November 4th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 309 of the “leap” year! Known as Use Your Common Sense Day, Roast Dinner Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
2001 – The first Harry Potter film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” premiered in Leicester Square, London introducing young stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
Todays birthdays
1961 – Ralph Macchio (63), American actor best known for his role as Daniel LaRusso in three Karate Kid films and in Cobra Kai, born in Huntington, New York, United States.
1965 – Malandra Burrows (58), English actress and singer best known for her long-running role as Kathy Glover in the ITV soap Emmerdale, born in Woolton, Liverpool.
1969 – Matthew McConaughey (55), American actor (The Gentlemen, Failure to Launch, A Time to Kill, Magic Mike), born in Uvalde, Texas, United States.
1974 – Louise Redknapp (50), English singer with former girl group, Eternal (“I Wanna Be the Only One”), born in Lewisham, London.
1981 – Guy Martin (43), British former motorcycle racer who now presents a string of Documentary TV programs (Speed with Guy Martin), born in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.
Famous deaths
1993 – River Phoenix (b. 1970), American actor (Stand By Me, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sneakers).
2020 – Sean Connery (b. 1930), Scottish actor (The Rock, Entrapment, Highlander) and the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film in Dr No (1962).
The day today
1922 – English explorers Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered the Tomb of King Tutankhamen, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt. The first day of excavations uncovered the first step, which descended into the famed Egyptian pharaoh’s final resting place. Otherwise known as King Tut, Tutankhamun ruled from 1333 to 1323 BC. He was entombed in the typical fashion for rulers at the time, with plenty of gold, jewelry, artwork, and other priceless treasures to aid his passage to the afterlife. The tomb had been undisturbed since 1337 BC.
1974 – Judith Ward was convicted of an army coach bombing on the M62 motorway in which 12 people died. She received a life term for each of those who died. Her conviction was quashed in 1992 when her lawyers argued that the trial jury should have been told of her history of mental illness.
1994 – 400 years of shipbuilding came to an end at the Swan Hunter Shipyard, Tyneside, with the launch of the Royal Naval Frigate ‘Richmond’. The yard stood empty for a few years, before it was bought by Jaap Kroese, a Dutch millionaire.
2011 – The magazine Woman’s Weekly celebrated its 100th anniversary with a special exact facsimile re-publication of the very first edition. The 4th November 1911 edition sold around 500,000 copies and reached its peak in 1950 when it regularly sold more than two million copies a week. Quote from the publishing director Sandy Gale – “The past one hundred years of Woman’s Weekly provides a unique record of the lives of women and social issues of the last century and it remains as resolutely and proudly relevant to its hundreds of thousands of readers today.”
2014 – Statistics from the 2011 census showed that Polish migrants had the highest employment rate of any nationality living in Britain, including the British. Results also showed that European migrants to the UK added £4.96bn more in taxes in the years to 2011 than they took out in public services.
Today in music
1966 – The Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’, entered the UK chart and went on to be a UK & US No.1 hit single. As a child, Brian Wilson’s mother told him that dogs could pick up “vibrations” from people, so that the dog would bark at “bad vibrations”. Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.
1979 – The Police released ‘Walking on the Moon’ as the second single from their second studio album, Reggatta de Blanc which became the band’s second No.1 hit in the UK. Sting has said that he wrote the song when he was drunk one night after a concert in Munich. The following morning, he remembered the song and wrote it down.
1989 – Elton John scored his 50th UK chart hit when ‘Sacrifice’, entered the charts. Only Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley had also achieved this feat. Sacrifice was initially released as a single in 1989, but stalled at No.55 in the UK and at No.18 in the US. English DJ, Steve Wright, began playing the song on BBC Radio 1 and the song was then re-released as a double A-side single, along with ‘Healing Hands’.
1997 – Shania Twain released her third studio album Come On Over which became the best-selling country music album, by a female act. To date, the album has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, shipped over 20 million copies in the United States, and in the UK it has sold over 3.3 million. Out of the album’s 16 tracks, 12 were released as singles.
2013 – Rihanna joined The Beatles and Elvis Presley as one of just three acts to top the UK singles chart seven times over seven years. The singer made the No.1 spot, as the featured artist on Eminem’s new track ‘The Monster’.
Today in history
1650 – William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland was born in Holland. On the day after his 38th birthday he landed at Torbay with an army of English and Dutch troops, and when Parliament declared the throne empty, he was proclaimed king.
1677 – The future Mary II of England married William, Prince of Orange. They later jointly reigned as William and Mary.
1832 – The birth, in Monmouthshire, of James James, harpist and musician from Pontypridd in South Wales. He composed the tune of the Welsh national anthem Hen Wlad fy Nhadau (also known as Land of my Fathers).
1839 – The Newport Rising took place. It was the last large scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain. Between 1,000 and 5,000 marched on the town of Newport in Monmouthshire, intent on liberating those who were reported to have been taken prisoner in the town’s Westgate Hotel.
1890 – The Prince of Wales, Albert Edward travelled by the underground electric railway from King William Street to the Oval to mark the opening of what is now the City Branch of the Northern Line. It was the first electrified underground railway system.