View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1904 – The first weather reports relayed by wireless telegraphy were published in London.
1934 – Dame Maggie Smith, British actress was born. She made her stage debut in 1952 and has won numerous awards for acting, both for the stage and for film, including five BAFTA Awards, plus the BAFTA Fellowship Award. She currently stars in the drama, Downton Abbey as Violet Crawley, the Dowager-Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.
1943 – The birth of Richard Whiteley. He was best known for his twenty three years as host of the game show Countdown. At the time of his death in 2005 Whiteley was believed to have clocked more hours on British television screens than anyone else alive.
1950 – Derbyshire’s Peak District became Britain’s first National Park.
1957 – The Stanley abattoir in Liverpool (one of Britain’s largest) closed down after foot and mouth disease was found in cattle.
1963 – ‘That Was The Week That Was’, television’s first satirical show, was broadcast for the last time. It was taken off air while still commanding huge audiences because 1964 was to be election year and it was felt that the show could influence voters.
1980 – A shake-up of broadcasting franchises paved the way for the launch of breakfast TV. The Independent Broadcasting Authority announced that the breakfast contract would go to TV-am and would launch in 1983.
1983 – Having made two successful dives below a friend’s yacht in Marina Del Rey, California, to find items he’d drunkenly thrown off his own boat three years before, Beach Boys drummer Denis Wilson took one last dive into the Pacific and drowned.
1993 – Customs officials at Felixstowe seized £70m of Colombian cocaine thought to be linked to the Mafia.
2003 – The British Government announced plans to tighten airline security by allowing armed guards on some British flights to the USA.
2007 – Nepal is declared a federal democratic republic.
2015 – Lemmy, lead vocalist and bassist with Motörhead dies at his home in Los Angeles, four days after his 70th birthday following a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. On the same day, John Bradbury, drummer with The Specials dies aged 62.
2018 – The New Years Honour’s List includes knighthoods for Michael Palin and novelist Philip Pullman. On the same day, actress June Whitfield dies aged 93 and Dr Hook singer Ray Sawyer dies aged 81.
The original drummer of The Velvet Underground, Angus MacLise, once showed up for a show a half-hour after it started and played for a half-hour after the rest of the band ended. He later quit the band after they took a paying gig because he considered that as selling out.
A group of Stories is an Anthology.
Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (86 AD – 161 AD) had the most peaceful reign of any ruler in antiquity. There is no record of any major events or conflicts during his 23-year reign.
He was a skilled administrator and was praised by his contemporaries for his effective style of governance.
The Vatican broadcast its public approval of Pokémon in April 2001 after Christian groups argued that it promoted Satanic themes.
Somewhere in the universe, there is probably a space war going on. #whatisitgoodfor
Biggest film of 2010: Toy Story 3 (Action/Adventure) earned ~ $415,000,000
TV Quotes… “And that’s the way it is” (Walter Cronkite) on CBS Evening News.
Diet Coke was first marketed in 1982.
The Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive was used in a study to train medical professionals to provide chest compressions per minute while performing CPR.
Birthday : quotes
“No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation.” – Woodrow Wilson
“I get a wave of pride in America when I look back at what we’ve accomplished in the field of music.” – Johnny Otis
“We can’t escape the shadow, so the best thing we can do is notice the light and be open to it.” – Maggie Smith
“Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. Space travel benefits us here on Earth. And we ain’t stopped yet. There’s more exploration to come.” – Nichelle Nichols
“Why do we close our eyes when we pray, cry, kiss, or dream? Because the most beautiful things in life are not seen but felt by the heart.” – Denzel Washington
“I was never a celebrity – just a working actor.” – Martin Milner
“If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.” – Denzel Washington
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.