Wednesday, April 30th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 120, known as International Guide Dog Day, International Jazz Day, Denim Day, Honesty Day, National Mahjong Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Diamond.
1944 – The first of 500,000 prefab homes went on show in London. They were designed for demobilised servicemen and bombed-out families and consisted of 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and toilet and kitchen on one floor.
Todays birthdays
1957 – Wonder Mike (68) American hip hop recording artist and member of the Sugarhill Gang (“Rapper’s Delight”), born in Englewood, New Jersey, United States.
1971 – Darren Emerson (54), English musician, DJ and former member of electronic group Underworld (“Born Slippy”), born in Hornchurch, London Borough of Havering.
1973 – Leigh Francis, aka Keith Lemon (52), English television presenter (Celebrity Juice, Bo Selecta, Through The Keyhole), actor, writer, and comedian, born in Beeston, Leeds.
1975 – Johnny Galecki (50), American actor (Roseanne) best known for his role as Leonard Hofstadter in the comdey series, The Big Bang Theory, born in Bree, Belgium.
1981 – Kunal Nayyar (44), British-born Indian actor best known for his role as Raj Koothrappali in the comdey series, The Big Bang Theory, born in Hammersmith, London.
1981 – John O’Shea (44), Irish professional football coach and former player (Manchester United, Sunderland), born in Waterford, Ireland.
1982 – Kirsten Dunst (43), American actress (Spiderman, Bring It On, Hidden Figures, Jumanji), born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States.
1985 – Gal Gadot (40), Israeli actress (Wonder Woman, Justice League, Fast and Furious, Heart of Stone) and model, born in Petah Tikva, Israel.
1990 – Jonny Brownlee (35), English professional duathlete, triathlete and Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo 2020, born in Bramhope, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
2015 – Ben E. King (b. 1938), American singer-songwriter and producer (Stand by Me”).
2019 – Peter Mayhew (b. 1944), English-American actor best known for his role as “Chewbacca” in the original Star Wars films.
The day today
1938 – The FA Cup was televised on British TV in its entirety, for the first time. The TV audience was estimated as 10,000. Preston played Huddersfield Town and Preston won in the last minute of extra time.
1944 – The first of 500,000 prefab homes went on show in London. They were designed for demobilised servicemen and bombed-out families and consisted of 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and toilet and kitchen on one floor. They covered an area of 616 sq ft and were built by the motor industry.
1945 – Nazi leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Before beginning his assault on Europe, Hitler had assured his followers that the Third Reich would last for 1,000 years. His mistress, Eva Braun, whom he’d married the day before, died alongside him after taking a cyanide pill.
1947 – The birth of Leslie Grantham, English actor best known for his role as “Dirty” Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders.
1948 – The first Land Rover Defender, later known as the Series I, was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show and was sold for £450.
1974 – England’s football manager Sir Alf Ramsey, manager of the England team which won the World Cup in 1966 was sacked, after 11 years as manager.
1988 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opened World Expo ’88 in Brisbane, Australia. The fair was the largest event of the Bicentennial celebrations of the European settlement of Australia and attracted almost 16,000,000 visitors.
1999 – Two people were killed and at least 30 injured in the third nail-bomb attack in London in two weeks. The bomb went off in a public house in the heart of London’s gay community.
2020 – The 100th birthday of Captain Tom Moore. On 6th April he set out to raise £1000 for NHS Charities Together by walking 100 lengths of his 25 metre garden and ended up raising almost £30M in donations. It was the largest-ever amount raised by a JustGiving campaign. He later featured in a charity cover version of the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” with Michael Ball, with proceeds going to the same charity.
Today in music
1966 – The Rolling Stones fourth album ‘Aftermath’ went to No.1 on the UK chart, the group’s third UK No.1 album. The album is considered an artistic breakthrough for the band and is the first to consist entirely of Jagger–Richards compositions, while Brian Jones played a variety of instruments not usually associated with their music, including sitar, Appalachian dulcimer, marimbas and Japanese koto.
1968 – BBC TV launched The Cilla Black Show making Cilla the first British female performer to have her own TV show. The theme song, ‘Step Inside Love’, was written by Paul McCartney.
1976 – The Who’s drummer Keith Moon paid nine cab drivers to block-off both ends of a New York street so he could throw the contents of his hotel room out of the window.
1983 – Spandau Ballet’s “True” began a four-week run at the top of the UK singles chart. The group’s only No.1 would later be sampled and used in a number of songs – most notably PM Dawn’s 1991 US No.1 hit ‘Set Adrift on Memory Bliss’.
1983 – Michael Jackson started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Beat It’, his fifth solo US No.1. The third single from the singer’s Thriller album featured Eddie Van Halen on the song’s distinctive overdriven guitar solo, but Halen was prevented by his record label from appearing in the music video.
1988 – S’Express were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Theme From S’Express’. One of the landmarks of early acid house and late 1980s sampling culture, the British track sampled Rose Royce, TZ’s ‘I Got the Hots for You’ and the count-in ‘Uno, dos, uno, dos, tres, quatro’ is from Debbie Harry’s 1985 single ‘Feel the Spin’.
2015 – Ben E King, (Benjmin Earl Nelson), soul and R&B singer with The Drifters, died at the Hackensack University Medical Center at the age of 76. The Drifters had the 1960 US No.1 & UK No.2 single ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, and King scored the the 1987 UK No.1 solo single ‘Stand By Me’, (first released in 1961).
Today in history
1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers.
1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
1625 – The death of Sir Lawrence Tanfield at Burford in Oxfordshire. Tanfield was a prominent lawyer and politician and lord of Burford manor. Relationships with the locals were poor. There were accusations of Tanfield’s corruption and overbearingness and he stripped the vicarage of much of its endowment. Tanfield’s widow arranged for him to be buried in Burford church, under an elaborate tomb in the north chapel at dead of night, without the permission of the priests or town.
1789 – George Washington became the first President of the United States of America. The Washington Window at Selby Abbey in Yorkshire incorporates the Washington family coat of arms, three red stars above two red bands on a white shield, the model for the American Flag. It most probably represents some kind of benefaction made to the Abbey to commemorate John Wessington. He was Prior of Durham from 1416 – 1446 and the most distinguished collateral ancestor of George Washington.
1821 – The first iron steamship, Aaron Manby, named after the proprietor of the Staffordshire ironworks at which she had been made, was completed. She weighed 116 tons and after trials on the River Thames made her maiden voyage across the Channel.