June 28th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 180, known as Cream Tea Day, National SAFER Workplace Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of October 5th in the previous year. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Pearl.
2015 – The broadcast of the final episode of Top Gear with presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. Clarkson’s contract was not renewed earlier in the year after an ‘unprovoked physical attack’ on producer, Oisin Tymon at a hotel in North Yorkshire in March 2015. His co-hosts refused to present future shows without him.
Todays birthdays
1948 – Kathy Bates (76), American actress (Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Waterboy, Titanic), born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
1966 – John Cusack (58), American actor (2012, Con Air, Hot Tub Time Machine, Grosse Pointe Blank), born in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
1968 – Adam Woodyatt (56), English actor best known for his role as Ian Beale in EastEnders, a role he has played since 1985, born in Walthamstow, London.
1971 – Elon Musk (53), South African businessman and investor (Space X, Tesla, OpenAI), born in Pretoria, South Africa.
1985 – Phil Bardsley (39), English former professional footballer (Stoke City, Burnley, Stockport County) and current assistant manager of Macclesfield F.C., born in Salford, Manchester.
Famous deaths
2001 – Joan Sims (b. 1930), English actress best remembered for her roles in the Carry On franchise, appearing in 24 of the films.
The day today
1948 – English middleweight boxer Dick Turpin, (the elder brother and trainer of the more famous Randolph Turpin), beat Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black fighter to win a British boxing title.
1956 – Sydney Silverman’s bill for the abolition of the death penalty was passed by the House of Commons. It was defeated in the Lords on 10th July.
1991 – Margaret Thatcher announced that she was to retire from the House of Commons at the next general election. The former prime minister, who held her Finchley seat for more than thirty years, said she intended to remain in politics and wanted to go to the House of Lords …. and she did!
2001 – 36,000 people lined the banks of the River Tyne to watch the Millennium Bridge tilt for the first time. The bridge was the world’s first tilting bridge. It spans the River Tyne between Gateshead’s Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank.
2013 – 75 year old ‘Moors Murderer’ Ian Brady, who, along with Myra Hindley, tortured and murdered five children in the 1960s, lost his legal bid to be transferred from a psychiatric hospital back to prison. He claimed that he hated Ashworth hospital because ‘the regime has changed to a penal warehouse.’
Today in music
1959 – Bobby Darin was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Dream Lover’. The American singers first UK No.1 which featured Neil Sedaka on piano also reached No.2 on the US chart.
1986 – Wham! were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their fourth and final UK No.1 ‘The Edge Of Heaven’. Also on this day Wham! played their farewell concert in front of 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, London.
1997 – Puff Daddy and Faith Evans started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I’ll Be Missing You’. Released in memory of fellow Bad Boy Records artist Notorious B.I.G. who was murdered on March 9, 1997. The song sampled the melody of The Police hit ‘Every Breath You Take’. Also on this day… Radiohead went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their third album OK Computer. The British groups first self-produced album later appeared in many critics’ lists and listener polls for best album of the year and also won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.
2007 – The Spice Girls confirmed they would reform for a world tour to take place in December 2007 and January 2008 with the original line-up who had not performed on stage since Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell quit in May 1998.
2013 – Coldplay’s 2011 headline appearance on the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage was voted the top Glastonbury moment by BBC Radio listeners. Radiohead and Blur’s 2009 Pyramid Stage appearances polled second and third respectively, with Bruce Springsteen’s performance of Thunder Road in 2009 coming fourth.
Today in history
1461 – Edward IV was crowned King of England. He was the first Yorkist King and the first half of his rule was marred by the violence associated with the Wars of the Roses.
1491 – The birth of Henry VIII, King of England and second son of Henry VII. He married six times, beheaded two wives, broke away from the Catholic church to form the Church of England, executed Catholics who failed to recognize the church and executed Protestants who complained that he should execute more Catholics! Yet he still managed to remain a popular king.
1829 – The first policeman to be murdered in Britain was Constable Joseph Grantham in Somers Town. He went to the aid of a woman involved in a fight between drunken men and when he fell, all three proceeded to kick him to death.
1838 – Queen Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London. She was just 19 years old.
1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were killed by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I.