26 September: Olivia Newton John

Singer and actress Olivia Newton John was born on this date in 1948. Here are 10 things you might not know about her:

1. She was born in Cambridge. Her father, Brinley 'Bryn' Newton-John, had been an MI5 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park and was involved in the arrest of Rudolf Hess. By the time Olivia was born, however, he was the headmaster of a boys’ school in Cambridge. Her mother Irene was born in Germany and had come to the UK in 1933, fleeing the Nazi regime. Irene’s father was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. Irene was also descended from Protestant theologian Martin Luther.

2. She was named after screen legend Olivia de Havilland.

3. She had two siblings, Rona, who is also an actress, and Hugh, a doctor who invented the first portable iron lung. She is also a third cousin of comedian Ben Elton.

4. When Olivia was six, her family emigrated to Australia, where her father worked as a professor of German at the University of Melbourne.

5. She formed a band with three classmates when she was 14. The all-girl group, Sol Four, used to perform at a coffee shop owned by her brother-in-law.

6. At one point, she considered becoming a vet, but didn’t have the confidence that she’d pass the exams, so decided to concentrate on performing instead.

7. In 1974 she came fourth in the Eurovision song contest with Long Live Love. The winner that year was Waterloo by ABBA. Olivia admitted later that she didn’t like her song.

8. Her biggest hit was Physical which sold over two million copies and spent 10 consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. It was the first winner of the Grammy award for video of the year, but was banned by a radio station in Utah for “suggestive lyrics.”

9. She’s well known for her role as Sandy in Grease, but she almost didn’t take the role. “I could not play a high school student at 28," she recorded in her autobiography. However, co-star John Travolta persuaded her to change her mind. While filming, the zipper broke on the famous tight black Trousers, and she had to be sewn into them to finish the scene.

10. Following her cancer diagnosis, she became an advocate for cancer awareness, but she got behind other good causes, too. She cancelled a concert tour of Japan in 1978 to protest the slaughter of Dolphins caught in Tuna fishing nets, and was listed as president of the Isle of Man Basking shark Society between 1998 and 2005.

Character birthday

Broderick “Tiny” Vendetta, a member of the Vendetta gangster family of New York. He is an expert in weaponry, especially explosive devices. His short stature is thought to be the result of his mother, Carlotta, experimenting with a new drug cocktail while pregnant. Although Tiny takes advantage of his size and uses it to hide in and gain access through small spaces, he is nevertheless sensitive about it, and prone to rage at anyone who makes comments on his size.