View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1961 – In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1974 – New speed limits were introduced. Speed limits on motorways would remain at 70mph , but on dual carriageways they would become 60mph and on all other roads 50mph as the government tried to curb fuel use.
1982 – Reputed to be Robin Hood’s tree, the ‘Major Oak’ in Sherwood Forest, was fitted with a fire alarm.
1982 – There were scenes of jubilation as the gates isolating the people of Gibraltar from Spain were opened for the first time in 13 years. There were tight restrictions, which included a ban on any British or foreign tourists crossing.
1984 – ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ by Band Aid entered the chart at No.1 and stayed at the top for 5 weeks. At the time it was the biggest selling single ever in the UK, with sales of over three and a half million.
1987 – A company in Bedford became the first to be fined (£500) for failing to register personal computer records under the Data Protection Act.
1993 – The British and Irish prime ministers John Major and Albert Reynolds signed the historic Joint Declaration for Peace which they hoped would end 25 years of bombing and murder in Northern Ireland.
1994 – Former 800m Commonwealth gold-medallist Diane Modahl was found guilty of taking a banned drug, but was cleared a year later on appeal.
2004 – The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, resigned after an email implicated him in using his Government position to grant favours to his ex-lover.
2013 – Andy Murray was awarded the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year. Earlier in the year Murray had become the first Briton in three quarters of a century to win the men’s singles competition at Wimbledon.
2014 – Jonathan Paul Burrows, a London hedge fund manager who regularly avoided buying a train ticket on his commute to the City, was banned for life from working in any regulated financial industries. In total, Mr Burrows was believed to have dodged £42,550 in fares.
2015 – Forty three year old astronaut Major Tim Peake became the first Briton to serve a mission on the International Space Station. He took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 11:03am GMT, alongside Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko.
2019 – The longest ever United Nations climate talk ended.
Occurring in Madrid, this discussion of a response to global climate change extended two days longer than it was intended to. The talk ended with a compromise deal on curbing carbon only, and all other issues deferred for a year.
Did you know, months that start on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th
The Capital of Armenia is Yerevan.
A group of Insects is called a Horde or Nest or Swarm or Rabble or Plague.
Phones have an asterisk and pound sign because when Bell Labs designed the first touch-tone phone, their system had two tones that were not assigned values. So, they threw in * and #.
Carol King – Real Name: Carole Klein
The biggest film of 1902: Le Voyage dans la Lune.
“I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!” – Elvira Gulch in The Wizard of Oz (1939) #moviequotes
“You can’t make footprints in the sands of time if you’re sitting on your butt. And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?” – Bob Moawad
Cartoon Fact: A cat will assume the shape of its container.
Although Mercury is closest to the sun, it is not the hottest planet in our solar system. Venus is hotter due to its atmosphere trapping the heat.
Birthday : quotes
“Comic books aren’t nerdy. You’d have to be an idiot to think computers are nerdy.” – Adam Brody
“It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe as a whole is also weird, with laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between the mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.” – Freeman Dyson
“It’s hard to be sad when you’re laughing, so I enjoy making people happy.” – Tim Conway
“I’ve realized over the years that, with rare exceptions, most writer’s block isn’t writer’s block at all: It’s necessary time that allows the unconscious mind to do its deep work.” – J.M. DeMatteis
“And in a world without heroes, as the movie trailer voice-over guy might say, the slightly awkward can be slightly cool.” – Adam Brody
“A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end, it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.” – Freeman Dyson
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.