View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
Dame Julie (Julia) Walters, actress, 72; Nigel Planer, actor, 69; Sparko (John Sparks), bassist (Dr Feelgood) 69; Kyle MachLachlan, actor, 63; Rachel Dratch, actress/writer/comedian, 56; Jeri Ryan (Zimmerman), actress, 54; Thomas Jane (Elliott), actor, 53; Scott Phillips, drummer, (Creed) 49; James Blunt (Blount) singer-songwriter, 48; Chris Moyles, broadcaster, 48; Drew Barrymore. Actress, 47; Iliza Shlesinger, comedian, 39.
What : day is it
1903 – The Cunard Liner Etruria arrived in New York with a copy of the first newspaper ever published in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It featured news reports transmitted from Britain by wireless while the ship was at sea. Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, was one of the ship’s passengers.
1908 – John Mills, English film and television actor, was born. He made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He often played traditionally British heroes and he was particularly associated with war dramas, such as The Colditz Story and Ice Cold in Alex . He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as the village idiot in Ryan’s Daughter.
1915 – World War I: Germany instituted unrestricted submarine warfare.
1933 – Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 272.46 mph driving his Bluebird car at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1944 – World War II: Allied American aircraft mistakenly bombed the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
1956 – The first football league match to be played under floodlighting took place at Portsmouth. The home side lost 2-0 to Newcastle United.
1967 – Working on the Sgt Pepper album at EMI Studios in Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, The Beatles recorded the giant piano chord, played simultaneously on three pianos, at the end of A Day In The Life.
1969 – The last time all four Beatles were together for a recording session.
1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, Hampshire, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
1979 – St Lucia gains independence from Britain.
1980 – British ice skater Robin Cousins won a gold medal for figure skating in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.
1995 – Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, presented a 37-page framework document intended to guide the peace negotiations over Northern Ireland.
1997 – A sheep named Dolly is cloned by scientists in Edinburgh.
2006 – At least six men staged Britain’s biggest ever robbery, stealing £53m from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
2009 – Heath Ledger posthumously wins Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor, for his performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”.
2010 – Johnny Marr is described as “ecstatic” after getting back one a 1964 Gibson SG guitar which had been stolen in 2000 after a gig at the Scala nightclub in Kings Cross, London.
2011 – An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude strikes Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 181 people.
The Blues Brothers Bluesmobile is a 1974 Dodge Monaco.
During Martha Stewart’s incarceration at Alderson Federal Prison Camp, her prison nickname was “M. Diddy”
If Home Alone were made today, the film would be over in 20 minutes thanks to cell phones and the internet.
The Commodore 64 is the best selling computer in history.
Pizza Uno first created the first Deep-Dish Pizza in 1943.
After watching so many movies, if a guy pulled up and said “No time to explain, get in” – I would.
“Success without honour is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.” – Joe Paterno
Earth has about 760 thunderstorms every hour.
The 1895 Chicago Times-Herald race was the first automobile race held in the US. Only two of the six cars finished.
I went to recall something from my memory bank, however, it had collected a significant amount of interest and now I can’t stop thinking about it.
Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world.
In a future Superman movie, there should be a scene where Superman has to hurry to get somewhere and when he gets there, realizes he put on his underwear outside his pants.
The Capital of Uruguay is Montevideo
“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.” – George Washington
“An artist will sooner and with more certainty, establish the character of skeletons, than the most learned anatomist, whose eye has not been accustomed to seize on every peculiarity.” – Rembrandt Peale
“People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present. I’ve got my faults, but living in the past is not one of them. There’s no future in it.” – Sparky Anderson
“Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore
“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay
“You have a Happiness Switch in you that you can switch on at any time. All you have to do is stop switching it off in order to blackmail yourself or others.” – Robert Young
“Having the presence of mind to react to any situation on stage is what makes the best performers keep their spontaneity intact.” – Marni Nixon
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.