James Humphreys (1930–2003) was an English businessman and criminal
who owned a chain of adult book shops and strip clubs in London in the
1960s and 1970s. In March 1958 he was sentenced to six years'
imprisonment after using explosives to open a safe and steal £8,260 in
money and postal orders. On his release he opened a strip club in Soho
(pictured in 2008), the centre of London's sex industry. When Humphreys
expanded his business and opened sex shops and book shops selling
obscene material, he could only operate by paying large bribes to
policemen, particularly those from the Obscene Publications Branch of
the Metropolitan Police. In the late 1970s his diaries detailing his
meetings with police officers and the bribes he paid were used as
evidence against twelve policemen imprisoned for corruption. The
character Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell in the 1996 BBC
television series Our Friends in the North, was based on Humphreys.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Humphreys_%28pornographer%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1873:
The French steamship Ville du Havre collided with a Scottish
iron clipper in the North Atlantic and sank with the loss of 226 lives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Ville_du_Havre>
1986:
Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick to win the World Boxing
Council title, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson>
1995:
Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer-
generated imagery, was released in theaters in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
grace note:
1. (music) A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or
without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as
part of it. Its note value does not count as part of the total time
value of the measure it appears in.
2. (figurative) Something that decorates, embellishes, or ornaments; a
finishing touch.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grace_note>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Give me no light, great heaven, but such as turns To energy of
human fellowship; No powers save the growing heritage That makes
complete manhood.
--George Eliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot>
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