Monday, April 21st "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 111, known as Easter Monday, National Tea Day, World Curlew Day, Dyngus Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Diamond.
2019 – Climate change activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech in London, leading to protests across the city for four days. Almost a thousand people were arrested, with 42 charged.
Todays birthdays
1947 – Iggy Pop [James Osterberg] (78), American singer (“The Passenger”, “Lust for Life”, “Real Wild Child”), born in Muskegon, Michigan, United States.
1947 – Alan Warner (78), English musician with the Foundations (“Build Me Up A Buttercup”), born in Paddington, London.
1958 – Andie MacDowell (67), American actress (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Groundhog Day, Sex, Lies, and Videotape), born in Gaffney, South Carolina, United States.
1959 – Robert Smith (66), English musician, lead vocalist and co-founder of the Cure (“Friday I’m in Love”), born in Blackpool, Lancashire.
1969 – Toby Stephens (56), English actor (Die Another Day, Hunter Killer, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi), born in London.
1973 – Steve Backshall (52), English naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer best known for BBC TV’s Deadly 60 series, born in Bagshot, Surrey.
1979 – James McAvoy (46), Scottish actor (Shameless UK, Wanted, X-Men: First Class, Victor Frankenstein, The Last King of Scotland ), born in Glasgow, Scotland.
Famous deaths
2016 – Prince (b. 1958), American singer-songwriter (“Purple Rain”, “Little Red Corvette”), guitarist, producer, and actor (Purple Rain).
The day today
1916 – Roger Casement, the Irish-born British consular official, landed in Ireland from a German submarine prepared to lead the Sinn Fein rebellion, but was arrested as the ‘Easter Uprising’ took place. The rebellion against the British in Dublin reached its worst level as Irish republicans took over sections of the city, while a Royal Navy gunboat bombarded them from the River Liffey.
1926 – Queen Elizabeth II was born. On 23rd Janury 2015, (following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz), the Queen became the oldest reigning monarch in the world and on 21st April 2016 she became the first 90 year old head of state of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms.
1934 – The ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’, the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, was published in the Daily Mail. In 1999, it was revealed to be a hoax.
1959 – English ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn was jailed for a day in Panama while the police looked for her Panamanian husband, accused of plotting a coup.
1964 – BBC television launched Playschool as the opening programme of their second channel. BBC2 actually opened a day late due to a major power failure the previous day.
1983 – One pound coins replaced notes in England and Wales.
1997 – American Psychologist Timothy Leary and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry were launched into orbit after being cremated.
Their remains orbited the Earth once every 96 minutes and eventually fell back to Earth on May 20, 2002, in an area North East of Australia.
2019 – Climate change activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech in London, leading to protests across the city for four days. Almost a thousand people were arrested, with 42 charged.
Today in music
1984 – Phil Collins started a three week run at No.1 in the US singles chart with the theme from ‘Against All Odds’. It was Phil’s first US No.1, and a No. 2 in the UK.
1990 – Sinead O’Connor started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of the Prince song ‘Nothing Compares To You’. The track was also a No.1 hit in 18 other countries. The video was shot in Paris, and consists almost solely of a close-up on O’Connor’s face as she sings the lyrics. Towards the end of the video, two tears roll down her face. The clip won Best Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards – the first video by a female artist to win in this category.
2002 – Oasis went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hindu Times’, the bands sixth UK No.1 and the first single to be released from their fifth album Heathen Chemistry.
2013 – Calvin Harris made chart history by becoming the first artist to have eight top 10 hits from one studio album. His track ‘I Need Your Love’, featuring singer Ellie Goulding, climbed to No.7 on the Official UK Chart. The DJ and producer from Dumfries, Scotland had overtaken Michael Jackson, who previously held the record with seven top 10 hits from both his 1987 album Bad and his 1991 record Dangerous.
2014 – Robin Thicke’s controversial hit single ‘Blurred Lines’ was named the UK’s most-downloaded song of all time. The song had sold 1.54 million copies since it was released in May 2013, despite criticisms of its explicit lyrics. About 20 university student unions banned the track, saying it promoted “date rape culture”, an accusation Thicke consistently denied.
2016 – Prince was found dead at his home in Minnesota at the age of 57, after Police were summoned to his Paisley Park estate and found his body in a lift. The acclaimed and influential musician became a global superstar in the 1980s, with albums such as 1999, Purple Rain and Sign O’ the Times and recorded more than 30 albums.
2016 – Adele was named as Britain’s richest ever female musician, in the latest Sunday Times Rich List. A list of the top 50 music millionaires in the UK and Ireland placed the singer’s £85m fortune in 30th place – an increase of £35m compared to the previous year.
Today in history
1509 – Henry VIII became King of England following the death of his father, Henry VII.
1536 – Thomas Cromwell started plotting how to kill his wife, Anne Boleyn. Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, was found guilty of high treason by a jury of her peers in the king’s hall at the Tower on 15 May 1536. She was executed by decapitation on 19 May 1536. Cromwell was executed for treason and heresy on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540.
1671 – The birth of John Law, Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself. He was a gambler and a brilliant mental calculator who was known to win card games by mentally calculating the odds.
1689 – William III and Mary II were crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1750 – Peter Dollond opened a small optical business in Vine Street, near Hatton Garden in London. In 1927 Dollond & Co merged with Aitchison & Co, to form Dollond & Aitchison. On 29th January 2009, it was announced that Boots Opticians were to merge with D&A, forming a chain of 690 stores and 5,000 staff after Boots purchased a controlling share in D&A.
1816 – Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the three literary sisters, was born in Thornton, West Yorkshire. Her publisher rejected her first novel, ‘The Professor,’ but she went on to write her masterpiece, ‘Jane Eyre’.