May 14th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 135, known as Bond with your dog day, Dance like a chicken day, Online romance day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of August 21st in the previous year. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1894 – Blackpool Tower first opened to the public who paid a 6d (six pence) entrance fee, six pence more for a ride in the lifts to the top, and a further six pence for the circus.
Todays birthdays
1961 – Tim Roth (63), English actor (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Reservoir Dogs), born in Dulwich, London.
1968 – Greg Davis (56), Welsh comedian, actor (The Inbetweeners, Cuckoo) and presenter (Taskmaster), born in Denbighshire, Wales.
1969 – Cate Blanchett (55), Australian actress (Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnarok, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Talented Mr. Ripley), born in Melbourne, Australia.
1973 – Natalie Appleton (51), Canadian singer and member of “All Saint’s” (‘Never Ever’, ‘Pure Shore’s, ‘Bootie Call’), with her younger sister Nicole, born in Mississauga, Canada.
1976 – Martine McCutcheon (48), English actress (Eastenders) and singer (‘Perfect Moment’), born in the London Borough of Hackney, London
1984 – Olly Murs (40), English singer (‘Dance With Me Tonight’, ‘Heart Skips a Beat’), born in Witham, Braintree, Essex.
1984 – Mark Zuckerberg (40), American businessman and philanthropist and co-founder of Facebook, born in White Plains, New York, United States.
Famous deaths
2019 – Freddie Starr (b. 1943), English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor ( Opportunity Knocks and the Royal Variety Performance).
2020 – Little Richard (b. 1932), American singer, songwriter, and pianist (“Tutti Frutti”, “The Girl Can’t Help It”).
The day today
1929 – Yorkshire and England cricketer Wilfred Rhodes took his 4000th first-class wicket during a performance of 9 for 39 at Leyton. He is the only player in history to have reached that plateau. He was also the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches.
1951 – Trains ran on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
1965 – The field at Runnymede, the site of the signing of the Magna Carta, was dedicated by the Queen as a memorial to the late John F Kennedy, US President.
2013 – The American author Dan Brown released his fourth novel in the Da Vinci Code series, Inferno, which became an instant success. His books all made it to film all starring Tom Hanks as Langdon
2014 – Google added coast-to-coast public transport information for the whole of Great Britain to its Google Maps app. The data included departure times and routes for buses, ferries, trains and trams in England, Scotland and Wales.
Today in music
1977 – Leo Sayer went to No.1 on the US singles chart with the Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager song ‘When I Need You’, the singers second US No.1, also No.1 in the UK.
1983 – Spandau Ballet scored their first and only UK No.1 album with True. The title track from the album spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK singles charts and reached No.2 in the US. Other singles from the album included ‘Gold’ (a No.2 UK hit and a Top 30 hit in the U.S.), ‘Lifeline’, and ‘Communication’.
1994 – Scottish band Stiltskin were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Inside’. The song had been used on a Levi’s TV Jeans commercial. The bands only No.1 and only Top 30 hit.
2000 – Tom Jones was at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Reload’ making the singer the oldest artist to score a UK No.1 album with new material.
2002 – The musical We Will Rock You opened in London, England at the Dominion Theatre. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought, fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and does the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown. WWRY has since become the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre.
Today in history
1080 – William Walcher, the Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland, was murdered. As revenge, William the Conqueror ravaged the area and took the opportunity to invade Scotland and build the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
1779 – The classic English horse race “The Oaks” was first run at the Epsom Racecourse in southern England.
1796 – Edward Jenner became the first British physician to carry out a successful vaccination; on an eight year old boy against smallpox. His pioneering work laid the foundation for modern immunology techniques.
1881 – The death of Mary Jane Seacole, a British-Jamaican business woman and nurse who set up the “British Hotel” behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described it as “a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers”, and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991 and in 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.
1894 – Blackpool Tower first opened to the public who paid a 6d (six pence) entrance fee, six pence more for a ride in the lifts to the top, and a further six pence for the circus.