October 17th "2023" daily prep

Welcome to day 290 of the year! Known as Black Poetry Day, National Pasta Day & International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of January 24th 2023. Your star sign is “Libra”.
1860 – The world’s first Open Golf Championship was held at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland. Until his death in 1859, Allan Robertson was regarded as top golfer in the world.
Todays birthdays
1957 – Dolph Lundgren (66), Swedish actor (Expendables, Universal Soldier), filmmaker and martial artist, born in Spånga, Sweden.
1968 – (David) “Ziggy” Marley (55), Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae performer (The Melody Makers), philanthropist, and son of Bob Marley, born in Kingston, Jamaica.
1972 – Eminem (51), American rapper, songwriter, and record producer (The Real Slim Shady, Stan, Lose Yourself), born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States.
1974 – Matthew Macfadyen (49), English actor (Mr. Darcy – Pride & Prejudice and as Tom Quinn in Spooks), born in Great Yarmouth.
1979 – Kimi Räikkönen (44), Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo, born in Espoo, Finland.
The day today
1936 – Newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook promised King Edward VIII that he would arrange for the British press to remain silent on the subject of his relationship with American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson.
1985 – The House of Lords, in the Gillick case, permitted doctors to prescribe oral contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent.
1973 – The start of a major world oil crisis when oil producing Arab states increased prices by 70 per cent and cut production in protest at US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
1979 – The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to humanitarian Mother Teresa.
2012 – Colin Farmer, aged 61 and a blind stroke victim said that he thought he was going to die when he was shot in the back in Chorley town centre with a 50,000-volt Taser stun gun fired by a police officer who mistook his white stick for a Samurai sword.
Today in music
1962 – In between their lunchtime and night shows at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, The Beatles travelled to Granada TV Centre in Manchester to make their television debut. They appeared live on the local magazine program People and Places performing two songs ‘Some Other Guy’ and ‘Love Me Do’.
1964 – Manfred Mann started a two week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’, possibly the first No.1 with a Nonsense Song Title. Also a No.1 in the US, the song was first released by the US group The Exciters.
1970 – The Jackson Five started a five-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I’ll Be There’. The group’s fourth No.1 of 1970, it made No.4 in the UK. Motown records claimed the group had sold over 10 million records during this year.
1987 – The Bee Gees became the only group to have a UK No.1 single in each of the three decades, (60s, 70s & 80s), when ‘You Win Again’ went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The brothers fifth and last No.1.
1992 – Tasmin Archers debut single ‘Sleeping Satellite’ was at No.1 in the UK, the English singer, songwriters only No.1. Archer wrote the song in the late 1980s about the moon landings in 1969, but it was only when Archer got a record deal that the song saw the light of day.
Today in history
1091 – A tornado struck London. It was Britain’s earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city of London was badly damaged. Other churches in the area were demolished, as were over 600, mostly wooden, houses.
1346 – At the Battle of Neville’s Cross, near Durham, the Scots were routed and King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
1855 – A steel-making process was patented, by Englishman Sir Harry Bessemer.
1814 – The London Beer Flood, an industrial accident that created a “beer tsunami,” resulted in the death of nine people. The combined 320,000 gallons of beer hit the brewery’s wall with such force that it collapsed under the tide, pouring out onto the unsuspecting slum streets of St. Giles Rookery.
1931 – Infamous gangster, Al Capone, was convicted of income tax evasion. He subsequently served time at Alcatraz prison.
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