View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
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1857 – James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age, was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.
1900 – The British Government was offered peace proposals to end the Boer War, but rejected them.
1936 – The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and was the fighter plane that helped to win the Battle of Britain. Mitchell died in 1937 without ever knowing how successful his aircraft would become. The Spitfire was first put into service with the Royal Air Force in 1938 and they remained in active service (as photo reconnaissance planes) with the Royal Air Force until 1954.
1943 – The first flight of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It was the first British jet fighter and the Allies’ first operational jet. The Meteor’s development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, developed by Sir Frank Whittle.
1946 – Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase ‘The Iron Curtain’ as the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.
1948 – The birth of Elaine Paige, singer and actress. Her debut was in the 1968 production of Hair. She played Eva Perón in the first production of Evita in 1978 which won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a Musical.
1966 – BOAC Flight 911 (Speedbird 911), a round-the-world flight operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation disintegrated and crashed on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members. It was the third fatal passenger airline accident in Tokyo in a month.
1977 – The death (aged 27) of Thomas “Tom” Pryce, British racing driver and the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race. During the practice session for the 1977 South African Grand Prix, Pryce was faster than everyone, including world champion drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt. During the race, a safety marshal ran into the path of Pryce’s car and both men were killed.
2001 – PC Alison Armitage (aged 29) became the first female officer in the Greater Manchester Police force to be killed in the line of duty since it was formed in 1974.
2002 – Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged by 39 MPs not to back military action in Iraq.
2014 – Birmingham city council announced the sell-off of four of its hugely popular venues, including the National Exhibition Centre (NEC).
2019 – Second-ever person “cured” of HIV after stem cell transplant treatment in London. On the same day, Kylie Jenner becomes the youngest ever billionaire at 21.
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
“Time to make the donuts” – Dunkin’ Donuts ad
Two twin-sized mattresses are the same size as a single king size mattress.
“Holy crap!” – Frank Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond)
I am convinced that the people who make cough/cold syrup have never once actually tasted a berry.
Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was played by Isaiah Mustafa.
It’s weird that pizza is shaped as a circle and comes in a square box and the slices are triangles. Pizza is a lesson in Geometry.
The name “Oreo” is “Greg” with o’s instead of g’s.
There are currently over 200 people living in the U.S with the name John Doe.
“Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything.” – Mr. Miyagi/Pat Morita #moviequotes
What makes us more sophisticated animals are our intellect and opposable thumbs. Both of which we are wasting by numbing our brains and scrolling via our thumbs on our “smart” phones.
Through, tough, thorough, thought, trough, though don’t rhyme, but pony and bologna do. #theenglishlanguage
“Throw your heart into the picture and then jump in after it.” – Howard Pyle
“I’ve got categories of jobs, and one of the categories is ‘money jobs.’ If one of those comes along and I have to make a living, even if I don’t like the script that much, I’ll do it and just try to stay above water, which I’m able to do most of the time. I try not to sink with the ship.” – Dean Stockwell
“To all those who won’t listen to my music because I don’t smoke Ganga, I say the hell with those people.” – Eddy Grant
“If there’s something you really want to believe, that’s what you should question the most.” – Penn Jillette
“When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.” – Joel Osteen
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.