View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1931 – The birth of Ally MacLeod, professional Scottish football player and manager of Scotland at the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
1935 – Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire.
1935 – Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1952 – Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain now had an atomic bomb which it intended to test in Australia.
1960 – A New York bound Alitalia airliner crashed at Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.
1962 – The start of filming of Dr. No, the first film involving English agent 007 – James Bond. It is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. Starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress.
1968 – Twenty-one female patients died in a fire which swept through a wing of the Shelton Mental Hospital near Shrewsbury.
1979 – Accused of forging old masters, painter Tom Keating’s trial at the Old Bailey was halted due to Keating’s ill health. Keating, a brilliant technician, went on to present a television series on painters and became a celebrity in his remaining years.
1995 – Barings, the country’s oldest merchant bank, declared bankruptcy after discovering that Nicholas Leeson, the firm’s chief trader in Singapore, had lost approximately £625 million of the bank’s assets on unauthorized futures and options transactions.
1997 – Armed Forces Minister, Nicholas Soames, fought off Labour demands for his resignation over the Ministry of Defence’s suppression of information about the still unexplained ‘Gulf War syndrome’.
2002 – London Mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed that motorists would be charged £5 per day to drive into London on weekdays.
2014 – Michael Adebolajo (aged 29) was given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale (aged 22) was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering 25 year old Fusilier Lee Rigby. They had driven into Fusilier Rigby with a car, before hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, on 22nd May 2013. The two men claimed that they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and that the killing was a legitimate act because Britain was at war with Muslim people.
2015 – 27 year old Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey from the Parachute Regiment was awarded the Victoria Cross, becoming the first living VC recipient of the Afghan war.
2018 – In Svalbard, Norway, the Global Seed Vault celebrated its 10th anniversary by adding its one-millionth seed.
Did you know that on this day in 1983, Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” hit number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart? The album spent a record 37 weeks topping the charts.
A burger has no front or back until you start eating it.
Christopher Nolan has never had a movie rated as “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.
Useless Pronunciation: W as in wrap
A group of Bats is called a Colony or Cloud.
Orbit chewing gum is represented by Vanessa, actress Vanessa Branch.
If an indoor cat gets outside and lost, put their litter box outside. They can smell it from up to a mile away and find their way home.
Hershey’s chocolate was substituted for blood in the 1980 black-and-white film ‘Raging Bull.’
Gift Cards are just a way to give someone money as a present, but with the message: “You can’t spend your money right, so I’m gonna choose where you spend it for you.”
Donald Duck’s middle name is ‘Fauntleroy’.
Those who see Earth from space reputedly experience “The Overview Effect” – A deep sense of connection with the rest of the human race, and a desire for world peace.
70% of the world’s production of maple syrup is from the Province of Quebec.
When I was young all the cartoons were for kids and pretty stupid. Now all the kid’s cartoons are educational and the adult cartoons are the stupid ones.
The Capital of Paraguay is Asuncion
The biggest film of 1974: Blazing Saddles (Comedy)
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.