December 23rd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 358 of the “leap” year! Known as National Christmas Movie Marathon Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1972 – Sixteen plane crash survivors were rescued after being stranded in the Andes for seventy days. Although 33 of the 45 onboard survived the crash, injuries and severe weather conditions killed many more. Survivors had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Todays birthdays
1956 – Dave Murray (68), English guitarist and member of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden (“Run to the Hills”, “The Number of the Beast”), born in Edmonton, London.
1957 – Trisha Goddard (67), English television presenter known for her television talk show Trisha, born in Hackney, London.
1961 – Carol Smillie (63), Scottish former television presenter (Changing Rooms, Wheel of Fortune), born in Glasgow.
1978 – Jodie Marsh (46), English media personality, model and bodybuilder, born in Brentwood, Essex.
1985 – Harry Judd (39), English musician, dancer and the drummer for the band McFly (“All About You”, “Obviously”), born in Chelmsford, Essex.
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
1937 – The first flight of the Vickers Wellington, a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a bomber by the larger four-engine “heavies” such as the Avro Lancaster.
1956 – The United Nations Emergency Force took over in Egypt after British and French forces withdrew from Port Said and Port Fuad, thus ending the Suez Crisis.
1987 – The first ‘Scrooge’ award by the Low Pay Unit was made to a Wiltshire stable-owner who paid a qualified groom only £28 a week. The runner-up was a doctor employing a telephonist for 30p an hour. The prize was a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
1999 – George Harrison’s home in Maui in the Hawaiian Islands was broken into by Cristin Keleher, who cooked a frozen pizza, drank beer from the fridge, started some laundry and phoned her mother in New Jersey. Keleher was later arrested and charged with burglary and theft.
2011 – The Duke of Edinburgh was taken to Papworth hospital in Cambridgeshire after complaining of chest pains, and was treated for a blocked coronary artery. The procedure was declared a success but he was kept in for four nights so that doctors could keep a check on his recovery.
Today in music
1966 – ITV (Redifusion) broadcast Ready, Steady Go! for the last time, after the Musicians Union enforced a ban on miming. The special guests for the farewell show were Mick Jagger, The Who, Eric Burdon, The Spencer Davis Group, Donovan and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.
2002 – Sir Paul McCartney was granted his own coat of arms by the College of Arms, the English heraldic body formed in 1484. The crest featured a bird that appeared to be holding a guitar in its claw. The motto is “Ecce Cor Meum”, Latin for ‘Behold My Heart’, which is the title of an oratorio he composed.
2007 – The Police were named as the highest earning touring group for the past year, bringing in nearly £66.5m. The band’s 54 date North American tour had generated almost double the total of the second-placed act, Country star Kenny Chesney.
2008 – A spokesman for Michael Jackson denied reports the singer was suffering from a rare respiratory disease and was in need of a lung transplant. Dr Tohme Tohme said in a statement issued to Reuters that stories claiming the singer was unwell were not true. He added that author Ian Halperin had made the claims to promote his unauthorised biography of the 50-year-old singer.
2013 – The Mail On Sunday reported that documents they obtained from the Cabinet Office via the Freedom of Information Act showed that George Harrison, who passed away in 2001, turned down the chance to be included in the New Year’s Honours List in 2000. The OBE was recommended by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who said that Harrison should be recognised for his contribution to the music industry.
Today in history
1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution to overthrow King James II of England (James VII of Scotland), the KIng fled to Paris ‘On This Day’ after being deposed in favour of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.
1732 – The birth, in Preston, Lancashire, of Sir Richard Arkwright, the youngest of 16 children. A self-made man, he was a leading entrepreneur of the Industrial Revolution and the cotton spinning industry. He was the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire which also had the world’s first water-powered mill.
1834 – English architect Joseph Hansom, who designed the Town Hall at Lutterworth, Leicestershire patented the horse drawn taxi, known as the Hansom Cab. He went on to sell the patent to a company for £10,000 but the sum was never paid. The first Hansom Cab travelled down Hinckley’s Coventry Road in 1835. They were exported worldwide and became a feature of the 19th-century street scene.
1888 – Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear when tempers flared with Paul Gauguin, the artist with whom he had been working for a while in Arles. Van Gogh’s illness revealed itself: he began to hallucinate and suffered attacks in which he lost consciousness.
1905 – The earliest recorded British beauty show was held at Newcastle Upon Tyne, in north-east England.