View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1907 – Author Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was the first time it had been bestowed on an English writer.
1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clashed with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that had been subjected to vivisection.
1917 – The first postmark slogan was stamped on envelopes in Britain: ‘Buy British War Bonds Now’.
1936 – Edward VIII signed to abdicate the British throne. Edward VIII signed his Declaration of Abdication so that he could marry Wallis Simpson – an American divorcee, a marriage which was opposed by the United Kingdom government.
1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy’s ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1979 – Twenty year old stuntman Eddie Kidd accomplished a “death-defying” motorcycle leap when he crossed an 80ft gap over a 50ft sheer drop above a viaduct at Maldon, Essex. He jumped the Great Wall of China in 1993, but his career ended after he suffered serious head injuries in 1996 at a Hell’s Angels rally in Warwickshire.
1987 – Two dangerous prisoners escaped by helicopter from the Gartree maximum security prison in Leicestershire.
1990 – The first of the hostages held in the Gulf for four and a half months arrived in Britain, after their release by Saddam Hussein. A total of 100 British hostages were freed and landed at Heathrow airport, with the promise of a further 400 to follow.
1991 – The leaders of the 12 EC nations agreed on the treaty of Maastricht, pledging closer political and economic union.
2001 – Prime MInister Tony Blair backed Home Secretary David Blunkett over his call for ethnic minority groups to make more effort to fit in with the British identity.
2003 – The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of Angela Cannings, jailed for life for the murder of her two baby sons. She had always maintained that the two boys died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death.
2013 – Uruguay becomes the first country to legalize the growth, sale, and use of marijuana.
2015 – Janis Joplin’s psychedelic 1965 Porsche sells for $1.76 million at RM Sotheby’s car auction in New York.
2019 – Sydney, Australia, is blanketed in smoke from bush fires, pushing air quality to hazardous levels.
Did you know, the word typewriter is the longest word that can be typed using only the top row of a keyboard.
The Capital of Barbados is Bridgetown.
“I see dead people.” – Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) in Sixth Sense, The Sixth Sense, 1999
“Honestly it’s the honest ones you have to watch out for, you never can predict if they’re going to do something incredibly stupid.” – Captain Jack Sparrow #moviequotes
Bill Wyman – Real Name: William Perks
In order to qualify for the invitation-only American Express Black Card, a person must spend at least $250k/year, make $1.3mil/year, and have a net worth of at least $16 million dollars.
Ewoks are never referred to as Ewoks in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
The brightest things in the universe are quasars, which can be 429 trillion times brighter than our sun.
Winston Churchill is one of eight people to have been granted “Honorary Citizenship” by the United States
The Capital of Bangladesh is Dhaka
I guess if I had to eat a person I would want them to be a vegetarian. I like irony and prefer grass-fed beef.
Birthday : quotes
“I met Drew Barrymore in New York and she said she liked the band. That was really cool. I grew up on her.” – Meg White
“I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am sceptical as to its results.” – Alfred Nobel
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson
“Don’t try to be the next Rachael Ray or Bobby Flay, we already have those people. We want someone who is going to make their own mark on Food Network.” – Bobby Flay
“Glamor is just sex that got civilized. A pretty girl, tastefully posed in a scant costume, is even a sort of cultural achievement.” – Dorothy Lamour
“Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.” – Kenneth Branagh
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.