Norway’s defence chiefs, who have ordered conscripts to return their underwear after they finish their military service so that it can be reused by the next batch of recruits. Because of a shortfall in supplies, the pants, socks and bras will be reused subject to “proper checks and cleaning”.

In 1855, an American farmhand called John Thompson saw an advert in the Sacramento Union: “Uncle Sam Needs a Mail Carrier.” The federal government wanted someone to haul letters and packages across the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, in winter – a terrifying 180-mile round trip involving 10,000ft of steep climbs and another 10,000ft of treacherous descents. Thompson, who had skied as a child in his native Norway, built a pair of rudimentary skis and signed up.

“You probably don’t know Marni Nixon’s face, but you will know her voice,” says Alexandra Pollard in The Independent. The singer’s “trilly, gleaming soprano” was dubbed over Natalie Wood’s singing in 1961’s West Side Story, and over Audrey Hepburn’s in My Fair Lady. Nixon, who initially worked in opera, became a “ghost singer” when she discovered she could eerily mimic the timbre of an actress’s speaking voice in song. But despite her work being highly successful, Nixon was “paid next to nothing”, denied credit, and sworn to secrecy.