View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1886 – Modern field hockey was born, with the formation in England of The Hockey Association.
1888 – Birth of Sir Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer. It was a Sopwith Camel (pictured) that shot down Von Richthofen, the Red Baron. On Sopwith’s 100th birthday, a Sopwith Pup built after World War I, led a fly-past over his home in Hampshire.
1919 – Bentley Motors Limited was founded by Walter Owen Bentley, but the manufacturer did not make a complete car for 27 years, only engines and chassis. Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I. He also designed and made production cars that won the Le Mans 24 hours in the 1920s. Bentley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1931, which itself was purchased by the Volkswagen Group of Germany in 1998, although the business is still based in Crewe.
1934 – The first arrest was made in Britain as a result of issuing pocket radios to police. A Brighton shoplifter was arrested just 15 minutes after stealing three coats.
1958 – Bunty was launched by publishers D.C. Thompson. It was the first comic aimed at a young female readership.
1961 – The maximum wage of £20 a week is abolished in English football three days before PFA members were due to go on strike.
1965: The Rolling Stones record “The Last Time and Play With Fire” at RCA studios in Hollywood.
1976 – British Labour MPs Jim Sillars and John Robertson launched the Scottish Labour Party (SLP) to campaign for greater devolution for Scotland.
1990 – Singer Mel Appleby of the due Mel and Kim, dies of pneumonia aged 23 following treatment for metastatic paraganglioma.
1993 – Elton John resigns his directorship of Watford Football Club.
2005 – The world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380, is unveiled in France.
2014 – UKIP councillor David Silvester blamed the recent storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.
2014 – Lewis Clarke, a 16-year-old boy from Bristol set a new record by becoming the youngest person to trek to the South Pole. He spent 48 days at temperatures as low as -50C (-58F) and winds of up to 120 mph (193 kmh), covering a distance of 702 miles.
2016 – The Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey dies aged 67 from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.
2020 – Premiership Rugby announces reigning European and English champions Saracens are to be relegated for exceeding the salary cap over the previous three seasons.
Did you know that on this day in 1733, the first polar bear in America was exhibited in Boston? When asked what polar bears eat, the handler replied “drunk Irishmen”.
‘Naturally & Artificially Flavoured’ is a long way to just say “Flavoured”.
We’re closer to the year The Jetsons is set in (2062) than we are to when it first aired (1962).
The names for the spacecraft from the ALIEN movie series (the Nostromo, Narcissus, and Sulaco) are derived from a 1904 Joseph Conrad novel.
Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?
Microscopic algae, not trees, produce the majority of the oxygen we breathe.
The spider I killed in my room has spent his entire life thinking he was my roommate and that suddenly I had some sort of psychotic break.
Hakuna Matata = YOLO
Contrary to popular ideas given to us by movies/games, Thermal Vision does not work through a thin pane of glass.
The Capital of Venezuela is Caracas
No matter how large a number is, it is always closer to zero than infinity.
A group of Doves is called a Dule or Bevy or Cote or Dole or Paddling.
Kiefer Sutherland’s full name is Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland.
The word “laser” is an acronym. It’s short for Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation.
I have an EpiPen. My friend gave it to me as he was dying. It seemed very important to him that I have it.
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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.