View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
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1906 – International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin selects “SOS” (· · · – – – · · ·) distress signal as the worldwide standard for help. The SOS code was implemented internationally on July 1, 1908.
1958 – Elvis Presley went on manoeuvres for the first time with the US Army’s 32nd Tank Regiment near the German/Czech border.
1961 – The UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant as acting Secretary-General after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in a plane crash.
1964 – Lyndon B Johnson is elected president of the US almost a year after taking over following the assassination of John F Kennedy.
1967 – The Battle of Dak To, one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War, begins.
1968 – Lotus driver Graham Hill wins his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.
1972 – Songwriters James Taylor and Carly Simon were married by a judge in Simon’s Manhattan apartment.
1975 – The Queen triggers the UK’s first North Sea oil pipeline at a ceremony in Scotland.
1977 – During a concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, Elton John announced his retirement from live performances.
1978 – Dominica gains independence from the UK.
1985 – Two French secret service agents change their pleas to guilty over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. On the same day, McLaren driver Alain Prost wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship, finishing fourth in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.
1986 – Lebanese magazine Ash Shirra reveals secret US arms sales to Iran.
1987 – Gordon Gould is issued a US patent for the laser, ending a 30-year battle tpo be recognised as its inventor.
1992 – Bill Clinton is elected president of the US.
1993 – Leon Theremin, Russian-Soviet electronic musical instruments inventor, dies aged 97.
1997 – Striking lorry drivers blockade French ports. On the same day, “I’m Alan Partridge” starring Steve Coogan premieres on BBC Two.
1998 – Bob Kane, comic artist and co-creator of Batman, dies aged 83.
2002 – Lonnie Donegan, dies aged 71 mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison. On the same day, actor Jonathan Harris dies aged 87.
2003 – P Diddy ran in the New York City Marathon and raised $2,000,000 for the education system for the children of the city.
2007 – President Pervez Musharraf, declares emergency rule across Pakistan, suspends the constitution, imposes a state of emergency and fires the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
2015 – A former prison officer was jailed for 12 months after admitting selling stories about George Michael during the star’s jail term to The Sun newspaper.
2019 – Olivia Newton John’s black leather outfit from the film “Grease” sells for $405,700 at auction in Beverly Hills. On the same day, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finishes second in the US Grand Prix to clinch his sixth Formula 1 Drivers World Championship.
Did you knowthere are only 4 words in the English language which end in ‘dous’ (they are: hazardous, horrendous, stupendous and tremendous)
If oceanographers ever found a Kraken, they would put it in an aquarium. Then an animal activist group would start a mob outside with signs saying “Release the Kraken!”
The first appearance of Boba Fett was in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
The only chance for world peace between all of humanity is if extraterrestrials attacked us. #IforonewelcomeourEToverlords
LL Cool J stands for Ladies Love Cool James.
The next time Matt Damon gets stuck somewhere in a movie, they need to send Jason Bourne to get him.
Gangnam Style has received approximately the same amount of views in 4 years as Shakespeare sold copies of his literature in 450 years.
The Capital of Germany is Berlin
A group of Pelicans is called a Pod.
The world is not getting dumber. It’s just easier for dumb people to get their thoughts heard.
The noise from snapping your fingers is from your finger hitting your hand.
Every puzzle piece you sift through to find the one you are looking for, will at some point be the one you are looking for. #somethingtothinkabout
“When ah fires my gun, all o’ yo’ kin start a-runnin! When ah fires agin- after givin’ yo’ a fair start- Sadie starts a runnin’. Th’ one she ketches’ll be her husbin’.” – Hezekiah Hawkins
“Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.” – Judy Garland as “Dorothy Gale” in The Wizard of Oz, first shown on TV on November 3, 1956
“At Ragnarok the world as we know it will be destroyed. But that is not the end. After a long time, a time of healing, a new universe will be created, one better and cleaner and free from the evils of this world. It too will last for countless millennia… until again the forces of evil and cold contend against the forces of goodness and light… and again there is a time of rest, followed by a new creation and another chance for men. Nothing is ever finished, nothing is ever perfect, but over and over again the race of men gets another chance to do better than last time, ever and again without end.” – Robert A. Heinlein
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.