View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1932 – Yorkshire cricketer Hedley Verity took 10 wickets for 10 runs in a county championship match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley, Leeds.
1947 – The birth of Gareth Edwards, former Welsh rugby union footballer and described by the BBC as ‘arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey’.
1962 – The Rolling Stones performed their first ever concert, at the Marquee Club in London.
1969 – Tony Jacklin became the first British golfer since 1951 to win the Open Championship.
1974 – The manager of Liverpool football club, Bill Shankly announced his retirement.
1982 – Kenneth More, British actor died. His film roles cast him as an archetypal, carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman. As More himself described it, ‘I seem fated to be either the stiff-upper-lip war hero or the hearty back-slapping idiot’.
1984 – Robert Maxwell bought the Mirror Group newspapers.
1986 – Dozens were injured in the second consecutive night of violent riots in Portadown, County Armagh. Violence flared when Orangemen converged on the town after their annual marches to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne (1690).
1989 – Judy Leden became the first woman to cross the English Channel by hang glider. She was launched from a hot air balloon 13,500 ft above Dover and completed the flight in less than 30 minutes.
2000 – House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd announced that she would resign from the high-profile post and her seat before the General Election.
2012 – The public launch of the Canal & River Trust (formed on 2nd July 2012). The new charity took over from British Waterways and was given responsibility for canals and rivers in England and Wales. It was the largest ever single transfer of state assets to the voluntary sector.
2013 – Journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker died at the age of 87 after suffering from bronchial pneumonia. His TV career stretched nearly six decades and he was best known for his documentary series, Whicker’s World, which ran from 1959 to 1988 on both the BBC and ITV. He was made a CBE for services to broadcasting in 2005.
2013 – A military funeral was held for Fusilier Lee Rigby at Bury Parish Church in Greater Manchester. He was killed outside Woolwich Barracks in May by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
2017 – Iceberg A-68 broke from the Larsen C Ice Shelf, along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. At the time, it was the largest iceberg in the world and the sixth-largest berg in three decades of records.
Did you know that on this day in 2000, the movie “X-Men” premiered in New York? The premiere took place on Ellis Island, the location of the film’s final battle.
“I love firm hugs. Statues are so affectionate. Well, at least compared to my ex-wife.” – Jarod Kintz
The program Weapon X, which created Wolverine, is actually meant to be read as “Weapon 10.” Captain America is “Weapon 1.”
Peter Finch – Real Name: Ian Mitchell
The longest one-syllable word we could find in the English language is “screeched.”
People who say “no pun intended” usually intended it.
We don’t see any technological predictions of the future like in the ’80s, because we are the future.
James Earl Jones was originally paid $7,000 for voicing Darth Vader
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin
The sounds made by the Brachiosaurs in Jurassic Park were a mix of whale and donkey sounds.
The word ‘skunk’ comes from an Algonquian phrase for “peeing fox.”
The Breakfast Club, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and Weird Science were all filmed in Highland Park, Illinois.
The Seven Virtues #3- Charity is a concern for, and active helping of, others.
“Without training, they lacked knowledge. Without knowledge, they lacked confidence. Without confidence, they lacked victory.” – Julius Caesar
“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!” – Henry David Thoreau
“Most artists look for something fresh to paint; frankly I find that quite boring. For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.” – Andrew Wyeth
“It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.” – Claude Bernard
“Well, do anything, if you do something right, we’ll use it, and if you do something wrong, we’ll fix it, but do something and do it now.” – Louis B. Mayer
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.