View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
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1935 – The birth of Michael Winner, former film director, producer, and food critic for the Sunday Times until his death in 2013. An active proponent of law enforcement issues he established the Police Memorial Trust after WPC Yvonne Fletcher was murdered in 1984.
1942 – Three British Royal Navy personnel – Lt. Tony Fasson, Able Seaman Colin Grazier and canteen assistant Tommy Brown from HMS Petard boarded the sinking German submarine U-559, and retrieved vital instruments and documentation which would later lead the Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the German Enigma code. Brown was the only one of the three to survive when the submarine sank. All three received the George Cross Medal and Tommy Brown (aged 16 and too young to be at sea at the time ) is the youngest person to have ever received that award.
1957 – The Government revealed details of plans to reform the House of Lords, which included creating the first women life peerages.
1960 – English surgeon Michael Woodruff performed Britain’s first successful kidney transplant, at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
1965 – English model Jean Shrimpton wore a miniskirt to the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia. The event became a milestone in the advancement of the mini as the defining fashion of the 1960s.
1979 – Barnes Wallis, British aeronautical engineer and inventor of the wartime dam busting ‘bouncing bomb’ died. The pilots of 617 squadron used Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire to practice their low level flying. There is a memorial to them at Derwent Dam.
1984 – The 3 surviving members of the ‘Beatles’ Pop group were given the freedom of the City of Liverpool. Harrison refused to attend.
1990 – English and French tunnellers met for the first time underneath the English Channel during the construction of the Channel Tunnel.
1995 – At Winchester Crown Court, Rosemary West, the wife of serial killer Frederick West, broke her 20 month silence to plead her innocence over her husband’s murders.
2001 – Farmer Tony Martin, the loner who shot dead a teenage burglar, was cleared of murder but told he must spend at least another year in jail.
2002 – Freeview begins transmitting in parts of the UK. On the same day, Jam Master Jay from Run-DMC was murdered by an assassin’s bullet at his recording studio in Queens, New York.
Did you know that on this day in 1938, The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells was broadcasted on the radio? Some listeners interpreted the “breaking news” format as reports of an actual Martian invasion.
Marvel Comics and DC comics jointly own a trademark on the word “superhero.”
Film composer John Williams is the second most Academy Award-nominated person in history with 49 nominations, right after Walt Disney.
The Capital of Guinea is Conakry.
“Did you think I’d be too stupid to know what a eugoogly is?” – Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) #moviequotes
Queen Victoria was never confirmed to have said “we are not amused”, a phrase commonly attributed to her.
There is an episode of kitchen nightmares that actually shows Gordon enjoying the food. “Season 2 Episode 3 Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack”
The last major movie to be released on VHS was “Eragon” – in 2007.
Instagram just announced they would allow celebrities a way to block specific internet trolls. I would like to be able to block mention of specific celebrities.
A group of People who work to achieve a given goal are a Team.
The term “shotgun seat” in a car is derived from the Old West, when stagecoaches employed a man armed with a shotgun to sit next to the driver and fend off bandits.
The Capital of Guatemala is Guatemala City.
“There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.” – John Adams
“Through literacy, you can begin to see the universe. Through music, you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.” – Grace Slick
“Try something new each day. After all, we’re given life to find it out. It doesn’t last forever.” – Ruth Gordon
“How you learn has nothing to do with how brilliant you are.” – Henry Winkler
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.