View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1858 – Charles Hallé founded the celebrated Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Charles Hallé remained its principal conductor, proprietor and performer until his death in 1895.
1915 – The birth of John Profumo, British politician. He is best remembered today for his involvement in a 1963 scandal involving the ‘call-girl’ Christine Keeler. After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer, cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London with a focus on working towards a future without poverty. Eventually Profumo volunteered as the charity’s chief fundraiser and was awarded a CBE in 1975 for his charitable activities.
1937 – Birth of the actress Vanessa Redgrave. She remains the only British actress ever to win the Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Cannes, Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild awards. She was also the recipient of the 2010 BAFTA Fellowship ‘in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film’.
1965 – The state funeral, in London, of Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Britain. It was the biggest state funeral of its kind since the burial of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. After his state funeral service, his body was taken by train to Bladon, Oxfordshire and there the private burial took place, conducted by the rector. By contrast with the earlier service, only relatives and close friends were present.
1969 – The Beatles played their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
1972 – ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. British paratroopers, believing they were under fire from Catholic protesters on a banned march which had become a violent riot, opened fire, killing 13 people.
1988 – A microlight aircraft landed near Sydney, Australia, to create a record time of 55 days since leaving London.
2003 – British-born Richard Reid was sentenced to life in jail for trying to bomb an American Airlines flight carrying 197 people.
2012 – London City trader Kweku Adoboli appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court accused of fraudulently gambling away a record £1.5bn whilst working for Swiss bank UBS. He was subsequently jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.
2015 – Sir Jay Tidmarsh, Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol between 1996 and 2007, found an old school library book as he cleared his shelves. He decided to return the book to Taunton School, in Somerset, and made a £1,500 donation to the library in lieu of a fine for not returning the book for 65 years.
2019 – Scientists reveal discovery of cavity six miles long, 1,000 feet deep under Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, leading to fears it might collapse and raise sea levels by two feet.
2020 – The World Health Organisation declares COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at a meeting in Geneva.
Peanuts aren’t nuts, they’re legumes.
“Back, and to the left.” – Jim Garrison in JFK #moviequotes
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” – Woody Allen
Warren Beatty – Real Name: Henry Warren Beaty
When I had 28.8k internet, all I wanted was to be able to watch videos. Now that we have broadband and YouTube everywhere, I hate links that turn out to be videos.
Biggest film of 1948: The Snake Pit earned ~ $10,000,000
“I dread high-priced Havana’s with a fancy label; a label which augments the price of the cigar twenty-seven degrees beyond its value. I have accepted tons of those; and given them to the poor. It’s not that I hate the poor but that I do not wish to waste anything.” – Mark Twain, speaking about Cuban Cigars
What is it with film villains and Beethoven’s 9th symphony, 4th movement?
Steven Spielberg nicknamed the mechanical shark in the movie Jaws: ‘Bruce’.
I want to see a movie where machines gain intelligence and go to war with humanity, only to be defeated when some guy deletes a single semi-colon from their code.
A group of Tomorrows is a Promise.
“He had no hobby, cared for no amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene.” – Tesla dissing Edison.
If a bunch of girls named Paige are around each other, does that make them a chapter?
Car tires are made with uneven tread, to stop them ‘humming’ as they drive along.
Beyond a certain point, the music isn’t mine anymore. It’s yours. – Phil Collins
I have a fear of being boring. – Christian Bale
Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is an adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too. – Lloyd Alexander
Sometimes you have to forgive and forget. Forgive them for hurting you and forget they exist. – Kid Cudi
Ask the right questions if you’re going to find the right answers. – Vanessa Redgrave
When things get dark, they’re going to get darker, and at that very moment, that’s when you hang on that much tighter because that’s when salvation and light come. – Wilmer Valderrama
Whatever you do, do it completely. Don’t do it half-arsed. Do it more than anybody else would. – Christian Bale
I just wanna learn and I wanna grow. I wanna consume as much information as possible. I wanna be great. – Kid Cudi
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.