View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
David Strathairn, actor, 73; Lucinda Williams, singer-songwriter, 69; Anita Baker, singer, 64; Ellen DeGeneres, comedian/TV host, 64; Andrew Ridgley (Wham!) 59; Jose Mourinho, Spurs manager, 59; Brendan Rodgers, Leicester City manager, 49; Colin O’Donoghue, actor, 41; Tyger Drew-Honey, actor, 26.
1908 – The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group, the first Scout group ever, was registered. Today, there are nearly 32 million members in 218 countries and territories and the movement is still growing. In the UK, the total membership is over 500,000.
1910 – Police rescued the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, from a crowd of angry Suffragettes.
1922 – The birth of Michael Bentine, British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goon Show radio show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.
1926 – John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird’s invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.
1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrived in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
1950 – India became a Republic within the British Commonwealth.
1952 – At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in anti-British riots in Cairo.
1968 – The National Provincial Bank and the Westminster Bank merged to form the National Westminster (NatWest).
1982 – Conservative Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was elected in 1979 on the slogan ‘Labour isn’t working’, yet the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s.
1986 – The Sunday Times and News of the World were printed at Wapping for the first time as the nation’s presses moved away from Fleet Street.
1994 – A protester fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, as he prepared to speak at an Australia Day rally in Sydney.
2014 – The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was named Honorary Australian of the Year for displaying ‘archetypal Aussie characteristics in abundance’.
2014 – Police stopped a learner driver for speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire. She was accompanied only by her pet parrot. ‘Since parrots are not allowed to supervise learner drivers, her vehicle has been seized,’ police tweeted.
2015 – Australian PM Tony Abbott used the country’s national day (Australia Day) to announce a knighthood for Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for his “long life of service and dedication”.
2015 – The Rt. Rev. Libby Lane became the first female Church of England bishop, when she was consecrated Bishop of Stockport in a ceremony at York Minster.
2021 – Government figures showed a grim, new milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. 1,631 deaths were recorded in the UK today, with deaths from the disease now surpassing 100,000 since the first death was recorded on 2nd March 2020. A total of 100,162 deaths have now been recorded in the UK, making it the first European nation to pass the landmark, with the highest death total in Europe and the 5th highest death toll in the world.
The Capital of Russia is Moscow.
Biggest film of 1998: Saving Private Ryan (Drama) earned ~ $217,000,000
Anyone who uses the phrase ‘easy as taking candy from a baby’ has never tried taking candy from a baby.
Pour milk in your fresh “empty” chocolate syrup bottle for instant chocolate milk.
You think you’re unique until you have to choose a username.
Fifty Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fan fiction, before having all references removed
TV Quotes… “Book ’em, Danno” (Steve McGarrett) on “Hawaii Five-O”
A group of Vultures is called a Venue. A group of Vultures (circling above) is called a Kettle.
Count Basie – Real Name: William Basie
The world’s only oyster museum is located in Chincoteague Island, Virginia.
A group of Lizards is called a Lounge.
Courtney Love – Real Name: Love Michelle Harrison
“Tired and sick” and “sick and tired” have completely different meanings…
“Dynamite with a laser beam” #songlyrics
The first song Prince taught himself to play on the piano, at 7 years old, was the Batman theme.
I do believe that man is a rope between animal and superman. But the superman I’m thinking of isn’t Nietzsche’s. The real superhuman, man or woman, is the person who’s rid himself of all prejudices, neuroses, and psychoses, who realizes his full potential as a human being, who acts naturally on the basis of gentleness, compassion, and love, who thinks for himself and refuses to follow the herd. That’s the genuine dyed-in-the-wool superman. – Philip José Farmer
If you don’t have enemies, you don’t have character. – Paul Newman
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes… But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. – Douglas MacArthur
Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would gladly yield every honour which has been accorded me in war. – Douglas MacArthur
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. – Bessie Coleman
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.