View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1936 – George V died and was succeeded by Edward VIII who abdicated 325 days later because of his insistence on marrying American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
1958 – Members of the British and New Zealand teams attempting the first surface crossing of the Antarctic, met up at the South Pole.
1961 – Arthur M. Ramsay became the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury.
1967 – The Monkees TV show is shown for the first time in the UK.
1972 – The number of people out of work and claiming benefit in the UK exceeds 1 million for the first time since the 1930s.
1982 – While playing a concert in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown on stage thinking it’s a rubber toy. After the show he was rushed to hospital for rabies shots.
1986 – Mrs. Pauline Williams of Luton won her three year fight to prosecute the man who injected her drug addict son with a fatal painkiller. She was the first person to bring a private prosecution for manslaughter to a Crown Court trial.
1986 – France and Britain finally decided to undertake the Channel Tunnel project, promising that trains would run under the Channel by 1993. When it eventually opened, on 6th May 1994, it left Eurotunnel with debts of £925m a year later.
1987 – Police carry out a series of dawn raids in London. The Home Counties and the Midlands in their biggest operation so far to apprehend the ringleaders of organised fan violence in and around football stadiums. On the same day, church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut whilst attempting to win freedom for Western hostages.
1991 – The death of Alfred Wainwright, whose books for walkers did much to popularise the Lake District. His ashes are scattered on Haystacks, Cumbria and there is a memorial plaque in nearby Buttermere Church.
1997 – Three sisters, Phoebe, Faith and Alice Julian were among 17 girls who were the first to be admitted to the choir of York Minster ending a 400 year old tradition of men only.
1997 – Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia began her final voyage, to Hong Kong, before being decommissioned. She is now based in Edinburgh, as a visitor attraction.
2007 – A three-man team of Britons, using only skis and kites, completed a 1,093-mile trek to reach the ‘southern pole of inaccessibility’ for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.
2014 – Dr Michael Ramscar and a team of scientists suggested that the brains of older people only appear to slow down because they have so much information to compute, much like a full-up hard drive. “The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more.”
2015 – A six-day-old baby became Britain’s youngest organ donor when her kidneys were transplanted into a patient with renal failure, and liver cells were transfused into a second recipient.
Most of us don’t like the buzzing sound that wasps and the like make, and even react with fear. But imagine if they were silent…
Did the Spice Girls ever get to zigga-zig-ahh?
“An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have.” – Andy Warhol
Cute animals probably think all humans have high-pitched voices.
TV Quotes… “Here’s Johnny!” (Ed McMahon) on “The Tonight Show”
Phillip J. Fry from Futurama was named for comedian Phil Hartman, who at the time of his death was preparing to voice Zapp Brannigan, a character written specifically for him.
“La-dee-da, la-dee-da.” – Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) in Annie Hall, 1977
An inch of rain water is equivalent to 15 inches of dry, powdery snow.
“You must passionately pursue all your dreams.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
Alice B. Toklas – a 77-year-old woman who was a “bestie” of Picasso published the first recipe for pot brownies.
It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose. #tryit
Twitter has to be the greenest app because 99% of it is recycled content. #isawthispostbefore
Chico Marx – Real Name: Leonard Marx
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. I am the first man to piss his pants on the moon. – Buzz Aldrin
The financial reward is great and I love the life I have, but all money makes possible is for you to stop worrying about money. – Paul Stanley
I don’t understand politics. I don’t understand the concept of two sides. And I think that probably there’s good on both sides, bad on both sides, and there’s a middle ground. But it never seems to come to the middle ground. And it’s very frustrating watching it, and seemingly we’re not moving forward. – David Lynch
Smiling just to see the smile upon your face. These are the moments I thank God that I’m alive. – Edwin McCain
What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one… It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one- which is really the realm of the artist. – Federico Fellini
We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It’s overrun with sheep and conformists. – Bill Mahar
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.