View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
What : day is it
1936 – The world’s first regular TV service was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation at Alexandra Palace at 3:00 p.m. It was defined as ‘high-definition’ (with 200 lines of resolution) and was renamed BBC1 in 1964. An estimated 100 TV owners tuned in.
1950 – George Bernard Shaw, the renowned playwright died, aged 94.
1951 – The final phase of the largest troop airlift since the war brought in British reinforcements to quell unrest in the Canal Zone, Egypt.
1953 – The foundation of the Samaritans, (the world’s first crisis hotline organisation), by the Anglican priest Chad Varah, who was born in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire.
1954 – The comedy series ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ was first broadcast on BBC Radio.
1960 – Penguin publishers were cleared of obscenity for printing the D.H. Lawrence novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. The first edition was printed privately in Florence in 1928 but the unexpurgated edition could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960. The book was notorious at the time for its story of the physical relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, with explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words.
1963 – Gerry & the Pacemakers reached the number one spot with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
1964 – The first episode of the television soap opera ‘Crossroads’ was broadcast on ITV.
1981 – Citizens Band radio (CB radio) was legally allowed in Britain
1982 – The first edition of ‘Countdown’ the British TV game show involving word and number puzzles. It was hosted by Richard Whiteley and Carol Vorderman and was also the first programme to be aired on Channel 4.
2000 – The controversial chief inspector of schools in England, Chris Woodhead, stepped down, to the delight of teachers’ unions.
2012 – It was announced that more than 100 post boxes, painted gold to celebrate the success of Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes, would remain gold on a permanent basis.
2012 – 66 year old billionaire Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man and the 12th richest in the UK, was taken to prison to begin a nine-week sentence for contempt of court.
2014 – The death, aged 85, of Acker Bilk, the legendary jazz clarinettist. He was the first UK act to top the US charts in the 1960s and was known for performing in a flamboyant waistcoat and bowler hat.
2019 – South Africa’s Springboks beat favourites England, 32-12 to win the Rugby World Cup in Yokohama, Japan.
Did you knowthe expression to ‘knuckle down’ originated from playing marbles (players used to put their knuckles to the ground for their best shots)
The earliest example of media distorting my reality was my belief that cats and dogs are sworn enemies like bears and sharks are.
The Capital of Greece is Athens
“It’s alive! It’s alive!” – Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) in Frankenstein, 1931
A flock of crows is known as a murder. Two is attempted murder. Three is a crow-d.
Most Disney Pixar movies are about characters getting lost and having to find their way home, usually finding friends on the way.
Life is uncertain… eat dessert first.
Avatar was the biggest film of all time. Avatar’s impact on popular culture is people talking about it having no cultural impact.
“I love Huey Lewis, but not the News, because the News is too depressing.” – Jarod Kintz #80sHumor
Whenever I see a seagull in the city, I like to imagine that it left a small beach town with the hopes to make something big of its life.
US President #24 William McKinley (1897-1901) William liked to wear a lucky red carnation. President McKinley was assassinated by Leon F. Czolgosz.
A farmer counted all of his cows and found that he had 196 of them, but when he rounded them up, he had 200.
The Capital of Ghana is Accra
“Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?” – Marie Antoinette
“That this awareness of my own fallibility will prevent me from making many mistakes doesn’t alter the fact that I’m bound to make a great many mistakes anyway. But if we fall, we get up again!” – Vincent van Gogh
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.