February 3rd "2024" daily prep

Welcome to day 34, known as Golden Retriever Day, National Carrot Cake Day and The Day the Music Died. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of May 13th. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Amethyst.
1959 – Buddy Holly, Richie Valens And The Big Bopper die when their small aircraft crashes in snow shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa.
Todays birthdays
1959 – Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst (65), British rock keyboardist and drummer/drum machine player (The Cure, 1978-89 – “Boys Don’t Cry”, “The Lovecats”), born in Horley, Surrey.
1965 – Dave Benson Phillips (59), British children’s television presenter (Get Your Own Back, The Fun Song Factory, Playdays), born in London.
1970 – Warwick Davis (54), English actor (Harry Potter Films as Professor Flitwick, Willow, Jack the Giant Slayer) and television presenter (Tenable), born in Epsom, Surrey, England.
1976 – Isla Fisher (48), Australian actress (Now You See Me, Confessions of a Shopaholic) and wife of Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G), born in Muscat, Oman.
1977 – Daddy Yankee (47), Puerto Rican reggaeton singer and rapper (“Despacito”, “Gasolina”), born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The day today
1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 and 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
1984 – Doctor John Buster and a research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the United States announce history’s first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1988 – Nurses across the UK take part in a day of industrial action to secure more money for themselves and the NHS.
1989 – BT banned chatlines because of the ‘chatline junkie problem’. The company had been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12 year old son landed her a chatline bill of £6000.
2017 – The re-opening of the Tadcaster Bridge, which is believed to date from around 1700. The bridge collapsed on 29th December 2015 after flooding that followed Storm Eva. The loss of the bridge involved a 16 mile detour and loss of businesses in the town.
Today in music
1959 – Rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed in a plane crash along with the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa, an event later known as “The Day the Music Died”.
1979 – Blondie had their first of five UK No.1 singles, with ‘Heart Of Glass’, taken from the band’s third studio album, Parallel Lines. ‘Heart of Glass’ was originally recorded in 1975 under the name ‘Once I Had a Love.’
1986 – Dire Straits were at No.1 on the UK album charts with their fifth studio album Brothers in Arms. With ten weeks at No.1, the album is the seventh best-selling album in UK chart history and won two Grammy Awards in 1986, and also won Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. Brothers in Arms also spent nine weeks at No.1 on the Billboard 200 in the US, and thirty-four weeks at No.1 on the Australian Album Chart.
1990 – For the first time ever, the UK Top 3 singles featured non-British and non-American acts. Ireland’s Sinead O’Connor, Australia’s Kylie Minogue and Belgium’s Technotronic. Sinead O’Connor had her first No.1 single with Nothing Compares To U’, a song written by Prince.
2008 – UK singer Adele went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut album ’19’. As of December 2011, worldwide sales for the album stood at over 6.5 million copies.
Today in history
1014 – The death of Sweyn Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth and Viking King of Denmark, Norway and England. He was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day 1013, making him England’s shortest-reigning king, with a reign of just 40 days. The Viking king ruled England from a fortification on the site of what is now Gainsborough’s Old Hall, one of the best preserved medieval manor houses in England.
1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the Spanish Empire city of Montevideo, now the capital of Uruguay.
1821 – The birth, in Bristol, of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register.
1830 – The London Protocol of 1830 establishes the full independence and sovereignty of Greece from the Ottoman Empire as the final result of the Greek War of Independence.
1583 – Battle of São Vicente takes place off the coast off Colonial Brazil where three English warships led by navigator Edward Fenton fight off three Spanish galleons sinking one in the process.
Fact of the day
A Sardinian Cheese called Casu mazu contains live maggots. These maggots can jump up to five inches out of the cheese as you eat it. If you were able to try this delicacy, it is advised to protect your eyes while eating so that the maggots will not enter your eyes.