December 15th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 350 of the “leap” year! Known as Ugly Sweater Day, National Cupcake Day and International Tea Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
2013 – Andy Murray was awarded the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. Earlier in the year Murray had become the first Briton in three quarters of a century to win the men’s singles competition at Wimbledon.
Todays birthdays
1939 – David Clark (85), English musician and songwriter with The Dave Clark Five (“Glad All Over”), the first British Invasion band to follow the Beatles to the United States in 1964, born in Tottenham, London.
1969 – Ralph Ineson (55), English actor (The Office, Trigger Point) and narrator (Salavage Hunters), born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
1972 – Stuart Townsend (52), Irish actor who played Lestat de Lioncourt in Queen of the Damned and Dorian Gray in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, born in Dublin, Ireland.
1979 – Edele and Keavy Lynch (45), Irish twin sisters and singers with girl group B*Witched (“C’est La Vie”, “Blame it on the Weatherman”), born in Dublin, Ireland.
1992 – Jesse Lingard (32), English professional footballer (West Ham United, Manchester United, England National Side, FC Seoul), born in Warrington, Cheshire.
Famous deaths
2017 – Keith Chegwin (b. 1957), British TV presenter also known by the nickname Cheggers (Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, It’s a Knockout, Cheggers Plays Pop).
The day today
1974 – New speed limits were introduced. Speed limits on motorways would remain at 70mph , but on dual carriageways they would become 60mph and on all other roads 50mph as the government tried to curb fuel use.
1982 – Reputed to be Robin Hood’s tree, the ‘Major Oak’ in Sherwood Forest, was fitted with a fire alarm. Also on this day… There were scenes of jubilation as the gates isolating the people of Gibraltar from Spain were opened for the first time in 13 years. There were tight restrictions, which included a ban on any British or foreign tourists crossing.
1987 – A company in Bedford became the first to be fined (£500) for failing to register personal computer records under the Data Protection Act. Other companies include British Airways: £20 million in 2020,
Marriott Hotels: £18.4 million in 2020,
TikTok: £12.7 million in 2023 and
Clearview AI: £7.5 million in 2022.
2014 – Jonathan Paul Burrows, a London hedge fund manager who regularly avoided buying a train ticket on his commute to the City, was banned for life from working in any regulated financial industries. In total, Mr Burrows was believed to have dodged £42,550 in fares.
2015 – Forty three year old astronaut Major Tim Peake became the first Briton to serve a mission on the International Space Station. He took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 11:03am GMT, alongside Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko.
Today in music
1969 – John Lennon played what would be his final ever gig in the UK when he appeared at The Lyceum Ballroom, London, with the Plastic Ono Band in a UNICEF ‘Peace For Christmas’ benefit. George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Delaney and Bonnie, Billy Preston and The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon also took part.
1979 – Pink Floyd started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ their only UK chart topper. The song, which was also the final No.1 single of the 1970s, received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group, but Floyd lost to Bob Seger’s Against the Wind.
1984 – Do They Know It’s Christmas? by Band Aid entered the UK chart at No.1 and stayed at the top for five weeks. It became the biggest selling UK single of all time with sales over 3 and a half million.
1997 – ‘Spice World The Movie’, featuring The Spice Girls premiered at The Empire, Leicester Sq, London. The following year it was nominated for the ‘worst film’ at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
2002 – Blue featuring Elton John went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word.’ Previously a No.11 hit for Elton in 1976. It gave Elton only his 5th No 1 after over 30 years of hits.
Today in history
1569 – Charles Neville, the 6th Earl of Westmorland, escaped to Flanders after being hunted for treason by Queen Elizabeth I during the Northern Rebellion. Neville spent the rest of his life in exile, and died there. Elizabeth executed at least 400 rebels for treason. She also passed laws that made any further Catholic threat punishable as treason.
1651 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders.
1840 – Napoleon Bonaparte finally had a funeral. Napoleon died in St Helena, a remote British-owned island where he had been exiled. Due to the political struggle between Britain and France, it took 19 years to relocate Napoleon’s remains back to France to finally have a French state funeral.
1899 – British Army forces are defeated at the Battle of Colenso in Natal, South Africa, the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War.
1906 – The opening of the Piccadilly tube line on London’s Underground. It was the longest underground line at the time, running from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith.