August 12th "2023" daily prep

Welcome to day 224 of the year! Known as World Elephant Day and Middle Child Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of November 19th 2022 and have the star sign “Leo”.
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 Freuder Knopfler OBE (74), British singer, songwriter (Dire Straits), musician, and record producer, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1966 – Leslie Ferdinand MBE (57), English football coach, former professional footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur) and television pundit, born in London.
1971 – Pete Sampras (52), American former world No. 1 tennis player, born in Potomac, Maryland, United States.
1988 – Tyson Fury (35), British professional boxer. He has held the WBC heavyweight title since 2020, born in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, England.
1992 – Cara Delevingne (31), English model and actress (Valerian, Suicide Squad), born in Hammersmith, London.
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 – The death of Ian Fleming, the English novelist best known for his James Bond series of spy novels.
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.
Historical events
1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
1676 – The war between English Colonists and Native Americans in New England ended.
1762 – King George IV was born.
1851 – Isaac Singer was granted his patent for a commercial sewing machine. Although Singer’s sewing machines made him famous, this wasn’t his first-ever patent. Singer’s first patent was granted in 1839, and it was for a machine to drill rock. Also on this day… 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’.
1877 – British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley reached the mouth of the Congo River (Second largest river in Africa).
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