September 26th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 270 of the year! Known as European Day of Languages, Shamu the Whale Day, World Maritime Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1997 – Two earthquakes strike the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi to collapse and damaging priceless artefacts.
Todays birthdays
1939 – Ricky Tomlinson (85), English actor (The Royle Family, Brookside, Mike Bassett: England Manager), born in Bispham, Lancashire.
1944 – Anne Robinson (80), English television presenter (The Weakest Link, Watchdog, Points of View), born in Crosby, Merseyside.
1956 – Linda Hamilton (68), American actress best known for playing Sarah Connor in The Terminator franchise, born in Salisbury, Maryland, United States.
1976 – Michael Ballack (48), German former professional footballer (Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen) and among the top goal scorers in the history of the German national team, born in Görlitz, Germany.
1981 – Serena Williams (43), American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, born in Saginaw, Michigan, United States.
Famous deaths
2004 – Brian Clough (b. 1935), English footballer (Sunderland, England) and manager (Derby County, Nottingham Forest).
The day today
1953 – Sugar rationing in Britain came to an end.
1955 – Frozen Birdseye fish fingers first went on sale in Britain.
1973 – Concorde made its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time, cutting the previous record in half, and flying at an average speed of 954 mph.
1997 – Queen Elizabeth II and the British Government announced that the Royal Yacht Britannia would neither be refitted nor replaced because of the high cost. She is now a floating tourist attraction in Edinburgh.
2013 – The funeral service was held for 5 year old April Jones, in her hometown of Machynlleth, mid Wales. She was murdered by 47-year-old Mark Bridger almost a year previously, sparking the biggest missing person search in UK police history. Her body was never found.
Today in music
1981 – Bruce Dickinson joined UK rock band Iron Maiden replacing Paul Di’Anno, and debuted on their 1982 album The Number of the Beast.
1987 – Michael Jackson started a six-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Bad’. Released nearly five years after Jackson’s previous studio album, Thriller, Bad, went on to become the world’s best-selling album having sold between 30 to 45 million copies worldwide. The album produced five US No.1’s, the first album to do so… Also on this day, Whitney Houston started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All’.
2003 – A report published on requests by artists to venues of their backstage requirements revealed; Limp Bizkit insisted that all the lamps in their rooms be dimmable while Mariah Carey would only have ‘bendy’ straws as she will not use straight ones. Van Halen insisted that back-stage celery is trimmed and not peeled. The Red Hot Chili Peppers asked for a meditation room and a selection of aromatherapy candles. Barry Manilow requested that the air temperature in the auditorium be kept at a regular 65 degrees.
2004 – Green Day scored their first UK No.1 album with ‘American Idiot’ the bands seventh release.
2016 – Universal, Warner Brothers, Sony and several other record labels filed a law suit against the operators of YouTube-mp3.org, a service that allowed its users to remove audio from videos streamed on YouTube. The court action, launched against a German company, alleged that “tens, or even hundreds, of millions of tracks are illegally copied and distributed by stream ripping services each month.”
Today in history
1580 – The Devonshire born seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to circumnavigate the earth. Drake plundered a few Spanish ships en-route to keep morale high!
1687 – The city council of Amsterdam voted to support William of Orange’s invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution. King James II of England (James VII of Scotland and James II of Ireland) was overthrown and William ascended the English throne as William III of England, jointly with his wife Mary II of England.
1748 – The birth, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars.
1861 – The first British Open Golf Championship began at Prestwick, Ayrshire.
1879 – The world’s first railway dining car was introduced in Britain on the line between London and Leeds.