March 11th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 71, known as World Plumbing Day, National Napping Day and Commonwealth Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of June 18th in the previous year. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
1988 – The Bank of England pound note, first introduced on 12th March 1797, ceased to be legal tender in Britain at midnight.
Todays birthdays
1963 – Alex Kingston (61), English actress (Dr. Elizabeth Corday – ER, Doctor Who, A Discovery of Witches), born in Epsom, Surrey.
1964 – Shane Richie (60), English actor (Alfie Moon – Eastenders) and television presenter (Win, Lose or Draw), born in Harlesden, London.
1971 – Johnny Knoxville (53), American stunt performer and actor (MTV reality stunt show Jackass), born in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
1978 – Didier Drogba (46), Ivorian former professional footballer (Galatasaray, Chelsea FC), born in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
1993 – Jodie Comer (31), English actress (Killing Eve, Doctor Foster, My Mad Fat Diary), born in Liverpool.
Famous deaths
1955 – Alexander Fleming (b. 1881), Scottish biologist, pharmacologist (discoverer of Penicillin) and Nobel Prize laureate.
2018 – Ken Dodd (b. 1927), English comedian and singer described as “the last great music hall entertainer”.
The day today
1988 – The Bank of England pound note, first introduced on 12th March 1797, ceased to be legal tender in Britain at midnight. When the deadline for returning old notes was reached, it was estimated that some 70 million were still outstanding.
1997 – Ann Widdecombe became the first Prisons’ Minister to visit all the 129 jails in Britain.
2011 – 15,899 lives were lost after a severe 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in Japan.
The earthquake shook the island, causing a tsunami and the second-worst nuclear accident in history at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Total damage was equivalent to around £210 billion.
2014 – Dozens of firefighters were called out to deal with a blaze at a fire station. The retained fire crew at Downham Market in Norfolk could do nothing because their own fire engine was caught up in the blaze that started in their own building.
2021 – Prince William made a public statement saying that the British Royal Family was not a racist family. The comment followed the allegations by his younger brother, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, that she faced racism from members of the family.
Today in music
1965 – Tom Jones was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘It’s Not Unusual.’ The Welsh singer’s first of 16 UK Top 40 hits during the 60s. Written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, the song was first offered to Sandie Shaw. Jones recorded a demo for Shaw, and when she heard it she was so impressed with Jones’s delivery that she declined the song and recommended that Jones release it himself.
1978 – The debut single from Kate Bush, ‘Wuthering Heights’ a song inspired by the Emily Bronte novel, started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart. Record company, EMI had originally chosen another track, ‘James and the Cold Gun’ as the lead single, but Bush was determined that ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be the first release from the album.
1978 – Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell album began a 416-week run on the UK chart. The album went on to become one of the most influential and iconic albums of all time and its songs have remained classic rock staples.
1989 – Australian actor turned singer Jason Donovan scored his first UK No.1 single with ‘Too Many Broken Hearts’ which was written and produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
2008 – Madonna was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a star-studded ceremony in New York City, she received her honour at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel from singer Justin Timberlake. The 49-year-old thanked her detractors in an acceptance speech, including those who ‘said I couldn’t sing, that I was a One Hit Wonder’. Rock star John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures and The Dave Clark Five were also among the inductees.
Today in history
1682 – The Chelsea Hospital, a retirement home and nursing home for British soldiers (known as the Chelsea Pensioners) who were unfit for further duty due to injury or old age, was founded by Charles II.
1702 – The Daily Courant, the first successful English newspaper, was first published. It consisted of only 1 sheet but lasted until 1735 when it was merged with the Daily Gazetteer.
1819 – The birth, at White Coppice in Lancashire, of Sir Henry Tate, English sugar producer & founder of London’s Tate Gallery.
1858 – The end of the Indian Mutiny that had lasted for 10 months. The Indian sepoys had mutinied after believing that their rifle cartridges had been lubricated in animal fat.
1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made disaster ever to befall England destroyed 800 houses and killed 270 people in Sheffield when the Low Bradfield Reservoir bursts its banks while it was being filled for the first time. The claims for damages formed one of the largest insurance claims of the Victorian period.