On This Day 2026
Hello, … Welcome to day 17

Saturday, January 17th Daily Prep.

Today is National Kid Inventors’ Day, National Tulip Day, Benjamin Franklin Day, Soup Swap Day and International Mentoring Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Garnet.
1994 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale devastates Los Angeles. The earthquake was felt as far south as San Diego 200km away and as far north as Las Vegas, 440km to the north east.
An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale devastates Los Angeles. The earthquake was felt as far south as San Diego 200km away and as far north as Las Vegas, 440km to the north east.
Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
Today’s birthdays
1956 – Paul Young (70), English musician, singer and songwriter (“Everytime You Go Away”, “Love of the Common People”), born in Luton, Bedfordshire.
1959 – Susanna Hoffs (67), American singer, songwriter and co-founder of the girl group, the Bangles (“Manic Monday”, “Eternal Flame”), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1962 – Jim Carrey (64), Canadian actor and comedian (The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, The Trueman Show), born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
1966 – Shabba Ranks (60), Jamaican dancehall musician (“Mr. Lover Man”, “Champion Lover”), born in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica.
1978 – Ricky Wilson (48), English singer and the frontman of rock band, Kaiser Chiefs (“I Predict a Riot”, “Modern Way”), born in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
1984 – Calvin Harris (42), Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter (“One Kiss” – Dua Lipa, “We Found Love” – Rihanna), born in Dumfries, Scotland.
Famous deaths
2020 – Derek Fowlds (b. 1937), English actor known for his roles as Bernard Woolley in the sitcom Yes Minister (1980–1984) and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1988), and Oscar Blaketon in Heartbeat (1992–2010).
The day today
1907 – Alfred Wainwright, whose books for walkers did much to popularise the Lake District, was born, in Blackburn, Lancashire. In 1952, he began the task of walking every fell in Lakeland and recording his walks with pen and ink drawings. It took him 13 years to climb the 214 fells, travelling on foot or by public transport from his Kendal home, as he never learnt to drive. His ashes are scattered on Haystacks, Cumbria.
1912 – Royal Navy officer and explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole, only to find that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him by one month.
1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip “Thimble Theatre”. He was initially introduced as a minor character to help the strip’s main characters, Olive Oyl and her brother Castor Oyl, on a sea voyage. Popeye has since been featured in cartoons, video games, a live-action film, comic books, and countless advertisements.
1945 – Auschwitz concentration camp evacuated 56,000 prisoners. Sadly, these prisoners were marched to several other camps. Labeled “the death marches,” around 9,000 to 15,000 prisoners died including an estimated 1500 British prisoners of war.

1983 – The BBC’s new Breakfast Time programme goes on air for the first time with hosts Frank Bough and Selina Scott.

1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins as Gulf War Allies send hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq. Iraq fires eight Scud missiles on Israel. On the same day, Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
1994 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale devastates Los Angeles. The earthquake was felt as far south as San Diego 200km away and as far north as Las Vegas, 440km to the north east.
2007 – The Doomsday Clock’s minute hand was moved two minutes closer to midnight, making the new Doomsday just five minutes to midnight. The change was made after North Korea performed its first nuclear test.
2011 – Liverpool’s Ryan Babel becomes the first footballer to be fined for comments made on Twitter. He was fined £10,000 for posting a doctored picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt.
2014 – Cambridge City Council said that apostrophes on new street signs would be abolished, a decision that was condemned by language traditionalists. The naming policy also banned street names which would be “difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell” and any that “could give offence” or would “encourage defacing of nameplates”. After an intervention by cabinet minister Eric Pickles, local people in Cambridge started to edit street signs, adding apostrophes if they were necessary.
2015 – American boxer Deontay Wilder wins the WBC heavyweight championship by unanimous decision over Bermane Stiverne at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas; Wilder becomes the first American to hold a heavyweight title since Shannon Briggs in 2007.
2017 – The underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ended. The plane fell off the radar on March 8, 2014, and was never found despite professionals searching 46,332 square miles for the wreckage. On this day, the passengers’ families were informed that the effort to find the plane had been suspended.
2024 – The Royal Family announced health issues for two senior members: Catherine, Princess of Wales, underwent successful planned abdominal surgery and would recuperate until after Easter, while King Charles III would have a procedure for a benign enlarged prostate, a condition he publicly shared to encourage others to get checked, leading to postponed engagements for both royals as they focused on recovery.
Today in music
1967 – The Daily Mail ran the story about a local council survey finding 4,000 holes in the road in Lancashire inspiring John Lennon’s contribution to The Beatles song ‘A Day In The Life’. Under the headline “The holes in our roads”, the brief stated: “There are 4,000 holes in the road in Blackburn, Lancashire, or one twenty-sixth of a hole per person, according to a council survey.
1967 – 40-year-old David Mason recorded the piccolo trumpet solo for The Beatle’s ‘Penny Lane’ at Abbey Road Studios in London. He was paid £27, 10 shillings for his performance.

1978 – Scottish rock band Simple Minds (“Alive and Kicking”, “Belfast Child”) made their live debut at The Satellite Club, Glasgow. The band went on to achieve five UK chart No.1 albums and have sold more than 60 million albums worldwide.

1987 – Kate Bush started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with The Whole Story. The compilation album was Bush’s third UK No.1 album as well as her best-selling release.
1996 – David Bowie, Tom Donahue, The Jefferson Airplane, Gladys Knight And The Pips, Little Willie John, Pink Floyd, Pete Seeger, The Shirelles and The Velvet Underground were all inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1998 – All Saints scored their first UK No.1 single with ‘Never Ever’. The track spent a total of twenty-four weeks on the UK chart and was the first of five No.1 singles for the London based girl group.
2003 – A long-lost recording featuring John Lennon and Mick Jagger was set to spark a biding war at a London auction. The acetate record was recorded in 1974 with Jagger singing the blues song ‘Too Many Cooks’ and Lennon playing guitar. The track had never been released because the two artists were both signed to different record companies.
2014 – Madonna apologised for using a racial slur “#disnigga” to refer to her son on an Instagram post, after she uploaded a snapshot of 13-year-old Rocco Ritchie boxing. The comment was swiftly deleted from her Instagram account after some of her 1.1 million followers berated her for using the hashtag.
Today in history
1648 – Parliament broke off negotiations with King Charles I, in response to the news that Charles was entering into an engagement with the Scots, thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
1746 – ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ and his Highlanders won the battle of Falkirk. It was to be their last victory in the ‘forty-five’ Jacobite uprising, as three months later they were defeated at Culloden.
1773 – Captain Cook’s ship and his crew, aboard ‘Resolution’, became the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle. Cook also surveyed, mapped and took possession for Britain of South Georgia. He almost encountered the mainland of Antarctica, but turned back north towards Tahiti to resupply his ship, then resumed his southward course in a second fruitless attempt to find the continent.
1820 – The birth in Thornton, West Yorkshire of the poet and novelist Anne Brontë. She was the youngest of six children who moved to Haworth, West Yorkshire on 20th April 1820. Anne wrote two novels. Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. She died from pulmonary tuberculosis when she was just 29 years old.
1827 – Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, a position he held until 1828 and was reappointed to from 1842 until his death in 1852, solidifying his status as Britain’s foremost soldier after his Napoleonic Wars victories. While known for commanding armies in the field, this later role made him the head of the entire British Army, a significant military and political appointment.
1863 – The birth, in Chorlton-on-Medlock, near Manchester, of David Lloyd George, Welsh politician. In 1909 he introduced old-age pensions, followed in 1911 by health and unemployment insurance. In 1916 he became Prime Minister of a coalition government. After the First World War he was re-elected with a huge majority, and held office until 1922.