September 5th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 249 of the year! Known as Cheese Pizza Day, World Samosa Day, National Cellulite Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 13th in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
2013 – More than 130 vehicles were involved in a series of crashes in thick fog on the Sheppey crossing in Kent. The A249 bridge was closed for more than nine hours.
Todays birthdays
1951 – Michael Keaton (73), American actor (Batman, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice, Jack Frost, The Founder), born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, United States.
1969 – Mark Ramprakash (55), is an English former cricketer (Surrey, Middlesex and England) and cricket coach (Middlesex), born in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
1970 – Johnny Vegas (54), English comedian, actor (Benidorm, Murder on the Blackpool Express) and writer, born in St Helens, Merseyside.
1973 – Paddy Considine (51), British actor, director, and screenwriter (Dead Mans Shoes, House of the Dragon), born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.
2001 – Bukayo Saka (34), English professional footballer (Arsenal, England), born in Ealing, London
Famous deaths
2021 – Sarah Harding (b. 1981), English singer who was a member of the girl group, Girls Aloud (“Sound of the Underground”). The group achieved twenty consecutive top ten singles (including four number ones) in the UK.
The day today
1939 – At the start of World War II in Europe, American President Roosevelt declared the United States to be neutral.
1979 – The BBC began broadcasting the hit American series ‘Dallas’ which soon became one of the most popular programmes on British TV.
1988 – No Sex Please We’re British, the longest running comedy which premiered in London’s West End, closed after 6,671 performances over 16 years.
2013 – More than 130 vehicles were involved in a series of crashes in thick fog on the Sheppey crossing in Kent. The A249 bridge was closed for more than nine hours. Police found enough evidence to prosecute 32 motorists, but offered to send them on a driver alertness course instead. Eight people suffered serious injuries and 200 others were treated at the scene following the crash, which started at around 7.15am.
2014 – Channel 4’s game show Countdown achieved a Guinness World Record for the ‘most series broadcast for a TV game show’ when it reached its 6,000th episode On This Day. The programme was launched in 1982, with the late Richard Whiteley at the helm.
Today in music
1981 – Soft Cell were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of ‘Tainted Love.’ The song had been a hit for Gloria Jones in 1964. (Jones who became Marc Bolan’s girlfriend was the driver of the car, that crashed and killed Bolan on 16 September 1977. Jones nearly died in the accident).
1998 – Manic Street Preachers scored their first UK No.1 single with ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’. The group’s 19th hit and the first Welsh act to have a No.1 single since Shakin’ Stevens in 1985. The song is in the Guinness World Records as the longest title for a No.1 single without brackets.
1999 – After spending 58 weeks on the UK album chart, Shania Twain went to No.1 with ‘Come On Over’. It became the best-selling country music album, and the second best-selling studio album by a female act. To date, the album has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.
2006 – Arctic Monkeys won this year’s UK Mercury Prize for their album ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.’ The Sheffield-based bands album became the fastest-selling debut in chart history after shifting more than 360,000 copies in its first week of release in Feb 2006.
2016 – An asteroid was named after Freddie Mercury to mark what would have been the singer’s 70th birthday. The Queen frontman has had his name attached to Asteroid 17473, which was discovered in 1991 – the year he died.
Today in history
1174 – Canterbury Cathedral was destroyed by fire.
1646 – Following Cromwell’s victory in the English civil war, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury was abolished.
1666 – The end of the Great Fire of London, that had started on 2nd September at the bakery of Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane. 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral had been destroyed, but only 6 people are known to have died.
1793 – The Reign of Terror occurred in France, where many massacres and public executions happened during the French Revolution.
1800 – Following a blockade by Admiral Horatio Nelson, French troops surrendered the Mediterranean island of Malta to Britain.