October 7th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 281 of the year! Known as Forgiveness & Happiness Day, LED Light Day, You Matter To Me Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1946 – The BBC presented its first edition of Woman’s Hour, a daily programme of music, advice and entertainment for those in the home. The programme included an item on how to de-slime your flannels!
Todays birthdays
1957 – Jayne Torvill (67), English figure skater (Torvill & Dean, Olympic gold 1984), born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire.
1959 – Simon Cowell (65), English entrepreneur (X Factor and Got Talent television franchises), television personality, and record executive, born in Lambeth, London.
1967 – Toni Braxton (57), American R&B singer, songwriter (“Un-Break My Heart”, “Breathe Again”), born in Severn, Maryland, United States.
1968 – Thom Yorke (56), English musician and main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead (“Creep”, “Karma Police”), born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
1978 – Alesha Dixon (45), English singer (“The Boy Does Nothing), rapper (Mis-Teeq – “Scandalous”), dancer and television personality, born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
1996 – Lewis Capaldi (28), Scottish singer-songwriter and musician (“Someone You Loved”), born in Glasgow, Scotland.
Famous deaths
1980 – Hattie Jacques (b. 1922), English actress and producer. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films.
2020 – Eddie Van Halen (b. 1955), Dutch-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (“Jump”).
The day today
1919 – The Netherlands’ flag carrier airline was founded under the name KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. KLM is the oldest airline in the world that operates under its original name. The airline’s first flight carried two journalists and some newspapers from London to Amsterdam on May 17, 1920.
1959 – Three hundred people were rescued after being cut off by a blaze on Southend’s pier, (the world’s longest pleasure pier on England’s south-east coast).
1992 – The first Braille cash dispenser was installed, by the Northern Rock Building Society in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
1986 – British Newspaper “The Independent” was first published.
2000 – Kevin Keegan resigns as England manager in the toilets at Wembley, saying he’s “not up to the job” after the team’s poor display against Germany.
Today in music
1966 – Johnny Kidd was killed in a car crash while on UK tour in Radcliffe, Manchester, aged 27. Pirates’ bassist Nick Simper, who later became an original member of Deep Purple, was also in the car with Kidd but he suffered only some cuts and a broken arm. Kidd scored the 1960 UK No.1 single ‘Shakin’ All Over’ as Johnny Kidd and the Pirates.
1978 – The film soundtrack to ‘Grease’ featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John started a 13 week run at No.1 on the UK chart.
1995 – Alanis Morissette went to No.1 on the US album chart with her third album Jagged Little Pill. The record produced six successful singles, including ‘You Oughta Know’, ‘Ironic’, ‘You Learn’, ‘Hand in My Pocket’, and ‘Head over Feet’ and went on to become the biggest selling album ever by a female artist with sales over 30m.
2013 – Annie Lennox described the sexualised imagery of modern pop videos as “dark” and “pornographic”. “I’m all for freedom of expression,” she told BBC Radio 5 live, “but this is clearly one step beyond, and it’s clearly into the realm of porn.” The singer called for pop videos to be rated in the same way as films.
2022 – Slipknot were at No.1 in the UK with their seventh studio album The End, So Far. The album which peaked at No.2 on the US chart is dedicated to co-founder and former drummer Joey Jordison, who died in his sleep in July 2021.
Today in history
1792 – Christopher Columbus changed course and missed Florida, reaching the Bahamas several days later.
1765 – Delegates from nine of the American colonies protested against the British Stamp Act, which raised a direct tax on the colonies.
1780 – American forces defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.
1806 – English inventor Ralph Wedgwood (member of the Wedgwood family of potters) received the first patent for carbon paper, which he created as part of a device to help the blind to write.
1915 – English nurse Edith Cavell sentenced to death along with 34 others by German court martial for running underground network to free Allied soldiers.