July 27th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 209 of the year! Known as National Scotch Day, Bagpipe Appreciation Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of November 3rd in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Ruby.
1974 – At Ascot, English champion jockey Lester Piggott had 3 wins, bring his total to 3,001. By the time that he retired in 1985–86 he had 5,300 winners in the UK & abroad, including nine Epsom Derby victories.
Todays birthdays
1958 – Christopher Dean (66), English ice dancer (Torvill & Dean; Olympic gold 1984), born in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.
1963 – Donnie Yen (61), Hong Kong actor, martial artist and director (Ip Man, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Wick 4), born in Guangzhou, China.
1969 – Triple H, born Paul Michael Levesque (55), American pro wrestler (14 x world champion; D-Generation X), born in Nashua, New Hampshire, United States.
1973 – Tom Kerridge (51), English chef (The Hand and Flowers in Buckinghamshire. The only pub in the UK with two Michelin stars), born in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
1977 – Jonathan Rhys Meyers (47), Irish actor (Bend It Like Beckham, Mission Impossible 3), model and musician, born in Drimnagh, Dublin, Ireland.
Famous deaths
2023 – Sinéad O’Connor (b. 1966), Irish singer and musician (“Nothing Compares 2 U”).
The day today
1949 – The British De Havilland Comet, the first jet-propelled airliner, made its maiden flight. It was a 40-passenger airliner.
1969 – English rower Tom McLean arrived off the Irish coast to become the first man to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean – from west to east – a distance of 2000 miles. His voyage took 72 days.
1978 – Two British balloonists battling to be the first to cross the Atlantic got into difficulties half way across the ocean. Their balloon finally collapsed into the sea, just 110 miles from land.
1999 – Tony Hawk landed the first “900” on a skateboard at the 5th annual X Games in San Francisco.
2012 – Queen Elizabeth declared the 30th Olympics opened in London, UK. To the audience’s surprise, a stand-in for the Queen made an entrance by skydiving from a helicopter with James Bond’s assistance.
Today in music
1976 – Tina Turner filed for divorce from her husband Ike, ending their violent 16-year marriage and successful musical partnership.
1985 – The Eurythmics were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)’, the duo’s only UK No.1 single. The song featured a harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder.
1992 – Michael Jackson sued the British paper The Daily Mirror over photos and an article that said he was left a “scar face” from numerous plastic surgeries. The suit was later settled out of court.
1996 – The Spice Girls scored their first No.1 UK single with ‘Wannabe’. Seven weeks at No.1, the song won Best British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards and Best Single at the 1997 Brit Awards. The Girl Power song became the best-selling single by a female group selling over six million copies worldwide.
2002 – Mariah Carey checked herself into an undisclosed hospital suffering from “extreme exhaustion.” The singer cancelled all public appearances, including her headlining appearance at MTV’s 20th birthday party.
Today in history
1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invaded Scotland and defeated Macbeth, King of Scotland ‘somewhere north’ of the Firth of Forth.
1586 – Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England, from Virginia.
1663 – The English Parliament passed the Second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies had to be sent in English ships from English ports.
1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable is successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.
1890 – Vincent van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died two days later, with his brother Theo at his bedside.