June 18th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 170, known as National Fishing Day, Sustainable Gastronomy Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of September 25th in the previous year. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Pearl.
1963 – Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.
Todays birthdays
1941 – Delia Smith (83), English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a direct style, born in Woking, Surrey.
1942 – Paul McCartney (82), English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, born in Walton, Liverpool.
1961 – Alison Moyet (63), English singer (Yazoo – “Don’t Go”), turned solo artist (“Love Resurrection”, “Is This Love?”), born in Billericay, Basildon, Essex.
1971 – Jason McAteer (53), British former professional footballer (Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Republic of Ireland), born in Birkenhead, Merseyside.
1971 – Nigel Owens (53), Welsh former international rugby union referee, who retired in December 2020 after a 17-year career, born in Mynydd Cerrig, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Famous deaths
2020 – Vera Lynn (b. 1917), English singer who was the “Forces’ Sweetheart” in World War II (“We’ll Meet Again”, “There’ll Always Be an England”).
The day today
1928 – The keel was laid, at Harland & Wolff – Belfast, for the biggest ship to date, the 1,000 foot, 60,000 ton Oceanic (III). She was never completed. Her keel was dismantled and the steel was used in two new, smaller ships, RMS Georgic and RMS Britannic. Both of these ships entered service in 1930 and were the last liners White Star ever built.
1928 – Amelia Earhart, along with pilot Wilmer Stultz and copilot/mechanic Louis Gordon flew from Newfoundland (17th June) landing at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales on 18th June, thus becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, flying from Newfoundland to Culmore in Northern Ireland.
1945 – William Joyce (known as Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II, using the English language radio programme Germany Calling. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January 1946.
1984 – The ‘Battle of Orgreave’. It was the most violent day of the year-long miners’ strike and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history. The National Union of Mineworkers deployed 5,000 pickets from across the UK to stop lorry loads of coke leaving Orgreave coking plant for the British Steel Corporation’s works in Scunthorpe. The number of police officers (6,000 from 18 different forces) was unprecedented in an industrial dispute, as was the use of dogs, horses and riot gear. 71 pickets were charged with riot and 24 with violent disorder. The trials collapsed when the evidence given by the police was deemed ‘unreliable’. News footage of the confrontation was edited and broadcast out of chronological sequence, showing pickets throwing stones at the police and the police subsequently carrying out a mounted charge.
2000 – Jamie Andrew, aged 30 years, became the first quadruple amputee to scale Ben Nevis when he reached the snow-covered peak after a climb of 6½ hours. He had lost his hands and feet from severe frostbite after being stranded in the Alps in a fierce blizzard in 1999.
Today in music
1955 – Jimmy Young was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of ‘Unchained Melody’, (a theme for the obscure prison film Unchained and a hit for the Righteous Brothers in 1965). Young scored another ten Top 40 hit singles and went on to become one of UK’s favourite radio DJ’s.
1977 – Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Dreams’, the group’s first and only US No.1, was also a No.24 in the UK. Stevie Nicks has stated she wrote the song at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, in about 10 minutes.
1988 – ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ by The Timelords was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. The Timelords were Scottish duo Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, who formed KLF. The song was a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music, Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock and Roll (Part Two)’ with sections from ‘Blockbuster!’ by Sweet.
2015 – Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper and Toby Keith were among the inductees into the Song Writers Hall Of Fame at a star-studded gala in New York City. The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia was also inducted posthumously alongside the band’s lyricist Robert Hunter.
2016 – Adele was named songwriter of the year at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, which recognise achievement in songwriting. The singer was honoured for her multi-million selling album, 25, which emerged last year after a long struggle with writer’s block.
Today in history
1429 – French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeated the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay (slightly north of Orléans, France). The event turned the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
1583 – The first Life Insurance policy was sold in London, and when a claim was eventually made, it was disputed.
1815 – The Battle of Waterloo:- Napoleon Bonaparte suffered defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history. Waterloo Bridge, at Betws-y-Coed (in the Conwy valley in North Wales), was built by the civil engineer Thomas Telford. It was constructed in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo and was only the seventh such bridge to be built.
1822 – London unveiled its first nude statue – a bronze figure of Achilles in Hyde Park by sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott. The statue later acquired a discreet fig leaf.
1858 – Charles Darwin received a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that included almost identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.