Flavour of the month: December – luna graffiti, Sinatra’s pockets and the voice of golf

This month’s timely trivia includes a canny England footballer, an endangered Lady Astor and a confused Nicholas Parsons. Oh, and we learn how many cups of coffee Steven Spielberg has drunk in his life …

• 1 December 1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons. One of the regular visitors to her country house Cliveden was Baroness Trumpington, whose young son enjoyed sledging in the snow there. ‘Adam’s other main entertainment,’ wrote Trumpington in her memoirs, ‘was travelling up and down in the lift. He also, to my shame, headbutted Lady Astor.’
• 2 December 1697 – St Paul’s Cathedral is consecrated. One of the radio commentators at the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana was Test Match Special’s Brian Johnston, who informed listeners that Earl Spencer and his daughter were about to ‘go up the steps of the pavilion… I mean St Paul’s’.
• 4 December 1971 – a fire during a Frank Zappa concert at the Montreux casino destroys the venue, inspiring Deep Purple to write Smoke on the Water.