View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1929 – Barnes Wallis saw his R100 airship carry out its first test flight. After departing from Howden in Yorkshire, she flew slowly to York then set course for the Government Airship Establishment at Cardington, Bedfordshire, cruising at around 50 mph on four engines.
1944 – The Battle of the Bulge began in the Ardennes. By 21st January, the Germans had been pushed back to their original line, having lost some 120,000 men in the offensive.
1961 – Jimmy Greaves scores a hat-trick on his debut for Spurs in their 5-2 First Division victory over Blackpool at White Hart Lane.
1969 – MPs voted by a big majority for the permanent abolition of the death penalty for murder.
1974 – Guitarist Mick Taylor announces he is leaving The Rolling Stones.
1977 – The Queen unveiled the new underground link from central London to Heathrow; the first from a capital city to its major airport.
1988 – Junior Health minister Edwina Currie resigned after her earlier comments (3rd December) when she said that most of Britain’s egg production was infected with the salmonella bacteria.
1991 – Britain named Stella Rimington as the first woman to head its security service, MI5.
1995 – The name “Euro” was officially adopted for European Currency in Madrid. Belgian Esperantist Germain Pirlot, a former teacher of French and history, is credited with naming the new currency.
1998 – USA & Britain combined bombing attacks on Iraq after UN weapons inspectors were expelled from the country, contrary to assurances given by Saddam Hussein.
2001 – Thousands of campaigners took to the streets of Edinburgh to protest against a bill to end hunting with dogs, the uncertain future of rural schools and the handling of the foot and mouth crisis. It was the largest demonstration of its kind ever witnessed in Scotland.
2004 – NASA’s Voyager 1 probe is the first craft to cross the termination shock, where solar and interstellar winds merge.
2012 – Tour de France and Olympic time trial champion Bradley Wiggins was voted the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. At the same event Lord Coe, the Olympics 2012 chief, was awarded the BBC Lifetime Achievement Award.
2013 – Figures showed that the UK paid more than £27m in aid to China last year. China, which has poured billions into its flagship space programme, has a GDP of £5.2 trillion compared with Britain’s £1.5 trillion.
2013 – A Hillsborough pre-inquest hearing was told that a police video of the tragedy had an ‘unexplained 10-minute gap in the middle’. New inquests into 96 fans’ deaths would commence in March 2014 and consider the emergency services’ response for the first time.
2013 – Lloyd’s of London appointed its first female Chief Executive, Inga Beale, who had three decades of international insurance and reinsurance experience.
2014 – Bernard Manning, son of the controversial late comedian of the same name, said that he would put the ‘World Famous Embassy Club’ in Harpurhey, Manchester up for sale. The club was said to have inspired Peter Kay’s TV show Phoenix Nights. The club features a mosaic of Mr. Manning senior, in which his ashes are mixed with the grouting.
2019 – Mariah Carey’s single “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reached number one, 25 years after its release.
Did you know that on this day in 1773, the Boston Tea Party protest occurred? This was the culmination of public protest against taxes imposed by the British Empire.
Every day, man is making bigger and better fool-proof things, and every day, nature is making bigger and better fools. So far, I think nature is winning.
Astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford made Jingle Bells the first song performed in space. They played it on a harmonica with bells (and implied spotting Santa) while orbiting Earth on Gemini 6 on Dec. 16, 1965.
The Capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires
Three sports movies have won the Oscar for best picture: Rocky (1976), Chariots of Fire (1981), and Million Dollar Baby (2004)
They say you shouldn’t make mountains out of molehills, but somewhere out there there are actual moles making molehills out of mountains. Good on them.
The 1960 Italian film La Dolce Vita was the origin of the term ‘paparazzi’, named after a character in the film, Paparazzo.
The ‘talking mirror’ trope from fairy tales probably originated when a careless time-traveler was seen using a Smartphone or a tablet.
1986, London’s bakers apologized for the Great Fire of London, 320 years after it happened.
Many people who win the lottery end up bankrupt. Few financially responsible people win the lottery, because buying lottery tickets is not a financially responsible thing to do.
The Capital of Antigua and Barbuda is Saint John’s.
Birthday : quotes
“Fear… can make you do more wrong than hate or jealousy. If you’re afraid you don’t commit yourself to life completely; fear makes you always, always hold something back.” – Philip K. Dick
“People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what’s wrong with it.” – Noël Coward
“The one thing for an actor that is death, is if you’re bored. The boredom will show in your work. It’s an amazing blessing to do something you love.” – Benjamin Bratt
“The higher the building the lower the morals.” – Noël Coward
“Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is the best of all to be sane and happy. Whether our descendants can achieve that goal will be the greatest challenge of the future. Indeed, it may well decide whether we have any future.” – Arthur C. Clarke
“Law school teaches you one thing above all: how to speak while saying absolutely nothing.” – Krysten Ritter
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” – Philip K. Dick
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.