Welcome to day 194 of the year! Known as French Fries Day & Embrace Your Geekness Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of October 20th 2022.
1985 – Two simultaneous ‘Live Aid’ concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid.
Todays birthdays
1940 – Patrick Stewart (83), English actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation – “Captain Picard”, X-Men – “Charles Xavier”), born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England.
1942 – Harrison Ford (81), American actor (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Blade Runner), born in Chicago, Illinois.
1960 – Ian Hislop (63), British journalist, satirist, broadcaster (Have I Got News for You), born in Swansea, Wales.
1969 – Shaun Greatbatch, English darts player (first player to hit perfect 9-dart finish on live television 2002), born in Newmarket, England (d. 2022)
1988 – Tulisa Contostavlos (35), English R&B/hip hop singer (N-Dubz), born in London, England.
The day today
1955 – Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain – executed at Holloway Prison for the murder of her lover David Blakely.
1978 – The BBC bans the Sex Pistols’ latest single No One Is Innocent, which features vocals by Ronnie Biggs, the criminal notorious for his part in the Great Train Robbery of 1963. At the time, Biggs was living in Brazil, still wanted by British authorities, but immune from extradition.
1985 – Two simultaneous ‘Live Aid’ concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid. The 16-hour ‘super concert’ was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.
1995 – The first man in Britain to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act appeared at Epsom Magistrates, when Szymon Serafimowicz, aged 84, was charged with murdering 4 million Jews in 1941 and 1942.
2016 – Theresa May is elected leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister by Tory MPs following the resignation of David Cameron.
Today in music
1965 – Paul McCartney was presented with five Ivor Novello Awards at The Savoy Hotel, London. John Lennon refused to attend and Paul himself was 40 minutes late as he had forgotten about it.
1985 – Duran Duran became the first artists to have a No.1 on the US singles chart with a James Bond theme when ‘A View To A Kill’, went to the top of the charts.
1991 – Bryan Adams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” from the film Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. It stayed at No.1 for a record breaking 16 weeks, and was also a No.1 in the US and 16 other countries.
2002 – Fatboy Slim brought the Brighton area to a standstill when he threw a free beach party. Organisers had expected 60,000 fans to attend but over 250,000 turned up causing chaos on the roads with traffic jams over ten miles long. Fatboy Slim spent £100,000 of his own money supporting the event after a sponsor pulled out.
2007 – Rod Stewart collected his CBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. The singer who was honoured for his services to music wore a skull and crossbones tie, white trousers and a stripy shirt instead of the conventional morning suit.
Historical events
1643 – English Civil War: Battle of Roundway Down: In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, heavily defeats the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller.
1837 – Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to move into Buckingham Palace.
1919 – The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.
1923 – The famous iconic Hollywood sign was placed in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California. The sign originally read “Hollywoodland” until 1949, when the last four letters were removed.
1943 – The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft, ended in defeat for Germany.