View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
2010 – All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries were suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moved south. The cloud triggered the UK’s worst airspace restriction in living memory and brought much of Europe to a standstill.
1925 – Author James Barrie donated his copyright fee for the story of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.
1941 – The Belfast Blitz, during which two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked Belfast in Northern Ireland, killing one thousand people.
1942 – The people of the British colony of Malta were awarded the George Cross in recognition of their heroic war time struggle against enemy attack.
1945 – British troops entered the Belsan concentration camp after negotiating a truce with the German commandant. Soldiers found piles of dead and rotting corpses and thousands of sick and starving prisoners. Freddie Gilroy, a former miner and 23 year old soldier from County Durham was one of the first allied troops to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The oversized Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers statue at Scarborough ‘represents ordinary people pulled out of ordinary lives because of war’.
1953 – Reis Leming, a 22-year-old US airman stationed in Britain was presented with the George Medal. He had rescued 27 people in East Anglia during winter floods. The award was the first given to a foreigner during peacetime.
1964 – Footballer George Best made his debut for Northern Ireland against Wales.
1984 – Tommy Cooper, English comedian, collapsed and died from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty’s. A statue of Cooper was unveiled in his birthplace of Caerphilly, Wales, in 2008 by fellow entertainer Sir Anthony Hopkins.
1989 – Britain’s worst football disaster at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. 96 football fans were crushed to death shortly after the start of the FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Most of those killed were from Liverpool. Fresh inquests into the 96 deaths began in Warrington on Monday, 31st March 2014. On 26th April 2016 the jury of 9 reached a verdict that vindicated the bereaved families who had fought for 27 years against South Yorkshire police claims that misbehaving supporters caused the disaster. It was the longest inquest in British legal history.
2000 – A white farmer in Zimbabwe became the first white farmer to be killed in land confrontations involving President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party.
2010 – All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries were suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moved south. The cloud triggered the UK’s worst airspace restriction in living memory and brought much of Europe to a standstill.
2013 – The death of music conductor Sir Colin Davis, aged 85. He made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1959 and was its longest serving principal conductor.
2019 – The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire, which completely destroyed the roof. Before the fire was fully extinguished, the spire had collapsed.
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
J.P. Morgan of JPMorgan and Chase Co. Banking and Milton Hershey of Hershey’s Chocolate were both in Europe and planned to travel back to the US on Titanic’s Maiden Voyage but made other plans.
“Be happy without picking flaws.” – Victor Hugo
“I’ll have what she’s having.” – Customer (Estelle Reiner) #moviequotes
The Powerpuff Girls get their power from Chemical X, as in the X Chromosome. Their power is girl power.
We have become such a civilized species that we need to emulate manual labor, by working out, to keep ourselves healthy.
“If you die in an elevator, be sure to push the up button.” – Sam Levenson
A group of Donkeys is called a Drove or Pace or Herd.
“Wikipedia is the first place I go when I’m looking for knowledge… or when I want to create some.” – Stephen Colbert
“Yabba dabba do!” – Fred Flintstone (The Flintstones)
Little Richard – Real Name: Richard Wayne Pennyman
The director of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ had to prove in court that the actors were still alive and didn’t get killed during the movie.
Who is this Rorschach guy? And why does he have pictures of my parents fighting?
“If you could be anything you wanted to be, you’d be disappointed.” #songlyrics
The reason grass makes you itch is because it actually cuts your skin with its serrated edges.
2018 – Xi’an, China, introduced a pedestrian lane for people who walk while looking at their phones.
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world.
1805 – The first Trooping of the Colour took place on Horse Guards Parade. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.