View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1834 – The Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in Britain. The Act dropped the system whereby parishes cared for their poor by a rate of poor relief and replaced it with the workhouse.
1918 – World War I -The start of the Battle of Amiens – Allied troops advanced against 20 German divisions and took 16,000 prisoners within 2 hours.
1940 – The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Britain and so began The Battle of Britain which would continue into the following October.
1953 – Nigel Mansell, English racing driver was born. He won both the Formula One World Championship in 1992 and the American CART Indy Car World Series in 1993 making him the only person to hold both titles simultaneously. Until October 2014 Mansell remained the most successful British Formula One driver of all time in terms of race wins, with 31 victories. On 12th October 2014 his victories were equalled by (and have now been surpassed by) Lewis Hamilton.
1958 – In Britain, Columbia Records signed a 17 year old singer called Cliff Richard.
1963 – The Great Train Robbery, in which over £2.5 million was stolen, took place near Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. The day of the train robbery also happened to be the 34th birthday of Ronnie Biggs, one of the robbers.
1991 – John McCarthy, Britain’s longest-held hostage in Lebanon, was freed after more than five years in captivity. He had been held hostage since April 17, 1986 – a total of 1,943 days.
1996 – The death in Columbia – Maryland, of Sir Frank Whittle, aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine. He was born at Earlsdon, a suburb of Coventry This statue of Sir Frank Whittle is outside Coventry’s Transport Museum.
1997 – British newspapers romantically linked Diana, Princess of Wales with Dodi Al Fayed – the son of Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of the London store Harrods.
2002 – The UK’s biggest undertakers Co-op funeral services, reported that bereaved families preferred pop songs to hymns at funerals. Unusual choices requested included ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ by Queen and ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by Wham!
2019 – An accident at a Russian nuclear-weapon testing site at the closed city of Sarov kills five scientists in mysterious circumstances.
2020 – Simon Cowell breaks his back in an accident while riding an electric bike.
I love how we call it ‘Banana Bread ‘ to disguise the fact that we are eating cake for breakfast.
“I saw that! Brick killed a guy. Did you throw a trident?” – Ron Burgundy #moviequotes
A group of Frogs is called an Army or Colony or Knot.
Steve Carell’s real last name was “Caroselli”, but his father changed it.
Pteronophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers.
No word in the English language rhymes with purple.
Either I’m getting older or the guy on the Quaker Oats box looks younger than he used to.
The working title for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was “A Boy’s Life”.
“Welcome to the island of misfit toys.” – Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower #moviequotes
In the Wonder Woman television show starring Lynda Carter, the ore used to make her bracelets were known as “Feminum”
Neuralizer – the hand-held flashing device used by the Men in Black that makes people forget things.
Katy Perry – Real Name: Katy Hudson
“What the public expects and what is healthy for an individual are two very different things.” – Esther Williams
“My philosophy is very simple. To feel young, you must work as long as you can.” – Dino De Laurentiis
“The lack of facts holds you back. The odds are stacked against a weak mind.” – Kool Moe Dee
“Depressed, anxious, sad, frightened? Yes. But I’ve never been bored.” – Dustin Hoffman
“It’s essential that a part of you not grow up. Childhood wonder gives us our spark and beauty.” – Robin Quivers
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.