July 8th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 190 of the year! Known as International Town Criers Day, National Love Your Skin Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of October 15th in the previous year. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
1996 – A patent was filed by two British scientists to use genetically engineered mosquitoes to immunize their victims against malaria by transferring a protein in their saliva.
Todays birthdays
1951 – Anjelica Huston (73), American actress (The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, John Wick 3), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1958 – Kevin Bacon (66), American actor (Hollowman, Footloose, Tremors, Sleepers), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
1959 – Pauline Quirke (65), English actress (Birds of a Feather, Maisie Raine, Shine on Harvey Moon), born in the London Borough of Hackney, London.
1985 – Jamie Cook (39), English guitarist, songwriter and a founding member of the Arctic Monkeys (“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”), born in West Kirby, Merseyside.
1998 – Jaden Smith (26), American actor (The Karate Kid, The Pursuit of Happyness) and son of Will Smith, born in Malibu, California, United States.
Famous deaths
2016 – Caroline Aherne (b. 1963), English actress and comedian (The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, The Fast Show).
The day today
1918 – National Savings stamps were introduced in Britain.
1965 – Ronald Biggs, who was serving a 30-year prison sentence for his part in the Great Train Robbery, escaped from Wandsworth prison using a rope ladder while out in the exercise yard. After living as a fugitive for 36 years. In 2001, Biggs returned to the United Kingdom and spent several years in prison, where his health rapidly declined. He was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2009 and died in a nursing home in December 2013.
1996 – Four young children and four adults were attacked by a man with a machete at St Luke’s Infants’ School in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton. Teacher Lisa Potts’s arm was almost severed in the attack and four children were injured. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth presented her with the George Medal for her heroism in saving the children’s lives. Her attacker, Horrett Campbell, was sent indefinitely to a secure mental hospital.
2000 – J. K. Rowling’s fourth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire went on sale, breaking all publishing records.
2016 – The opening of the Dickens Bar & Inn, in Scarborough, originally named Pickwick Inn after Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers. The pub is located on the corner of Huntriss Row where Dickens gave readings at the Assembly Rooms in 1858. The author had a number of literary links to Scarborough and the surrounding areas, including Filey and Malton.
Today in music
1972 – Bill Withers started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Lean On Me’, his only No.1 hit, it made No.18 in the UK. Also on this day, Donny Osmond was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the Paul Anka song ‘Puppy Love.’ The first of three solo No.1’s for Donny.
2004 – Mark Purseglove known as the world’s ‘biggest bootlegger’ was sentenced to 3 years 6 months jail by Blackfriars Crown Court. Purseglove had built up a £15 million pirate CD empire by bootlegging live concerts of some of the world’s biggest stars including The Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.
2006 – Queen guitarist Brian May made a “substantial” donation to save hedgehogs from slaughter in the Outer Hebrides. Although the exact amount was not revealed it was said to be enough to pay for the rescue of hundreds of hedgehogs from the Uists, where Scottish Natural Heritage has been culling the animals for the past four years. May’s money would go towards funding cash rewards for islanders so hundreds more hedgehogs can be saved.
2007 – Chemical Brothers went to No.1 on the UK album chart with We Are The Night the duo’s sixth studio album, (and the band’s fifth consecutive album to top the chart). The album won a Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 50th Grammy Awards.
2023 – Elton John told his millions of fans that they would remain in his “head, heart and soul” when concluding his marathon farewell tour at Sweden’s Tele2 Arena in Stockholm. Elton closed the show with one of his biggest hits – ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour began in North America in 2018, and this was his second night performing in Stockholm.
Today in history
975 AD – The death of Edgar the Peaceful or the Peaceable who was King of England from 959 to 975. He was the younger son of King Edmund I and his Queen, Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury.
1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal charter to Rhode Island. It allowed settlers in Rhode Island to govern their own colony and guaranteed their individual freedom of religion.
1776 – Colonel John Nixon gives the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence to an assemblage of citizens in Philadelphia.
1884 – Benjamin Waugh and others found The London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in London; later expanded to become the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
1836 – Charles Darwin reaches Saint Helena, located in the South Atlantic Ocean in HMS Beagle and takes up lodgings near the tomb of Napoleon.