View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
1917 – Dame Vera Lynn was born. During the Second World War she was known as the “Forces Sweetheart”. Her songs included “We’ll Meet Again” and “White Cliffs of Dover”.
1966 – The football World Cup (Jules Rimet trophy) was stolen whilst being exhibited at Central Hall in London.
1974 – An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in the Mall by a gunman who fired six shots, then tried to drag her out of the car. He fled as passers-by joined her bodyguard and police to foil the attempt, and was later caught. Ian Ball, who was charged with attempted murder, claimed he did it to highlight the lack of mental care facilities.
1980 – Mi Amigo, the ship from which the pirate radio station Radio Caroline broadcast its music programmes, sank during a severe storm. Radio Caroline was unlicensed by any government for most of its early life and was launched to circumvent the record companies’ control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC’s radio broadcasting monopoly. The station is still on the air today and currently broadcasts 24 hours a day via the Eurobird 1 satellite and the Internet.
1993 – Two young boys (Johnathan Ball, aged 3 and Tim Parry aged 12) died and at least 50 people were injured in two bomb blasts close to Warrington’s shopping centre.
1999 – British balloonist Brian Jones and Swiss physicist Bertrand Piccard became the first to fly a hot-air balloon non-stop around the world.
2003 – Prime Minister Tony Blair made a live televised address and confirmed that British troops were in action in Iraq. American missiles hit Baghdad at 5:35 a.m. signalling the start of the US led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein.
2014 – Cancer Research UK released figures which showed that lung cancer rates among women in the UK had risen by 73% since 1975, but had fallen by 47% among men. “The proportion of men who smoke has been declining since the 1950s, while figures for women did not start to drop until the 1970s.”
2015 – A solar eclipse in the UK peaked at around 9.30am. Totality nowhere touched land in the United Kingdom but on the Isle of Lewis, coverage of the sun reached 98%.
2015 – The Financial Times Share Index (FTSE 100) rose to more than 7,000 points for the first time in its history.
2017 – The hundredth birthday of Dame Vera Lynn. During the Second World War she toured Egypt, India, and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. Her songs included “We’ll Meet Again” and “White Cliffs of Dover”. The release of a compilation album made her the first centenarian singer to have a new album.
2020 – UK schools were shut from the end of afternoon school until further notice, as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. Assurance was given that the children of ‘key workers’ such as NHS staff, police and delivery drivers and also ‘vulnerable children’ would still be looked after in schools. All exams in May and June were cancelled, including GCSEs, AS- and A-Levels and primary school national curriculum tests known as SATs.
Did you know that on this day in 1930, Harland Sanders founded KFC? The world famous chicken was first sold from a petrol station in North Corbin, Kentucky.
A group of Bees is called a Grist or Hive or Swarm or Nest.
The word “dialogue” has all the full-time vowels in it.
There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers.
UNPROVEN SCIENCE: Walking through doorways make you forget.
Meaning both “friend” and “something you feed to sharks,” I can’t think of a single word with two more wildly divergent and unrelated definitions than “chum.”
Winnie the Pooh’s first name is Edward.
The Subaru logo represents the stars in the Pleiades constellation which is known as ‘Subaru’ in Japanese.
In a room with 23 people, it’s more likely than unlikely that at least two of them share the same birthday.
“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!” – Oliver (Oliver Hardy) in Sons of the Desert, 1933
Phonetic isn’t spelled phonetically, there is no anagram for an anagram, there isn’t another word for thesaurus and ironically most people do not understand irony.
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.