January 20th "2024" daily prep
Welcome to day 20, known as National Cheese Lovers Day, National Disc Jockey Day and Take A Walk Outdoors Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of April 29th. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Garnet.
1982 – While playing a concert in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown on stage thinking it’s a rubber toy. After the show he was rushed to hospital for rabies shots.
Todays birthdays
1965 – Heather Small (59), British soul singer and former lead vocalist of the band M People (“Moving on Up”, “Search for the Hero”), born in London.
1971 – Gary Barlow (53), English singer-songwriter (Take That – “Relight My Fire”, “Back for Good”), and television personality, born in Frodsham, Cheshire.
1976 – Kirsty Gallacher (48), British television presenter (Soccor AM, Kirsty’s Home Videos) and model, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1979 – Will Young (45), English singer (“Leave Right Now”, “Evergreen”), songwriter, and 2002 Pop Idol winner, born in Wokingham, Berkshire.
1982 – Joe Swash (42), English actor (Eastenders – “Mickey Miller”) and television presenter (I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp), born in London.
The day today
1936 – George V died and was succeeded by Edward VIII who abdicated 325 days later because of his insistence on marrying American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
1972 – The number of people out of work and claiming benefit in the UK exceeds 1 million for the first time since the 1930s.
1986 – Mrs. Pauline Williams of Luton won her three year fight to prosecute the man who injected her drug addict son with a fatal painkiller. She was the first person to bring a private prosecution for manslaughter to a Crown Court trial. On the same day… France and Britain finally decided to undertake the Channel Tunnel project, promising that trains would run under the Channel by 1993. When it eventually opened, on 6th May 1994, it left Eurotunnel with debts of £925m a year later.
1987 – Police carry out a series of dawn raids in London. The Home Counties and the Midlands in their biggest operation so far to apprehend the ringleaders of organised fan violence in and around football stadiums. On the same day, church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut whilst attempting to win freedom for Western hostages.
2007 – A three-man team of Britons, using only skis and kites, completed a 1,093-mile trek to reach the ‘southern pole of inaccessibility’ for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.
Today in music
1982 – During an Ozzy Osbourne concert in Des Moines, Iowa, a member of the audience threw a bat onto the stage. Stunned by the light, the bat lay motionless, and thinking it was a rubber fake, the singer picked it up and attempted to bite its head off. As he did this, the bat started to flap its wings and Ozzy soon realized it wasn’t fake but in fact a living thing. After the show Ozzy was immediately rushed to the nearest hospital for rabies shots.
2002 – George Harrison had the posthumous UK No.1 single with the re-release of the 1971 former No.1 ‘My Sweet Lord’. Harrison’s single replaced Aaliyah’s ‘More Than A Woman’, the only time in chart history that one deceased artist had taken over from another at No.1.
2003 – 8 Mile, starring Eminem toppled The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers from its four-week hold at the top of the UK box office. The story of a Detroit rapper took over £4 million at 423 cinemas across the UK and Ireland.
2021 – Some of the UK’s biggest music stars sent an open letter to the British government demanding action to ensure visa-free touring in the European Union. Sir Elton John, Liam Gallagher, Ed Sheeran, Sting and Radiohead were among 110 artists who signed the letter. It said they had been “shamefully failed” by the government over post-Brexit travel rules for UK musicians.
2022 – American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday) died aged 74. His record-breaking 1978 album Bat Out Of Hell spent 457 weeks on the UK album chart. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy of albums (consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose) has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, (his first album stayed on the charts for over nine years).
Today in history
1265 – England’s first Parliament met at Westminster Hall in London, convened by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort.
1356 – Edward Balliol abdicated as King of Scotland in favour of Edward III and in exchange for an English pension. He spent the rest of his life living in obscurity and died in 1367, at Wheatley, Doncaster.
1568 – The death of Miles Coverdale, aged 80, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535).
1649 – Charles I went on trial for treason and other ‘high crimes’. He was beheaded ten days later. It was reported at his execution that he wore two shirts to prevent the cold weather causing any noticeable shivers that the assembled crowd could have mistaken for fear or weakness.
1783 – Great Britain signed a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence).
Fact of the day
Mosquitoes are unable to penetrate silk.
Mosquitoes can penetrate through cloth with their long proboscis. However, silk has a much stronger durability than most cloths that insects cannot bite through.