View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1954 – All Comet airliners were grounded. The day before, 35 people had died in a mysterious crash off the island of Elba. In 1953, another Comet had crashed inexplicably near Calcutta when ‘it fell out of the sky for no apparent reason’. The cause was finally traced to a structural fault, with serious consequences for British aviation.
1954 – George Cowling, a 34-year-old meteorologist, gave the first televised weather broadcast.
1973 – The first 867 graduates from the Open University were awarded their degrees after two years studying from home.
1980 – Nigel Short, age 14, from Bolton, Lancashire, became the youngest International Master in the history of chess. Participating in four World Junior Championships, from 1980–1983, Short achieved his best result during his first attempt, in which he was placed second to Garry Kasparov. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1984, aged nineteen, the world’s youngest grandmaster at that time.
1981 – A British team led by Ranulph Fiennes completes the longest and fastest crossing of Antarctica, reaching Scott base after 75 days and 2,500 miles.
1984 – French farmers hijacked British lorries in a dispute against meat imports.
1993 – British Airways was forced into an embarrassing climb-down in relation to a campaign of ‘dirty tricks’ it had launched against rival airline Virgin Atlantic. BA was forced to pay damages to both Virgin Atlantic and its boss Richard Branson.
1994 – The Duchess of Kent announced that she was converting to Catholicism, the first member of the Royal Family to become a Roman Catholic since James II in the 17th century.
2000 – The Solway Harvester, a scallop dredger from Kirkcudbright, sank off the coast of Ramsey, in heavy storms with the loss of all seven crew members.
2000 – Seven young fishermen drown off the Scottish coast after the disappearance of their scallop dredger in force nine gales. Their bodies are found three weeks later.
2002 – Mickey Finn percussionist in Tyrannosaurus Rex (T. Rex), died of kidney and liver problems aged 55.
2014 – Three Britons made the shortlist of just over 1,000 who want to take part in the Dutch project ‘Mars One’. It hopes to send 24 people from around the world on a one way trip to settle on Mars, after going through a seven-year training course, commencing in 2018.
2015 – The Muslim Charities Forum, that was given a £250,000 taxpayer-funded contract to run a major faith project, was stripped of state funding after links were uncovered to a group alleged to fund Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood political movement.
Billie Holiday – Real Name: Eleanora Fagan
Buy artwork from students at colleges near you. You can get great stuff for cheap from new artists that are ecstatic to be acknowledged and make even a little money. Win-win!
“You got my homework finished, McFly? ” – Biff #moviequotes
The Seven Deadly Sins #2- Envy is wanting what others have, be it status, abilities, or possessions.
We are all just one hit away from being one hit wonders.
“And though I’ll think of you, I guess, until the day I die.. I think I miss you less and less as every day goes by.” #songlyrics
When the “a” in “a part” is a part of the word “apart” it means the opposite of “a part.”
The word “regnartsneve” is strange, but backwards it’s even stranger.
In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, written around 1599, Caesar describes himself as being “as constant as the northern star”, though in Caesar’s time there was no constant northern star.
Biggest film of 1986: Top Gun (Action) earned ~ $180,000,000
The guitar solo in Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ was played by Eddie Van Halen.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. – Alexander Hamilton
I don’t care about the gold records and all of that stuff. I care about what we do onstage, and the joy that we bring to people. – Clarence Clemons
I’m not going to take this defeatist attitude and listen to all this crap any more from all these people who have nothing except doomsday to predict. – Carroll Shelby
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. – William James
There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern. – Abraham Joshua Heschel
I learned my lesson after seeing what guys like TJ Lavin, Ty Pinney, Stephen Murray and Mikey went through. And honestly, I feel like I’m disrespecting them by not wearing a helmet while riding at this level. I wish kids would start appreciating life and realize how everything can change in that one split second just because you’re not going to wear a helmet. – Scotty Cranmer
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.