July 15th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 197 of the year! Known as Saint Swithin’s Day, Gummi Worm Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of October 22nd in the previous year. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
1381 – Poll Tax Triggers the Peasants’ Revolt: John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, is hung, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
Todays birthdays
1952 – Celia Imrie (72), Anglo-Scottish actress (Bridget Jones, Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Mamma Mia! and the TV series, Dinnerladies), born in Guildford, Surrey.
1961 – Forest Whitaker (63), American actor (Panic Room, The Last King of Scotland, Godfather of Harlem), born in Longview, Texas, United States.
1963 – Brigitte Nielsen (61), Danish actress (Red Sonja, Rocky IV, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Cobra), born in Rødovre, Denmark.
1965 – David Milliband (59), former British Labour Party politician (Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010), born in London.
1975 – Jill Halfpenny (49), English actress (Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, Babylon), born in Gateshead in Tyne and Wear.
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
1941 – The Holocaust: Nazi Germany begins the deportation of 100,000 Jews from the occupied Netherlands to extermination camps.
1953 – John Christie, English serial killer and alleged necrophiliac active during the 1940s and early 1950s was hanged for the murder of at least 8 people, including his wife, Ethel at HM Prison Pentonville.
1997 – Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion.
1988 – Action film, Die Hard (Starring Alan Rickman) was first released in U.S. theatres, launching a hugely popular franchise and helping establish Bruce Willis as an action star.
2018 – Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao stops WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse in seven rounds in Kuala Lumpur for his first knockout in nine years and 60th career victory. On the same day, France beat Croatia, 4-2 to win the FIFA World Cup at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
Today in music
1956 – The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Why Do Fools Fall In Love’. A No.6 hit in the US. At 13, Lymon was the youngest performer to make No.1.
1989 – Simply Red scored their second US No.1 single with ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’, a 1973 UK hit for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
2000 – A Manchester judge reprimanded Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder after he turned up a day late in court to give evidence. Ryder told the court he had been on ‘a bender’. A man was cleared of dangerous driving and assaulting Ryder.
2007 – The UK music industry reacted angrily to a decision to give away Prince’s new album “Planet Earth” as a ‘covermount’ with the Mail on Sunday newspaper. The 10-track CD was not due to be released in stores until 24 July.
2012 – Queen were crowned top of the patriotic pops in a survey of 100,000 music fans. The band’s anthem ‘We Are The Champions’ was named number one by fans who were asked what song made them proud to be British.
Today in history
1381 – Poll Tax Triggers the Peasants’ Revolt: John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, is hung, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
1581 – English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion was captured by a spy named George Eliot and taken to London.
A Jesuit was a member of the Society of Jesus who would preach and act as a missionary to share their beliefs. The England campaign began in 1580, and many were out to get Campion for this preaching.
1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.
1815 – Napoleon surrenders to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon at Rochefort after his earlier defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.