View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1963 – The funeral of President John F Kennedy takes place in Washington.
1969 – John Lennon returned his MBE to The Queen on the grounds of the UK’s involvement in the Nigeria Biafra war, America in Vietnam, and against his latest single ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts.
1970 – In Japan, author Yukio Mishima and two compatriots commit ritualistic suicide after an unsuccessful coup.
1974 – Singer-songwriter Nick Drake died in his sleep aged 26 of an overdose of tryptasol, an anti-depressant. On the same day, U Thant, former secretary general of the UN dies aged 65.
1975 – A loyalist gang nicknamed the “Shankill Butchers” undertakes its first “cut-throat killing”; the gang was named for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast.
1980 – Sugar Ray Leonard regains the WBC welterweight boxing crown when Roberto Durán quits in the 8th round of the infamous “no mas” fight at the Superdome, New Orleans.
1981 – The inquiry into the Brixton riots in April blames serious social and economic problems affecting Britain’s cities.
1983 – Larry Holmes TKOs Marvis Frazier in Round 1 for the heavyweight boxing title.
1984 – The cream of the British pop world including Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Paul Young and Sting gathered at S.A.R.M. Studios, London, to record the historic Do They Know It’s Christmas? as Band Aid.
1986 – The Iran-Contra affair erupts as President Reagan reveals secret arms deal and Col Oliver North’s secretary, Fawn Hall, smuggles documents out of his office.
1987 – Super typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 165 mph and a surge that swallows entire villages. at least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm.
1990 – Lech Walesa wins Poland’s first popular election.
1991 – Winston Silcott is cleared of the 1985 murder of PC Keith Blakelock during a riot on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham.
1998 – The government of Turkey collapses after losing a no-confidence motion over corruption allegations.
2000 – Australia beats New Zealand 40-12 in the Rugby League World Cup.
2003 – Singer Glen Campbell is arrested in Phoenix Arizona with a blood alcohol level of .20 after his BMW struck a Toyota Camry. He is charged with ‘extreme’ drunk driving, hit and run, and assaulting a police officer. On the same day, Meat Loaf undergoes heart surgery in a London hospital.
2005 – Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians showing maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe by Soviet-controlled forces. On the same day, legendary footballer George Best dies aged 59.
2016 – Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies aged 90.
2017 – The longest known frozen embryo to be successfully born is delivered in Tennessee after 24 years.
2018 – EU leaders approve an agreement for Britain to leave the European Union.
2019 – Singer songwriter Iain Sutherland, co-writer of the song “Sailing” died.
A group of Prairie Dogs is called a Coterie.
Five Card Poker Odds, nothing wild: Four of a Kind – Four of the same number or “face card”, 1 in 4000
If we were able to travel faster than light and instantly moved 65 million light-years away and had a telescope big enough to see the surface of the earth, we’d be watching dinosaurs roaming around in real-time.
The official term for random symbols (#%@&!) representing swearing in comic strip speech bubbles is “grawlix” and that it was coined by Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey.
The Capital of China is Beijing
“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” – Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs, The Silence of the Lambs, 1991
“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.” – The Narrator #moviequotes
I wonder if children 400 years from now will watch movies like Titanic and learn about James Cameron just as today’s kids learn about Shakespeare.
Creator Chuck Jones said he created the Coyote-Road Runner cartoons as a parody of traditional “cat and mouse” cartoons like Tom and Jerry.
Civil War General Ambrose Burnside, from whom we get the term “sideburns”, was the first president of the National Rifle Association.
There’s an old nuclear bomb lost somewhere off the coast of Georgia. #true
What if time travelers already altered history and everything that has happened is already the best possible outcome. #StillMissTheBenswilers
Even Popeye didn’t eat his spinach until he absolutely had to.
Birthday : quotes
“All human history is the struggle between systems that attempt to shackle the human personality in the name of some intangible good on the one hand and systems that enable and expand the scope of human personality in the pursuit of extremely tangible aims. The American system is the most successful in the world because it harmonizes best with the aims and longings of human personality while allowing the best protection to other personalities.” – Ben Stein
“Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card.” – Marc Brown
“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” – Dale Carnegie
“Motivation is something nobody else can give you.” – Joe DiMaggio
“The key isn’t winning or losing, it’s making the attempt. I may never be what I ought to be, want to be, but how will I know unless I try? Sure, it’s scary, but what’s the alternative? Stagnation… A safer, more terrible form of death. Not of the body, but of the spirit. An animal knows what it is, and accepts it. A man may know what he is… but he questions. He dreams. He strives. Changes. Grows.” – Chris Claremont
“People often tell me I could be a great man. I’d rather be a good man.” – JFK, Jr.
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.