Welcome to day 264 of the year! Known as World Gratitude Day, International Day of Peace and National Miniature Golf Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of December 29th 2022 and your star sign is “Virgo”.
1984 – Police and miners clashed at a pit in Maltby, South Yorkshire, in one of the biggest pickets since the miners’ strike began.
Todays birthdays
1947 – Stephen King (76), American sci-fi and horror author (Carrie, The Shining, Kujo, Misery), born in Portland, Maine, United States.
1950 – Bill Murray (73), American actor and comedian (Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Stripes, Groundhog Day), born in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
1972 – Liam Gallagher (51), English singer and songwriter (Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger”), born in Burnage, Manchester.
1981 – Nicole Richie (42), American television personality, fashion designer, and actress (The Simple Life), born in Berkeley, California, United States.
1990 – Rob Cross, English darts player (PDC World Champion 2018 following his victory over Phil Taylor), born in Pembury, Kent.
The day today
1915 – Stonehenge was sold at auction to Mr C H Chubb for £6,600 as a present for his wife. Mr Chubb presented it to the nation three years later as his wife didn’t think it suited her.
1949 – The Republic of Ireland beat England 2-0 at Goodison Park – England’s first home defeat by a foreign football team.
1955 – The Admiralty announced that Britain had formally claimed uninhabited Rockall, a rocky islet 300 miles west of Scotland, to stop the Soviets spying on missile tests.
1984 – Police and miners clashed at a pit in Maltby, South Yorkshire, in one of the biggest pickets since the miners’ strike began.
2012 – 50 year old Jessica Harper, a former Lloyds Bank worker in charge of online security was jailed for five years for fraud. She submitted 93 false and doctored invoices to pay herself £2,463,750, giving large sums to friends and her three brothers to invest in property.
Today in music
1977 – Meat Loaf released his debut studio album Bat Out Of Hell. His first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, it is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold over 43 million copies worldwide.
1985 – Madonna scored her first UK No.1 album with ‘Like A Virgin’, ten months after its release. The album spent a total 152 weeks on the UK chart.
1991 – Status Quo put themselves in the Guinness Book Of Records by appearing at four venues in one day, Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, performing all four in a 12-hour period.
1996 – The Fugees scored their second UK No.1 single with ‘Ready Or Not’. The chorus in the song is based on ‘Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)’ by The Delfonics. The Fugees previous single ‘Killing Me Softly,’ was so successful that the track was ‘deleted’ and no longer supplied to retailers whilst the track was still in the Top 20 to make way for the next single ‘Ready or Not’.
2002 – Pink went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Just Like A Pill’, the American singers first UK No.1.
Today in history
1327 – Deposed King Edward II of England was murdered, with a red hot poker in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire by order of his wife, to ensure the succession of his son Edward III.
1411 – The birth of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and claimant to the English throne. Although he never became king he ultimately governed the country as Lord Protector during Henry VI’s madness. His conflicts with Henry’s court were a leading factor in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses.
1745 – Bonnie Prince Charles and his Jacobite army defeated the English at the Battle of Prestonpans, in Scotland.
1776 – Part of New York City is burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.
1809 – British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.