April 10th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 101, known as Hug Your Dog Day, Siblings Day, Work From Home Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of July 18th in the previous year. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
1912 – Shortly after 12noon, The British built luxury liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton’s White Star Dock on her maiden voyage to New York. Her commander was Captain Edward J. Smith.
Todays birthdays
1940 – Gloria Hunniford (84), Northern Ireland broadcaster ans TV presenter (Rip Off Britain, Loose Women), born in Portadown, County Armagh.
1955 – Lesley Garrett (69) English soprano singer (“I Dreamed A Dream”), born in Thorne, Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
1979 – Sophie Ellis Bextor (45), English singer and songwriter (“Murder on the Dancefloor”, “Groovejet – If This Ain’t Love”), born in Hounslow, West London.
1980 – Charlie Hunnam (44), English actor (Sons of Anarchy, The Gentlemen, Green Street, Papillon, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), born in Newcastle upon Tyne.
1988 – Haley Joel Osment (36), American actor (The Sixth Sense, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Forrest Gump), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Famous deaths
1966 – Evelyn Waugh (b. 1903), English soldier, novelist (Brideshead Revisited), journalist and critic.
2003 – Little Eva (b. 1943), American singer well known for her 1962 hit “The Loco-Motion”.
The day today
1912 – Shortly after 12noon, The British built luxury liner RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton’s White Star Dock on her maiden voyage to New York. Her commander was Captain Edward J. Smith. Titanic’s Passenger Certificate certified the vessel to carry a maximum of 3,547 persons – 905 First Class Passengers, 564 Second Class and 1,134 Third Class, with 944 Officers and Crew. Passengers boarded the ship from around 9.30am until 11.30am, and as she left Southampton, Titanic had an estimated 1,846 people on-board.
1955 – Ruth Ellis shot her lover David Blakely outside a pub in Hampstead in North London. Following her murder trial she became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
1972 – An agreement (Biological Weapons Convention), banning the use of biological weapons, was signed by 74 countries. It entered into force on 26 March 1975.
1997 – The National Trust’s ruling council voted unanimously to ban stag-hunting on its land after a study concluded that the chase caused extreme suffering and exhaustion to the deer.
2021 – Rachael Blackmore made sporting history by becoming the first female jockey to win the Grand National, with victory on Minella Times at Aintree. Blackmore had already achieved a landmark success in the previous month’s Cheltenham Festival when she was the first woman to be the meeting’s leading jockey.
Today in music
1970 – 27 year-old Paul McCartney issued a press statement, announcing that The Beatles had split, (one week before the release of his solo album). McCartney said, ‘I have no future plans to record or appear with The Beatles again, or to write any music with John’. John Lennon, who had kept his much-earlier decision to leave The Beatles quiet for the sake of the others, was furious. When a reporter called Lennon to comment upon McCartney’s resignation, Lennon said, ‘Paul hasn’t left. I sacked him’.
1982 – Iron Maiden scored their first UK No.1 album with The Number Of The Beast. The bands third studio album saw the debut of vocalist Bruce Dickinson and the final appearance of the late drummer Clive Burr. This was their first album to reach No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart, and be certified platinum in the US.
1999 – A charity tribute concert for the late Linda McCartney was held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Among the performers were Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, George Michael, Elvis Costello and Sinead O’Connor.
2013 – Kate Bush received her CBE for services to music from the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle, England. The singer-songwriter, who was catapulted to fame in 1978 when Wuthering Heights topped the charts, said she was ‘incredibly thrilled’ and joked that it would have pride of place at the top of her Christmas tree.
2019 – Billie Eilish was at No.1 on the UK chart with her debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? It made Eilish the youngest female solo act to chart at No.1 in the UK. At the 2020 Grammy Awards, it won Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, while ‘Bad Guy’ from the album won Record of the Year.
Today in history
1512 – The birth of James V of Scotland, who allied his country with France against the English. He became king at the age of 17 months.
1606 – The Charter of the Virginia Company of London was established by James I, with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
1633 – Bananas went on display in Thomas Johnson’s shop window in London. This was the first time the fruit had been seen in Britain.
1710 – The Copyright Act, known as The Statute of Anne, came into effect in Britain. It allowed authors to hold exclusive rights to their work for up to 50 years after their death. The restrictions were enforced by the Stationers’ Company, a guild of printers given the exclusive power to print and the responsibility to censor literary works.
1858 – The 14.5 tonne bell, ‘Big Ben’, was cast in Stockton-on-Tees by Warner’s of Cripplegate. However the bell cracked during testing. It was recast into the 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and is still in use today. It is the largest of the five bells in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament).