (44), Mike Myers (57), Ian McKellen (81), and Frank Oz (76).

Another week bereft of points, however a long list of people you might have heard of below. Thanks as always for all of you who pass on interesting stories and ideas, keep them coming.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michel Piccoli, 94, French actor (La Grande Bouffe, A Leap in the Dark, We Have a Pope).  
• Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, 91, American White House butler and staffer (1957–2012), COVID-19.  
• Shad Gaspard, 39, American professional wrestler (WWE) and actor (Get Hard, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series), drowning. 
• Ken Osmond, 76, American actor (Leave It to Beaver, The New Leave It to Beaver), complications from COPD.  
• Ken Nightingall, 92, British film sound engineer (For Your Eyes Only, A View to a Kill, Octopussy), COVID-19.  
• Heather Chasen, 92, British actress (Crossroads, Cat Run, Les Misérables).  
• Hana Kimura, 22, Japanese professional wrestler (Stardom, Wrestle-1) and reality TV personality (Terrace House: Tokyo 2019–2020).
• Saturn, 83–84, American-born German-Russian alligator (Berlin Zoological Garden, Battle of Berlin, Moscow Zoo).

 In Other News

A former White House employee who worked with 11 presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama, died over the weekend after contracting the coronavirus. He was 91. Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who appeared alongside the Obamas in a photograph published in former first lady Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir “Becoming,” retired in 2012 following 55 years of service. He began his White House career in 1957 as a cleaner, gaining promotion to the role of butler during the Kennedy administration, his granddaughter, Jamila Garrett, told us that the father of five “always taught us that there will be obstacles in your life, they will not disappear, but keep pushing forward.” Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush paid tribute to Jerman, describing him as “a lovely man.” “He was the first person we saw in the morning when we left the Residence and the last person we saw each night when we returned,” they said in a statement.  

Former Kent and England batsman Rob Key has revealed he is recovering after suffering a ‘mini stroke’. The 41-year-old, who is now a TV pundit, says he has had a “long weekend” after being treated at Kent and Canterbury Hospital. He posted a picture of himself in a hospital bed on Instagram. Key thanked his doctor and added: “Turns out I’ve had a mini stroke. Now got to eat food with no flavour and take pills, #triffic,”. Key played in 15 Tests for England, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20 match, with his stand-out international performance the 221 against the West Indies in July 2004. He was prolific on the County scene, scoring almost 20,000 first-class runs between 1998 and 2015 for Kent. His former club tweeted a “get well soon” message on Monday.   

Amanda Kloots, the wife of Broadway star Nick Cordero, broke down in tears as she revealed that her husband’s health had taken a turn for the worse. Things had been looking up for the family, with Cordero waking up from his coronavirus-induced coma last week and Kloots celebrating a “small win” on Monday after doctors pulled out fewer secretions from his lungs than they had previously found. However, on Wednesday, dancer Kloots admitted that things had got worse in an emotional Instagram Story video filmed in her car. “Nick has had a bad morning. Unfortunately, things are going a little downhill at the moment, so I am asking again for all the prayers, mega-prayers, right now,” she said. “Please cheer and please pray for Nick today, and I know that this virus is not going to get him down.” Kloots, who has a 10-month-old son with the actor, continued: “It’s not how his story ends, so just keep us in your thoughts and prayers today. Thank you.” In a separate Instagram post, she wrote: “Mega prayers for this special man right now. God continue to grant miracles.” Cordero was admitted to hospital on 30 March after being diagnosed with pneumonia, testing positive for coronavirus and being put on a ventilator just two days later. The actor then faced a number of complications, including septic shock and two “mini strokes”, with his right leg needing to be amputated due to blood clotting. 

On This Day

• 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII‘s reign.  
• 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).  
• 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.  
• 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine.

Deaths

• 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (b. 1473)  
• 1963 – Elmore James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1918)  
• 1974 – Duke Ellington, American pianist and composer (b. 1899)  
• 1995 – Harold Wilson, English academic and Prime Minister of the U.K. (b. 1916)  
• 2010 – Ray Alan, English ventriloquist, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1930)

The Last British Executions

Catherine Murphy (died 18th March 1789) was an English counterfeiter, the last woman in England to be officially burned at the stake.

Catherine Murphy and her husband, Hugh Murphy, were convicted for coining at the Old Bailey in London and sentenced to death on 18th September 1788. She and her husband were executed on the morning of 18th March 1789 at Newgate prison along with seven other men who had been convicted of various offences.

The eight men were executed by hanging. But as a woman, the law provided that Murphy should be burnt at the stake. She was brought out past the hanging bodies of the others, and made to stand on a foot high, 10-inch-square platform in front of the stake. She was secured to the stake with ropes and an iron ring. When she finished her prayers, her executioner, William Brunskill, piled faggots of straw around the stake and lit them. According to testimony given by Sir Benjamin Hammett, the Sheriff of London, he gave instructions that she should be strangled before being burned. She was, reportedly, tied with one rope around her neck, after which the platform was removed from under her feet and 30 minutes passed before the fire was lit, and thus, she was not actually burned alive. Whatever the case, Catherine Murphy remains the last person to have been sentenced and at least officially executed by the method of burning. In part through the efforts of Sir Benjamin Hammett, who took the execution of Murphy as an example when he criticised this form of punishment, burning as a method of execution was abolished the next year, by the Treason Act 1790.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Doug Jones (59), Alfred Molina (66), John C. Reilly (54), Jim Broadbent (70), Priscilla Presley (74), Gary Burghoff (76), Tommy Chong (81), Eric Cantona (53), Bob Dylan (78), Richard Ayoade (42), Joan Collins (86), Melissa McBride (54), Maggie Q (41), Ginnifer Goodwin (42), Graham Linehan (52), Naomi Campbell (50), Judge Reinhold (63), Noel Fielding (47), Mr. T (68), Cher (74), Jack Gleeson (28), John Billingsley (60), Louis Theroux (50), James Fox (81), Grace Jones (72), Amanda De Cadenet (48), Tina Fey (50), Miriam Margolyes (79), Yun-Fat Chow (65), and Toyah Willcox (62).