August 12th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 225 of the year! Known as Milkman Day, Julienne Fries Day, National Vinyl Record Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of November 19th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
1964 – A massive manhunt got under way across Britain after Charlie Wilson, one of the gang involved in the Great Train Robbery, broke out of the high-security Winson Green prison in Birmingham.
Todays birthdays
1949 – Mark Knopfler (75), British singer, songwriter (Dire Straits – “Sultans of Swing”, “Walk of Life”), musician, and record producer, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1966 – Les Ferdinand (58), English football coach, former professional footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City) and television pundit, born in London.
1971 – Pete Sampras (53), American former world No. 1 tennis player who’s career start in 1988 and ended at the 2002, born in Potomac, Maryland, United States.
1988 – Tyson Fury (36), British professional boxer. He has held multiple heavyweight world titles, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, born in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.
1992 – Cara Delevingne (32), English model and actress (Valerian, Suicide Squad), born in Hammersmith, London.
Famous deaths
1964 – Ian Fleming (b. 1908), British writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels.
2015 – Stephen Lewis (b. 1926), English actor and screenwriter (Inspector Blake – On The Buses and as Smiler in Last of the Summer Wine).
2021 – Una Stubbs (b. 1937), English actress, TV personality, and dancer (Till Death Us Do Part, In Sickness and in Health).
The day today
1944 – The first PLUTO (Pipe Line Under the Ocean) supplying fuel across the English Channel to the Allied forces in France, went into operation from the Isle of Wight. It could transfer up to 700 tons of fuel a day.
1949 – Big Ben ran at its slowest for 90 years as flocks of starlings took roost on the minute hands, slowing it by four and a half minutes.
1964 – A massive manhunt got under way across Britain after Charlie Wilson, one of the gang involved in the Great Train Robbery, broke out of the high-security Winson Green prison in Birmingham. He was on the run for four years, before being finally re-captured in Canada and returned to jail in Britain, where he served out the rest of his sentence. Wilson then moved to the Costa del Sol in Spain, was alleged to have become involved in drugs dealing and was shot dead by a hitman on 23rd April 1990 as he relaxed by his swimming pool.
2000 – The families of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne were joined by friends and hundreds of members of the public for a memorial service.
2015 – A mass grave of 30 victims of the 1665 plague was found at Liverpool Street station in London, England.
Today in music
1972 – Alice Cooper was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘School’s Out’. The bands only UK No.1, which was also a No.7 hit on the US chart. Cooper has said he was inspired to write the song when answering the question, “What’s the greatest three minutes of your life?”. Cooper said: “There’s two times during the year. One is Christmas morning, the next one is the last three minutes of the last day of school.”
1978 – The Commodores started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Three Times A Lady’, also No.1 in the UK and becoming Motown’s biggest British selling single. Lionel Richie wrote the song about his love for his wife, mother and grandmother hence ‘Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady.’
1986 – Prince started a run of three nights at Wembley Arena, London, his first UK shows for five years.
2007 – UK singer, songwriter Kate Nash went to No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut album ‘Made Of Bricks.’
2012 – The London 2012 Olympics ended with a spectacular musical closing ceremony. The three-hour show featured some of the biggest names of British music from decades past, including the Spice Girls, George Michael, The Who, Take That, Muse, Jessie J, Emeli Sande, Elbow, Madness, The Pet Shop Boys, One Direction, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, and Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen.
Today in history
1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
1762 – King George IV was born. He was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830.
1848 – The death of George Stephenson English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830.
1851 – The Hundred Guinea Cup was offered to the winner of a yacht race around the Isle of Wight. It was won by the US schooner ‘America’, and the trophy became ‘the America’s Cup’.
1865 – British surgeon and pioneer of antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery.