View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1939 – The first Anderson air raid shelters appeared. In all, two and a half million were built.
1953 – An inquest heard that the Princess Victoria, a ferry which sank off Belfast drowning 133 people had met ‘a howling gale and an horrific rolling sea that attacked the ship from all sides.’ When the decision was made to turn back towards Stranraer a huge wave forced open the stern doors on the car deck, buckling them in the process and flooding the car deck which caused the ship to roll over and sink.
1955 – Britain’s largest ever aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, was completed. She was the fourth ship of that name to have served the Crown.
1972 – Miners voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay settlement after a seven week strike that seriously affected power supplies in Britain.
1978 – Princess Margaret and her friend, Roddy Llewellyn, left for a holiday on the romantic island of Mustique. On 10th May an announcement was made that the Princess intended to divorce Lord Snowdon after two years’ separation. A few days later, Roddy said that he had no plans to marry the Princess.
1978 – Ian Botham scored his first test match century, scoring 103 against New Zealand.
1982 – The European Court of Human Rights ruled that corporal punishment in schools (if it was against the parents’ wishes) was a violation of the Human Rights Convention.
1991 – After serving 17 years in prison, it was announced that ‘the Birmingham Six’ would soon be released when it was decided that their convictions were unsafe. All were jailed in 1975 for an IRA attack on two pubs in Birmingham in November 1974 in which 21 people died.
2013 – British born actor Daniel Day-Lewis made Oscar history by becoming the first person to win the best actor prize three times. He was rewarded for his role in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’.
2013 – It was announced that Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, was to step down as leader of the Scottish Catholic Church. He had been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating back to the 1980s, claims that he contested.
2015 – Ministers confirmed that they would be changing the law to make it easier to levy tough penalties (up to £500,000) on companies that were behind persistent phone calls and texts that promised compensation for payment protection insurance, mis-selling and cold calls promoting solar panels.
2017 – Eighty eight year old Brian Matthew hosted his last Sounds of the 60s on Radio 2. He had presented the popular show for twenty seven years and in October 2016 he became the oldest regular broadcaster on BBC radio. Seventy four year old Tony Blackburn took over as presenter of the show on 4th March 2017.
Biggest film of 1975: Jaws
“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” – Aesop
We make fun of the spell check generation for not being able to spell, but we don’t make fun of people who can’t make a fire just because the world is full of lighters and ovens.
Delina Filkins, who died in 1928, was the first verified person to reach both the ages of 112 and 113.
A group of Mallards (at rest) is called a Brace. A group of Mallards (in flight) is called a Sord.
I built a tunnel some time ago and I accidentally left a light on in it. Now my basement is packed with ‘no-unfinished-business’ souls that nobody is claiming and I’m not sure what to do with them.
It has been two decades and we still do not have an answer to the Baha Men’s question of ‘Who Let The Dogs Out?’
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia is the fear of long words.
A group of Eggs is called a Clutch.
Ginkgo trees are an ancient species, effectively identical to the ones that grew 270 million years ago.
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don’t know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy. – Anthony Burgess
Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don’t make sense. – John Leonard
Television is a weapon of mass distraction. – Larry Gelbart
You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they’re ready to get it. – George Harrison
To be the man, you gotta beat the man. – Ric Flair
The scientist, like the magician, possesses secrets. A secret -expertise- is somehow perceived as anti-democratic, and therefore ought to be unnatural. We have come a long way from Prometheus to Faust to Frankenstein. And even Frankenstein’s monster is now a joke. – John Leonard
I suffer so much in this life. That is what they [the audience] are feeling when I sing, that is why they cry. People who felt nothing in this life cannot sing. – Enrico Caruso
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.