August 13th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 226 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 20th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
1910 – The death of Florence Nightingale, English nurse who came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers.
Todays birthdays
1933 – Madhur Jaffrey (91), Indian-born British actress, food and travel writer (Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavours of India), born in Delhi, India.
1958 – Feargal Sharkey (66), Irish punk rock singer (The Undertones – “My Perfect Cousin”; Solo – “A Good Heart”), born in Derry, Northern Ireland.
1960 – Phil Taylor (64), English former professional darts player, widely considered the greatest darts player of all time. Nicknamed The Power, born in Stoke-on-Trent.
1970 – Alan Shearer (54), English former professional footballer (Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United) and broadcaster (BBC), born in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.
1974 – Joe Perry (50), English professional snooker player nicknamed “the Gentleman”, born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
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
1913 – The first production in the UK of stainless steel by Sheffield born Harry Brearley. Brearley’s life had humble beginnings. He was the son of a steel melter and left school at the age of twelve to enter his first employment as a labourer in one of the city’s steelworks.
1915 – The ‘Brides In The Bath’ murderer George Joseph Smith, who drowned his brides in a zinc bath after ensuring their finances were in his favour, was hanged.
1964 – The last hangings in Britain took place when two men, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen, were hanged for the murder of John Alan West, a laundry van driver from Seaton, Cumbria. Evans was hung at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison at 8:00 a.m. and at exactly the same time, Peter Allen was hung at Liverpool’s Walton Prison.
1991 – Britain introduced the Dangerous Dog Act in which aggressive dogs must be muzzled and held on a leash in public.
2012 – If Yorkshire was regarded as an independent country, it was calculated that it would have finished 12th out of the 204 competing countries in the medals table at the London Olympics! The county won seven gold medals, two silver and three bronze.
Today in music
1964 – The Supremes recorded ‘Baby Love’, written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song went on to be the group’s first UK No.1 and second US chart topper.
1983 – KC and the Sunshine Band were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Give It Up’. The American disco group’s only UK chart topper spent three weeks at No.1
1994 – Members from Oasis and The Verve were arrested after smashing up a hotel bar and breaking into a church to steal communion wine. Both bands had been appearing at Hulsfred Festival in Sweden.
2004 – ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams was voted the best single which should have been a No.1 but never was, in a poll for VH1. The ballad, which reached No.4 in December 1997, beat Savage Garden’s ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ and Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.’ Other songs said to have deserved a No.1 included Madonna with ‘Ray of Light’, ‘Beautiful Stranger’, ‘Crazy For You’ and ‘Material Girl’, Bon Jovi with ‘Always’ and Oasis with ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Live Forever’. Sir Cliff Richard’s hit ‘Millennium Prayer’ was voted the worst No.1 single of all time.
2007 – Amy Winehouse pulled out of two Rolling Stones gigs in Hamburg Germany citing exhaustion, British group Starsailor replaced Winehouse for the shows.
Today in history
1608 – English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England John Smith, famous for setting up the first permanent English colony in the New World, told the first stories about Jamestown in Virginia.
1704 – French and Bavarian forces were routed by a combined British, German and Dutch army at the Battle of Blenheim, in Bavaria . The victors lost 6,000 soldiers compared with 21,000 French and Bavarian troops. Blenheim has gone down in history as one of the turning points of the War of the Spanish Succession.
1784 – Parliament accepts East India Company Act 1784, bringing the East India Company’s rule in India under the control of the British Government.
1809 – The birth, in Much Wenlock (Shropshire) of William Penny Brookes, English surgeon who was especially known for inspiring the modern Olympic Games, the Wenlock Olympian Games and for his promotion of physical education and personal betterment.
1814 – The Cape of Good Hope Province became a British colony when it was given over to the British by the Dutch for £6 million.