October 19th "2024" Daily Prep

Welcome to day 293 of the “leap” year! Known as Evaluate Your Life Day, International Sloth Day, World Humanitarian Action Day, National New Friends Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
The American War of Independence came to an end when British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000 troops to George Washington at Yorktown, in Virginia, after a three week siege.
1781 – The American War of Independence came to an end when British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000 troops to George Washington at Yorktown, in Virginia, after a three week siege.
Todays birthdays
1945 – John Lithgow (79), American actor (3rd Rock From the Sun, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), born in Rochester, New York, United States.
1954 – Sam Allardyce (70), English football manager and former professional player who was most recently manager of Leeds United, born in Old Park Farm, Dudley, West Midlands.
1960 – Dan “Woody” Woodgate (64), English musician and rock drummer (Madness – “Our House”, “Baggy Trousers”), born in Kensington, West London.
1962 – Evander Holyfield (61), American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011, born in Atmore, Alabama, United States.
1963 – Sinitta (61), British-American singer (“So Macho”, “Toy Boy”, “Right Back Where We Started From”), born in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Famous deaths
2020 – Robbie Coltrane (b. 1950), Scottish actor, comedian and writer (Harry Potter film series, Nuns on the Run, GoldenEye).
The day today
1970 – British Petroleum (BP) announced the first major discovery of oil under the British sector of the North Sea.
1978 – For the first time in Britain, the International Motor Show was held outside London, its new home being the newly-completed National Exhibition Centre (NEC) near Birmingham.
2001 – It was announced that a ‘serious error’ was made by researchers who wasted five years testing the wrong animal brains for BSE!
2011 – After a 10 year legal battle, police and bailiffs began clearing the illegal part of the UK’s largest travellers’ site, at Dale Farm, Basildon, Essex.
2013 – The violin that was apparently played to calm passengers on the Titanic as it sank was sold for £900,000 in just 10 minutes at auction in Wiltshire. Bidding started at £50 and the violin had a guide price of £300,000. The bandleader Wallace Hartley aged 33, was from Colne in Lancashire and is buried in Colne cemetery. The words ‘Nearer My God To Thee’, the alleged last song that the band played on RMS Titanic, are engraved on the plinth.
Today in music
1961 – Helen Shapiro was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Walkin’ Back To Happiness.’ The singers second and final UK No.1.
1985 – A-Ha went to No.2 on the UK singles chart with ‘Take On Me’. The video for the song featured the band in a pencil-sketch animation method called rotoscoping, combined with live action which won six awards and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.
1998 – Cher’s “Believe” was released and became the Billboard 1999 Song of the Year. The album featured some of her most famous singles, such as “Believe” and “Strong Enough.”
2010 – Elton John described today’s songwriters as “pretty awful”, Pop music as “uninspiring” and talent shows like American Idol as “boring” in an interview with UK Radio Times magazine.
2011 – Adele appeared on Saturday Night Live along with then US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The show earned its highest ratings in 14 years with a total of 17 million viewers. Adele who performed ‘Chasing Pavements’ and ‘Cold Shoulder’, topped the iTunes charts the following day and the singer’s debut album jumped thirty-five places to No.11 on the US chart the following week.
Today in history
1216 – King John died of dysentery at Newark-on-Trent , during a Civil War which was the result of his refusal to recognize the Magna Carta signed the previous year. He was known as John Lackland for losing so much territory to France and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
1649 – New Ross town, in County Wexford, Ireland, surrendered to Oliver Cromwell during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
1688 – The birth of William Cheselden who was influential in establishing surgery as a scientific medical profession.
1745 – Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, died aged 77.
1781 – The American War of Independence came to an end when British commander Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000 troops to George Washington at Yorktown, in Virginia, after a three week siege.