July 12th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 194 of the year! Known as National French Fries Day and Etch A Sketch Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of October 19th in the previous year. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
2017 – Iceberg A-68 broke from the Larsen C Ice Shelf, along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. At the time, it was the largest iceberg in the world and the sixth-largest berg in three decades of records.
Todays birthdays
1966 – Annabel Croft (58), British former tennis player and broadcaster (Eurosport, Sky Sport, BBC), born in Farnborough, Orpington, Greater London.
1969 – Alan Mullally (55), English former first-class cricketer (19 Tests, 58 wickets; 50 ODIs, 63 wickets), born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
1976 – Anna Friel (48), British actress (Beth Jordache – Brookside, Pushing Daisies), born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
1978 – Michelle Rodriguez (45), American actress (Fast and Furious franchise, S.W.A.T, Avatar), born in San Antonio, Texas, United States.
1984 – Gareth Gates (40), English singer-songwriter and runner up in the first series of Pop Idol in 2002, born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
2013 – Journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker (b. 1921), died at the age of 87 after suffering from bronchial pneumonia. His TV career stretched nearly six decades and he was best known for his documentary series, Whicker’s World, which ran from 1959 to 1988 on both the BBC and ITV. He was made a CBE for services to broadcasting in 2005.
The day today
1932 – Yorkshire cricketer Hedley Verity took 10 wickets for 10 runs in a county championship match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley, Leeds.
1963 – Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s first victim was Pauline Reade, 16, who disappeared on her way to a dance. Pauline, a schoolmate of Hindley’s sister Maureen, was abducted after Hindley offered to give her a lift on Foxmer Street in Gorton.
1986 – Dozens were injured in the second consecutive night of violent riots in Portadown, County Armagh. Violence flared when Orangemen converged on the town after their annual marches to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne (1690).
1989 – Judy Leden became the first woman to cross the English Channel by hang glider. She was launched from a hot air balloon 13,500 ft above Dover and completed the flight in less than 30 minutes.
2013 – A military funeral was held for 25-year-old Fusilier Lee Rigby at Bury Parish Church in Greater Manchester. He was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in May by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
Today in music
1968 – Mickey Dolenz from The Monkees married Samantha Juste who he met when working in the UK on the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops.
1980 – Olivia Newton-John and the Electric Light Orchestra had the UK No.1 single with ‘Xanadu’, which was taken from the film of the same name. It gave Olivia Newton-John her third UK No.1 single.
1986 – Simply Red scored their first US No.1 single with ‘Holding Back The Years’. Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall wrote the song when he was seventeen, while living at his father’s house. The chorus did not come to him until many years later.
1988 – Michael Jackson arrived in the UK for his first ever-solo appearances. He performed a total of eight nights to 794,000 people.
1991 – Take That released their debut single ‘Do What U Like’ which was a commercial failure, peaking at No. 82 on the UK Singles Chart.
Today in history
927 AD – King Athelstan, (also spelled Aethelstan or Ethelstan), became the first West Saxon king to have effective rule over the whole of England. when various local kings accepted his overlordship at Eamont, in Cumbria.
1290 – Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I, following almost two centuries of Christians and Jews living alongside each other.
1543 – Henry VIII married Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife, at Hampton Court Palace. Catherine was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and she outlived him. She was also the most-married English queen, having a total of four husbands.
1690 – William of Orange defeated the deposed Catholic, King James II, at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
1794 – British admiral Horatio Nelson lost his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.