View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1883 – At a meeting in Liverpool to establish a home for dogs, the proposer, T.F. Agnew, suggested it should perhaps be turned into a home for children as he had seen the work of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to children. On the evening of this day, the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed. Later, it would become the National Society (NSPCC).
1905 – The birth of James Allan ‘Jim’ Mollison, Scottish aviator who flew from Australia to England in 1931 in eight days, 19 hours and 28 minutes. He married aviator Amy Johnson, and together they made the first east-west crossing of the North Atlantic and several other pioneering flights.
1928 – The 125th and final section of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.
1933 – ‘Dickie’ Bird, (Harold Dennis Bird) English cricket umpire, was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire.
1935 – The birth of Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian and composer.
1951 – The first Miss World Contest was won by Kiki Haakonson, a 21 year old from Sweden. There were 30 contestants and 25 came from Britain, although all nations could enter. The contest was devised by Mecca publicity officer, Eric Morley, as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations.
1958 – The legendary English footballer Bobby Charlton made the first of his 106 appearances for England against Scotland and scored the first of his record 49 goals for his country.
1992 – The death of Frankie Howerd OBE, English comedian and comic actor whose career, (described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as ‘a series of comebacks’), spanned six decades.
1995 – The first television advert for football pools was screened in a £1.5m Littlewood’s campaign. The ban on such commercials was lifted after the company protested to the government that the National Lottery was hitting their profits.
2004 – The death of Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder (along with Ross McWhirter) of the Guinness Book of Records.
2014 – A family had to flee their people carrier after suffering the misfortune of seeing it catch fire in the middle of the lion enclosure at Longleat Safari Park.
Did you know that on this day in 1882, Charles Darwin died at 73-years-old? He was famous for teaching the world the theory of evolution by natural selection.
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When spoken, the words “blend together” blend together.
If the sun exploded 7.5 minutes ago, no one would know for another 30 seconds.
80’s computers typically had 64 KB (yes, Kilobytes) of memory.
Pinocchio is loosely based on the Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, published in 1883.
Maureen O’Hara – Real Name: Maureen Fitzsimmons
“I guess it’s just my morbid personality.” – Plato #moviequotes
Goofus’ first move should really be to change his name.
Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the world without a river.
“The hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.” – Eddie Van Halen
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” – Margo Channing – (Bette Davis) #moviequotes
Mitch Hedberg would have been the king of Twitter.
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.
2012 – The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant took place on the Tideway of the River Thames, as part of the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.