What a struggle it has been to find dead celebrities this week. Here at Dead Pool Towers we forgive you for not listing the names below, no wonder there were no klaxons!!! However, The Clock of Doom still swings the eternal pendulum and next week promises a deluge of deaths as we’re sending out the flying monkeys!!!! Beware all celebrities, a portent has been proclaimed!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe, 90, Tongan royal, Queen Consort (1965–2006), Queen Mother (since 2006).
• Stephen Rhodes, 66, Irish radio presenter (BBC Three Counties Radio), motor neurone disease.
• David Waddington, Baron Waddington, 87, British politician, MP (1968–1974, 1979–1990), Home Secretary (1989–1990), Leader of the House of Lords (1990–1992), Governor of Bermuda (1992–1997). 
• Neil Fingleton, 36, English actor (Game of Thrones, 47 Ronin, Doctor Who) and basketball player, heart attack

In Other News

Shannen Doherty has completed chemotherapy! To mark the momentous date in her breast cancer journey — which is almost exactly two years since she was diagnosed in March 2015 — the Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed actress took to Instagram on Friday to share the  news with her followers. “#fbf to this morning… not that long ago. Last day of chemo. Exhausted,” Doherty’s caption begins. In the social media photo, 45-year-old Doherty, who is snuggled in between the sheets of her bed, stares solemnly into the camera. “Now that I’m done with chemo and radiation, the waiting game is here. Waiting for test. Waiting to see if I’m clear or not. Waiting for reconstruction. Waiting,” the post continues. She concludes: “I think when one gets cancer, they are always waiting to a certain extent. To those who know… I’m waiting with you. #cancerslayer.” Since she fist opened up about her cancer battle, the actress has frequently documented the ups and downs of the diagnosis on social media, including shaving her head, her first day of radiation, and going to her appointments with her mother by her side.

Leah Bracknell has opened up about finding the light in the darkness of her terminal cancer diagnosis. The former Emmerdale actress made an appearance on Friday’s Loose Women to update fans on her health. She first revealed news of her devastating diagnosis last October, later launching a GoFundMe page in the hope of raising £50,000 for pioneering treatment. Speaking about living with stage four lung cancer, “I feel positive about life. You get told that they can’t do anything to help you and I’m thinking, ‘What do I do now?’ “I can’t change the diagnosis, but I can choose how I respond. Initially you are in complete meltdown. I didn’t tell anyone for two or three days while I tried to think of a way to tell them positively.” She continued: “I am going to choose to make positive decisions, I am going to choose to embrace life and I’m going to choose to be thankful that I have life, because I might not have done. “I didn’t want doctors to ‘guestimate’ what they thought my prognosis could be. It is based on statistics that could be out of date and not about my age or type of cancer. I don’t wake up every day feeling fearful – I wake up feeling grateful and feeling happy.” She added: “It’s about taking back control and working with people to empower yourself.”

Actor Hugh Jackman has announced that his skin cancer has returned yet again. The X-Men actor posted an image on Instagram with a bandage covering his nose Monday, announcing that the disease he has battled five times before had reemerged. However, he is fine. He wrote: “Another basal cell carcinoma. Thanks to frequent body checks and amazing doctors, all is well. Looks worse with the [bandage] on than off. I swear! #wearsunscreen.” The actor has been treated for skin cancer six times. Jackman, who has described himself as “a good example of making sure you get checkups and listening to your wife”, first underwent treatment for basal cell carcinoma in 2013.

On This Day

• 1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.
• 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
• 1909 – Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
• 1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park.
• 1935 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
• 1995 – The UK’s oldest investment banking institute, Barings Bank, collapses after a rogue securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.

Deaths

• 1903 – Richard Jordan Gatling, American engineer, invented the Gatling gun (b. 1818)
• 2009 – Wendy Richard, English actress (b. 1943)
• 2012 – Richard Carpenter, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1929)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Smokey Robinson (77), Rhianna (29), Sidney Poitier (90), Ellen Page (30), Sophie Turner (21), Drew Barrymore (42), Kyle MacLachlan (58), Aziz Ansari (34), Edward James Olmos (70), Billy Zane (51), Sean Austin (46), Téa Leoni (51), Dakota Fanning (23), Kelly Macdonald (41), Peter Fonda (77), Jeri Ryan (49), Thomas Jane (48), Julie Walters (67), Kelsey Grammer (62), Tyne Daly (71), Anthony Daniels (71), Brenda Blethyn (71), Ivana Trump (68), Benicio Del Toro (50), Jeff Daniels (62), Ray Winstone (60), Molly Ringwald (49), John Travolta (63) and Cybill Shepherd (67).

Next week peeps!

It’s been a funny old week; although we’ve had no klaxons, quite a few interesting deaths have come to pass, along with half a dozen racehorses that wont be mentioned. No points to awards this week, but plenty to be getting on with.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Sara Coward, 69, British actress (The Archers), breast cancer.
• Damian, 52, British pop singer, cancer.
• Al Jarreau, 76, American jazz and R&B singer (“Moonlighting“, “Since I Fell for You“, “We Are the World“), seven-time Grammy winner, respiratory failure.
• Kim Jong-nam, 45, North Korean political figure, member of Kim dynasty, poisoned.
• Bruce Lansbury, 87, British-American television producer (Murder, She Wrote, The Wild Wild West, Knight Rider) and screenwriter, complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
• Dick Bruna, 89, Dutch author and illustrator (Miffy).
• George Steele, 79, American professional wrestler (WWF) and actor (Ed Wood), renal failure.
• Warren Frost, 91, American actor (Twin Peaks, Matlock, Seinfeld). 
• Daniel Vickerman, 37, South African-born Australian rugby union footballer (Brumbies, Waratahs, national team).

In Other News

Former boxer Michael Watson, the man who first started off The Dead Pool, was hurt in a suspected carjacking attempt last week in London, his friend has said. The 51-year-old, who suffered a near-fatal brain injury in a 1991 fight with Chris Eubank, was in a car with his carer when it was hit from behind. The carer tried to speak to the driver but was sprayed in the face with “some sort of ammonia”, former boxer Spencer Oliver told BBC Radio 5 live. Mr Watson was dragged along the road as a man drove off in his car, he said. Police said both men required hospital treatment, but their injuries were not life-threatening. Mr Oliver, who spoke to both Mr Watson and his carer, Lennard Ballack, after the incident, said the pair were at traffic lights in Chingford, east London, last Thursday when they got into difficulties. After a white Mercedes bumped into them, Mr Ballack got out, intending to tell the driver that no damage had been done, Mr Oliver said. But when he tapped on the car window, the driver leapt out and sprayed him with “some sort of ammonia”, he said. Mr Ballack fell to the ground and tussled with his attacker, while the passenger tried to hijack Mr Watson’s car, he added. Mr Watson got caught up in the seatbelt as he tried to get out. As the car was driven off, he was “hanging out of the door”, said Mr Oliver. The former boxer is now recovering at home from injuries to the skin caused by being dragged along the road. Mr Oliver said the incident had been traumatic and both men were still shaken up. Mr Watson’s 1991 WBO super-middleweight title fight with Mr Eubank left him partially disabled and ended his boxing career. He spent 40 days in a coma and had six brain operations and also made The Dead Pool Master a lot of dirty money!

The actor Harrison Ford has emerged unscathed following another mid-air mishap. Ford, 74, was told to land his single-engine plane on a runway at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, on Monday, but he mistakenly landed it on a parallel taxiway, passing over an American Airlines jet holding nearby, NBC reported. “Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?” Ford is heard asking air traffic controllers in a recording. American Airlines Flight 1456, with 110 passengers and six crew, departed safely for Dallas a few minutes later. Ford’s publicist, Ina Treciokas, declined to comment. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor couldn’t confirm that Ford was piloting the Aviat Husky that overflew the Boeing 737, but he said the pilot received and had read back the proper landing instructions. The FAA is investigating. In March 2015, Ford was seriously injured when his second world war-era trainer crashed on a Los Angeles golf course when it lost power shortly after takeoff. The actor was praised for his ingenuity in avoiding more populated areas. In 1999, Ford crash-landed his helicopter during a training flight in which he and an instructor were practising auto rotations in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles; neither of them was hurt. An in another incident, Ford was flying a Beechcraft Bonanza in 2000 when wind shear forced him to make an emergency landing at Lincoln Municipal Airport in Nebraska. Ford and his passenger were uninjured when the plane clipped the runway.

The Jump has claimed its latest victim. Five-time Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins has quit TV winter sports show The Jump after breaking his leg. The former Tour de France winner said he was “gutted” after sustaining a “small leg fracture” while taking part in snowcross training. Channel 4 said Sir Bradley had been keen to continue but would not appear after the fourth show in the series. Last year, injuries to a number of celebrities prompted a review of safety procedures on the reality show. Sir Bradley, who announced his retirement from cycling in December, tweeted: “Gutted to be leaving The Jump. I wanted to give you an injury update. “Seen a specialist, I have a small leg fracture and need to rest for 3-6 weeks. Good news no surgery or cast required. “Huge thanks to the crew and good luck to all of the cast. Due to the way the show is filmed, I’ll still be on until show four, so tune in. Before his departure, model Vogue Williams left this season of the show after suffering a knee injury in training. Last year’s series of The Jump was dogged by injuries, which resulted in seven celebrities quitting the programme.

On This Day

• 1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
• 1847 – The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.
• 1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
• 1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
• 1985 – EastEnders, BBC‘s flagship soap opera, broadcasts for the first time.

Deaths

• 1994 – Derek Jarman, English director and set designer (b. 1942)
• 2001 – Stanley Kramer, American director and producer (b. 1913)
• 2016 – Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (b. 1932)
• 2016 – Harper Lee, American author (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ashton Kutcher (39), Jennifer Aniston (48), Burt Reynolds (81), Jennifer Jason Leigh (55), Cristiano Ronaldo (32), Elizabeth Banks (43), Damien Lewis (46), Chloe Grace Moretz (20), Laura Dern (50), Chris Rock (52), Garth Brooks (55), Sheryl Crow (55), James Spader (57), Mia Farrow (72), Charlotte Rampling (71), Joe Pesci (74), Greg Norman (62), Sarah Palin (53), Christopher Guest (69), Michael Sheen (48), Nick Nolte (76), Seth Green (43), Axel Rose (55), John Grisham (62), Rick Astley (51) and Glenn Beck (53).

Next week peeps!

Afternoon poolers, today we have a points bonanza with the untimely death of Joost van der    Westhuizen, the following each get 105 points: Martin, Laura, Paul C, Dave, and Lee. However Shan had him as a Cert, so 205 points to her! Also, Sylvia correctly guessed that Tara Palmer-Tomkison would kick the bucket, so a further 105 points awarded! Well done all!!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Adele Dunlap, 114, American supercentenarian.
• Alec McCowen, 91, English actor (A Night to Remember, Frenzy, Gangs of New York).
• Joost van der Westhuizen, 45, South African rugby union player (Bulls, Blue Bulls, national team), motor neurone disease.
• Richard Hatch, 71, American actor (Battlestar Galactica, The Streets of San Francisco, All My Children), pancreatic cancer.
• Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, 45, British socialite and television presenter.
• Alan Simpson, 87, British comedy scriptwriter (Hancock’s Half Hour, Comedy Playhouse, Steptoe and Son), lung disease.

In Other News

Chas Hodges, one half of music duo Chas & Dave, has cancer of the oesophagus. he 73-year-old will begin treatment “immediately” after the illness was caught “at an early stage”, the band said in a Facebook post. They added: “Chas recently underwent hospital tests which revealed cancer of the oesophagus. Luckily this has been spotted at an early stage and he’ll be undergoing treatment immediately.” The star “expects to be back out on the road with Dave” soon, but the duo have cancelled several dates scheduled across February. Performances at Potters Bar, Norwich and in Milton Keynes on February 17, 18 and 19 “will need to be rescheduled”. “Apologies to ticket-holders for the inconvenience. The venues themselves will advise regarding re-scheduling/refunds,” the statement added. The duo, famous for hits such as Gertcha and Rabbit, formed in the 1970s and are the creators of a musical style dubbed rockney – a mix of rock and cockney.

The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, has moved house because of fears for his personal safety, the party has said. Paul Oakden, Ukip’s chairman, said on Saturday that Nuttall’s house in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, where the Ukip leader is standing in the forthcoming byelection, had been targeted after the address was shared on social media. “Since the address of the house Paul Nuttall has been staying at during the Stoke-on-Trent Central campaign was published on social media there have been a series of concerning incidents at or around it,” Oakden said. “The most serious of these was two unknown men attempting to gain access to the house through a rear entrance. There has also been hate mail posted through the letterbox and other intrusive behaviour including trespassing in the private garden of the premises and attempts to take pictures through windows and the letterbox.”

Australian wicketkeeper Sam Harper was taken to hospital overnight after being struck on the head by a bat during a Sheffield Shield match. The Victoria player, 20, needed medical treatment after he was caught by the follow-through of a shot from South Australia batsman Jake Lehmann. Harper, who was wearing a helmet, later had a brain scan in hospital. “Scans have not identified any bleeding or bone damage,” a Cricket Victoria statement read. “However, he will remain in hospital overnight for observation.” In January, Melbourne Renegades wicketkeeper Peter Nevill was ruled out of the Big Bash tournament after he suffered a burst blood vessel when he was hit by a flying bat during his side’s win over Adelaide Strikers. Concussion in cricket, and the use of the bouncer, have been under increased scrutiny since November 2014 when Australia Test batsman Phillip Hughes died after being struck on the top of the neck by a ball while batting for South Australia during a Sheffield Shield game against New South Wales.

And finally, an Egyptian woman, believed to be the world’s heaviest woman at 500kg (78.5 stone), has arrived in Mumbai, India, for weight reduction surgery. The family of 36-year-old Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty said it was the first time she had left home for 25 years. She was flown on a chartered plane to Mumbai where bariatric surgeon Dr Muffazal Lakdawala plans to operate. The Indian embassy in Cairo initially denied her visa request as she was unable to travel there in person. If the claim about her weight is true, then that would make her the world’s heaviest woman alive as the current Guinness record holder is Pauline Potter of the United States who weighed 292kg in 2010. Ms Abd El Aty’s family says she weighed 5kg (11lb) at birth and was diagnosed with elephantiasis, a condition in which a limb or other body parts swell due to a parasitic infection, Dr Lakdawala told the BBC in a phone call from Mumbai. “They said when she was 11, she had gained immense weight because of which she could not stand up and would crawl. “And then she suffered a stroke which left her bedridden and she has not been able to leave home since then.” Dr Lakdawala believes that Ms Abd El Aty does not have elephantiasis, but suffers from obesity-related lymphoedema which causes gigantic swelling of legs. “She would need to remain in Mumbai for two to three months for the surgery and treatment after which she would be able to return home, but it would take two to three years to bring her body weight under 100kg,” the surgeon said.

On This Day

• 881 – Pope John VIII crowns Charles the Fat, the King of Italy: Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.
• 1924 – George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music”, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.
• 1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.
• 1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch‘s iconic painting The Scream.

Deaths

• 1554 – Lady Jane Grey, English daughter of Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk (b. 1537)
• 1929 – Lillie Langtry, English singer and actress (b. 1853)
• 1979 – Jean Renoir, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 2014 – Sid Caesar, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
• 2015 – Steve Strange, Welsh singer (b. 1959)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ashton Kutcher (39), Jennifer Aniston (48), Burt Reynolds (81), Jennifer Jason Leigh (55), Cristiano Ronaldo (32), Elizabeth Banks (43), Damien Lewis (46), Chloe Grace Moretz (20), Laura Dern (50), Chris Rock (52), Garth Brooks (55), Sheryl Crow (55), James Spader (57), Mia Farrow (72), Charlotte Rampling (71), Joe Pesci (74), Greg Norman (62), Sarah Palin (53), Christopher Guest (69), Michael Sheen (48), Nick Nolte (76), Seth Green (43), Axl Rose (55), John Grisham (62), Rick Astley (51), Bobby Brown (48), Glenn Beck (53) and Vince Neil (56).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all, another week and a few more deaths! As cruel as this game can be, this is possibly the cruelest announcement I have had to make. Last week I awarded an extra 50 points to many of you for ‘the first death of the season’, unfortunately for you I have had to deduct said points as Laura’s dubious choice of a fairly unknown murderer on Death Row has now been listed on Wiki, which unfortunately for some of you, trumps last weeks deaths. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, Mark scores 83 points for listing John Wetton and Paul G gets awarded 60 points for Desmond Carrington. Don’t you just love the drama!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Frank Pellegrino, 72, American actor (Goodfellas, The Sopranos) and restaurateur (Rao’s), lung cancer.
• John Wetton, 67, British singer-songwriter (“Only Time Will Tell“, “Heat of the Moment“) and bass guitarist (Asia, King Crimson), colorectal cancer.
• Desmond Carrington, 90, British actor (Emergency – Ward 10) and broadcaster.
• Sir Ken Morrison, 85, British businessman, president of Morrisons.

In Other News

Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen is in a “critical condition” in hospital as he continues to fight motor neurone disease. The 45-year-old, who helped his country win the 1995 World Cup, was diagnosed with the illness in 2011. “The family and friends of Joost ask that you all pray for Joost,” read a statement on his J9 Foundation website. “When we have updates, we will let you know. For now, we ask that we all bow our heads in prayer.” Van der Westhuizen is regarded as one of the finest scrum-halves in rugby history and won 89 caps for the Springboks between 1993 and 2003, scoring 38 tries. He played in his first of three World Cups in 1995 when the Springboks beat New Zealand in the final, and won the Tri-Nations Championship in 1998.

Former US President George HW Bush has been discharged from a Texas hospital after a spell in intensive care as he was treated for pneumonia. “He is thankful for the many prayers and kind wishes he received during his stay,” said his spokesman Jim McGrath. The 92-year-old was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on 14th January, experiencing breathing difficulties. His wife, Barbara Bush, 91, was briefly admitted to the facility days later to be treated for fatigue and a cough. The nation’s 41st president was moved to intensive care where doctors inserted a breathing tube, which was removed after a couple of days. He was transferred out of the intensive care unit a week ago and has been recovering since then, taking antibiotics. Mr Bush, who served as US president from 1989-93, spent a week in hospital in the US state of Maine in 2015 after falling and breaking a neck bone. He also suffers from a form of Parkinson’s disease and uses a wheelchair.

A prominent Russian opposition activist has been hospitalised with organ failure, two years after he almost died of suspected poisoning. Journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who works for pro-democracy group Open Russia, fell ill at about 05:00 local time. Mr Kara-Murza’s wife told the BBC she was on her way to hospital where her husband is in a medically-induced coma. The activist nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in 2015. “He is already on life support and in a medicated coma. It’s the same clinical picture [as last time],” Evgenia Kara-Murza told the press. The journalist’s wife said he had suffered the same sudden onset of symptoms as in his previous illness. “The ambulance took him directly to the hospital where the same medical team has since been trying to determine what is happening,” she said. “He was brought there conscious but was put in a medicated coma and on life support later, because his organs began shutting down like last time.” No cause was ever established for Mr Kara-Murza’s last illness, but tests confirmed that he had ingested a poisonous substance. Then aged 33, he was in a coma for almost a week and struggled to communicate when he regained consciousness.

And finally, The founder of video game company Bandai Namco, which released cult game Pac-Man, has died at the age of 91, the firm has announced. Masaya Nakamura established Nakamura Manufacturing, which went on to become the Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company (Namco) in 1956. He started out installing two electric horses on the roof of a department store in Japan as amusement rides. He was known as the “father” of Pac-Man because it was a Namco release in 1980. The game was developed by Toru Iwatani and in 2016 was named the highest-grossing arcade game of all time by the website US Gamer. Mr Nakamura was an honorary advisor at Bandai Namco until his death on 22nd January. He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, a Japanese government honour, in 2007 and was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010.

On This Day

• 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
• 1919 – The German Workers’ Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
• 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

Deaths

• 1066 – Edward the Confessor, English king (b. 1004)
• 1922 – Ernest Shackleton, Anglo-Irish sailor and explorer (b. 1874)
• 1933 – Calvin Coolidge, American lawyer and politician, 30th President of the United States (b. 1872)
• 1941 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (b. 1903)
• 1956 – Mistinguett, French actress and singer (b. 1875)
• 1998 – Sonny Bono, American singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and politician (b. 1935)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Oprah Winfrey (63), Justin Timberlake (36), Minnie Driver (47), Gene Hackman (87), Christian Bale (43), Heather Graham (47), Harry Styles (23), Morgan Fairchild (67), Tom Select (72), Carol Channing (96), Alice Cooper (69), Isla Fisher (41), Shakira (40), Vanessa Redgrave (80), Lisa Marie Presley (49), Phil Collins (66), Michael C. Hall (46), Natalie Imbruglia (42), Dick Chaney (76), John Lydon (61) and Brett Spiner (68).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all; seven of you have caused me a little headache this week because you managed to pick celebrities that died on the same day. Search as I might, I couldn’t find a time of day for the deaths of John Hurt and Mary Tyler Moore, so I have awarded the first death of the season points to both celebrities. So, for John Hurt we award Abi, Neil, and Millie 123 points each, and for Mary Tyler Moore, we award Laura, Paul C, Mark and Dave 120 points. Well done all of you!!! We’ve finally kicked off the season!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gorden Kaye, 75, English actor (‘Allo ‘Allo!, Brazil, Coronation Street), kidney failure.
• Kevin Geer, 63, American actor (Twelve Angry Men, The Pelican Brief, The Contender), heart attack.
• Sir John Hurt, 77, British actor (Midnight Express, Alien, The Elephant Man).
• Mary Tyler Moore, 80, American actress (The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ordinary People) and philanthropist, complications from pneumonia.
• Mike Connors, 91, American actor (Mannix, The Ten Commandments, War and Remembrance), leukaemia.
• Barbara Hale, 94, American actress (Perry Mason, Airport), complications from COPD.
• David Rose, 92, British television producer, founder of FilmFour.

In Other News

A basketball player says he is “doing pretty well, all things considered” after his eye popped out in the middle of a game, New Zealand media report. Akil Mitchell, who plays for the New Zealand Breakers, was in Auckland for an Australian NBL game on Thursday night when the incident happened. The finger of an opposing player accidentally dislodged his eyeball. The American fell to the ground holding his hands to his left eye and was rushed to hospital. “With the palm of my hand I felt my eyeball on the side of my face,” he told New Zealand’s Radio Sport. “I could still see out of the eye.” “I remember thinking oh man… this is kinda bad, but I actually felt it kind of out of place and that’s when I kind of freaked out a little bit.” The 24-year-old said he remembered hearing the crowd and fellow players panicking and thought he would lose his sight and his career was over. “Once I got in the ambulance they gave me a little pain medicine and some saline drops in my eye and I felt it slide back into place, which is also a really strange feeling. “It felt so good to be able to blink again, which is insane.” After being released from hospital on Thursday, he posted on Twitter that he was “seeing fine” and used the eyeballs emoji. The player from North Carolina said he was expected to fully recover and could be playing again soon.

An actor has died after being shot while filming a music video in the Australian city of Brisbane. The man, in his 20s, suffered a chest wound inside the Brooklyn Standard bar in Eagle Lane in the city centre, Queensland police said. The video was for Sydney-based hip hop group Bliss n Eso. The band’s management released a statement to Australian news outlets confirming the death. “The video production crew and our team are currently working with the police in their investigation and we are unable to provide further comment at this time,” the statement said. Members of the film crew had tried to administer CPR on the victim, but the man eventually died from his injuries. Insp Armitt did not say whether the gun was loaded with live ammunition or if blanks were being used. It is also unknown how many shots were fired.

Woe betide us all, atomic scientists reset their symbolic “Doomsday Clock” to its closest time to midnight in 64 years on Thursday, saying the world was closer to catastrophe due to threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change and Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. The timepiece, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and displayed on its website, is widely viewed as an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to disaster. Its hands were moved to two minutes and 30 seconds to midnight, from three minutes. The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it’s ever been in the lifetime of almost everyone in this room,” Lawrence Krauss, the bulletin’s chair, told a news conference in Washington. The clock was last set this close to midnight in 1953, marking the start of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Thursday’s reset was the first since 2015. Krauss, a theoretical physicist, said Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin carried a large share of the blame for the heightened threat.

On This Day

• 1845 – “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
• 1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War.
• 1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

Deaths

• 1820 – George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1738)
• 1888 – Edward Lear, English poet and illustrator (b. 1812)
• 1977 – Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (b. 1954)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ellen DeGeneres (59), Alan Alda (81), Ariel Winter (19), Elijah Wood (36), Ed Helms (43), Alecia Keys (36), Neil Diamond (76), Mischa Barton (31), Bridget Fonda (53), Eddie Van Halen (62), Linda Blair (58), Piper Laurie (85), Patton Oswalt (48), Alan Cumming (52), Jessica Ennis-Hill (31), Kristen Schaal (39), James Cromwell (77), Jazzy Jeff (52), Nastassja Kinski (56) and Rutger Hauer (73).

Next week peeps!