View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
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1859 – The birth, in Edinburgh, of author Kenneth Grahame, most famous for The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows, an enchanting story involving the characters Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty.
1910 – The first pilots’ licences were issued, to an Englishman – J T C Moore Brabazon, and a Frenchwoman – Elise Deroche.
1930 – Mahatma Gandhi began the campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India.
1937 – The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s book depicting life during ‘The Depression’ in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds – Liverpool canal.
1950 – Rover unveiled the world’s first car to be powered with a gas turbine engine. Codenamed JET1 the two-seater model would be powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet aeroplane, with a fuel consumption of 5 to 7 miles per gallon.
1954 – The birth of Scottish swimmer David Wilkie MBE (born in Sri Lanka), Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion in the 1970s.
1961 – Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor and founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra died, aged 81.
1963 – The first Ford Anglia was produced at Halewood, Liverpool.
1966 – A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroyed Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin. No one was hurt by the explosion. Six days after the original damage, Irish Army engineers blew up the rest of the pillar after judging the structure to be too unsafe to restore. The planned demolition caused more destruction on O’Connell Street than the original blast, and broke many windows.
1971 – British postal workers returned to work after a strike lasting 7 weeks.
1972 – The Goodyear airship Europa flew over Britain. It was the the first airship over Britain in 20 years.
1977 – Princess Anne announced that she was expecting her 1st child – Peter.
2001 – Donald Campbell’s boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record. His grave, is in the new parish churchyard at Coniston.
2014 – The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare’s Law) came into effect across England and Wales. The scheme allowed people find out from police if their partner has a history of domestic violence and was named after 36 year-old Clare Wood who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009.
2016 – AC/DC postpone the rest of their US tour after singer Brian Johnson is warned he faces the imminent threat of going deaf. On the same day, Beatles producer Sir George Martin dies aged 90.
International Women’s Day was first celebrated in the Soviet Union and was called International Working Women’s Day until 1975.
In the event of an Apocalypse, would you be more concerned about the hordes of dead citizens in the streets or the fact that there was no pizza left anywhere in your city?
The largest cast of living creatures in a Hollywood film was the 22 million bees, in 1978’s “The Swarm”.
Caractacus Potts was the owner and driver of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In the 18th century, many prominent voices were concerned by an ‘epidemic’ affecting young people whereby they were spending too much time reading books. It was diagnosed as ‘a dangerous disease’ called ‘reading rage, reading fever, reading mania or reading lust.’
If I ever crash land on a planet with Earth-like conditions where everyone speaks English, I’m pretty sure I’d figure out it was Earth right away.
The Capital of Palau is Melekeok.
The biggest film of 1969: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Western).
Why is there a bear in The Jungle Book? Bears don’t live in the jungle!
On request of the family of Sir Winston Churchill, there is always a marmalade cat called Jock in residence at Chartwell house. Last we checked, Jock VI was still there.
Useless Pronunciation: E as in eight.
An elephant’s brain reacts the same way to humans the way human brains react to puppies. That is, they like us.
Maybe someday Beanie Babies will actually become valuable and we will all have a good laugh about it.
“I was raised to believe in myself. I know I’m cool. I’m not trying to brag or say I’m the man or anything like that. I don’t lie or cheat, and I’m not mean to anybody. I treat people with respect.” – Freddie Prinze, Jr.
“I learned that people want to be in love. They long to be in love, they pretend to be in love, and sometimes they are.” – Carole Bayer Sager
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not a public democratic organization; it’s a private club basically. It’s like a private golf club and they decide who they’re going to let in the club.” – Micky Dolenz
“If I had to give up either acting or dancing, I’d choose to keep dancing.” – Cyd Charisse
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.