August 1st "2023" daily prep

Welcome to day 213 of the year! Known as Planner Day, Mahjong Day, World Lung Cancer Day & Raspberry Cream Pie Day. If you were born today, you were likely conceived the week of November 8th 2022 and have the star sign “Leo”.
2017 – The reopening, after a £19 million restoration, of the Piece Hall in Halifax, one of Britain’s most outstanding Georgian buildings.
Todays birthdays
1965 – Sam Mendes (58), British stage and film director (1917, American Beauty, Skyfall), born in Reading, Berkshire, England.
1969 – Graham Thorpe (54), former English cricketer (England, Surrey), born in Farnham, Surrey, England.
1970 – David James (53), English former professional goalkeeper (England, Manchester City, Liverpool), born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.
1979 – Jason Momoa (44), American actor (Game of Thrones, Aquaman), born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
1984 – Bastian Schweinsteiger (39), German former professional footballer (Bayern Munich), born in Kolbermoor, Germany.
The day today
1992 – Linford Christie, 32, becomes the oldest man to win an Olympic 100m gold medal in Barcelona.
1994 – Thousands of historic documents and more than 100,000 books are destroyed in a blaze at Norwich Central Library.
1999 – Ronan Keating scored his first UK No.1 solo single with the song When You Say Nothing At All.
2008 – Barry George was found not guilty of the murder of BBC television presenter Jill Dando outside her London home. He was first convicted in 2001 but an Old Bailey retrial was ordered after doubt was cast on the reliability of gunshot residue evidence.
2012 – Eight female badminton doubles players are disqualified from the Olympics in London for attempting to manipulate the draw by throwing matches.
Today in music
1987 – MTV Europe was launched, the first video played being ‘Money For Nothing’ by Dire Straits which contained the appropriate line ‘I Want My MTV’.
1998 – The Spice Girls scored their seventh UK No.1 single with ‘Viva Forever’. The song was originally set to be released alongside the track ‘Never Give Up on the Good Times’ as a double A-Side which was pulled as member Geri Halliwell left the group.
2000 – Madonna’s forthcoming single ‘Music’ had its release date brought forward by two weeks after the track was made available as an illegal MP3 file on the Internet.
2013 – The British government was trying to stop American Idol singer Kelly Clarkson from taking a rare turquoise and gold ring once owned by Jane Austen out of the country. The 2002 winner of the Idol TV show bought the jewellery at auction last year for more than £150,000, but Culture minister Ed Vaizey had put a temporary export bar on it saying he wanted the “national treasure” to be “saved for the nation”.
2015 – English singer, actress and entertainer Cilla Black died at her holiday home near Marbella, Spain, aged 72.
Historical events
1774 – Chemist Joseph Priestly discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state.
1793 – France becomes the first country to use the metric system.
1798 – The Royal Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson attacks and decimates the French fleet at Aboukir Bay off the Nile Delta.
1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
1936 – The Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
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