Thursday, August 21st "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 233, known as International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, National Senior Citizens Day. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
2017 – Restoration work halted the chimes of Big Ben from noon, for four years of conservation work on the Elizabeth Tower. The Tower is 96 metres high and home to the bells that make up the Great Clock, the most photographed building in Britain.
Todays birthdays
1956 – Kim Cattrall (69), British-Canadian actress (Big Trouble in Little China, Sex and the City, Mannequin, Police Academy), born in Mossley Hill, Liverpool.
1967 – Carrie-Anne Moss (58), Canadian actress (The Matrix franchise, Unthinkable, Memento), born in Burnaby, Canada.
1968 – Dina Carroll (57), English singer and songwriter (“Don’t Be a Stranger”), born in Newmarket, Suffolk.
1971 – Liam Howlett (54), English musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic dance group The Prodigy (“Breathe”), born in Braintree, Essex.
1979 – Kelis Rogers (46), American singer and songwriter (“Milkshake”), born in Harlem, New York, United States.
1986 – Usain Bolt (39), Jamaican sprinter, 8x Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay, born in Jamaica.
1993 – Millie Bright (32), English professional footballer who plays as a defender for Chelsea and the England national team, born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
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 best known for his roles as Inspector Blake in 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
1914 – Private John Parr became the first British man to be shot and killed during World War I. Official registers showed that he was 20 years old but, like many young soldiers, he had lied about his age and he was just 16.
1976 – At the age of 25, Mary Langdon became Britain’s first female firefighter when she joined the East Sussex Brigade leaving in 1983.
1988 – More flexible licensing laws allowed public houses to stay open 12 hours in the day, except on Sunday.
1990 – British conservationist George Adamson, famous for his work with lions featured in the film “Born Free”, was murdered by bandits in Kenya near his camp in Kora National Park. He was 83 years old.
1996 – The new Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Southwark, London, opened with a production of Two Gentlemen of Verona.
2015 – A 108-year-old message in a bottle washed up on a beach in Amrum, Germany. The bottle was one of around 1,000 released in the UK as part of an experiment run by the Marine Biological Association of the UK.
2017 – Restoration work halted the chimes of Big Ben from noon, for four years of conservation work on the Elizabeth Tower. The Tower is 96 metres high and home to the bells that make up the Great Clock, the most photographed building in Britain. The Great Bell, popularly called Big Ben, weighs 13.7 tonnes and has struck every hour with almost unbroken service for 157 years. It is accompanied by four quarter bells, which weigh between 1 and 4 tonnes each and chime every 15 minutes.
2023 – The 33-year-old nurse, Lucy Letby, who had been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016 was given a whole life prison term, with no chance of parole. Letby, a band five nurse, qualified to care for babies in intensive care, became the most prolific child killer in modern U.K. history and only the fourth woman to have ever been given a whole life term, the others being Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, and Joanna Dennehy.
Today in music
1961 – Tamla Records released the Marvelettes first single, ‘Please Mr. Postman’. The song went on to sell over a million copies and become the group’s biggest hit, reaching the top of both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts. The song is notable as the first Motown song to reach the No.1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart.
1961 – Patsy Cline recorded the classic Willie Nelson song, ‘Crazy’. Cline was still on crutches after going through a car windshield in a head-on collision two months earlier and had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song at first due to her broken ribs. ‘Crazy’ spent 21 weeks on the chart and eventually became one of her signature tunes.
1968 – Tommy James and The Shondells returned to the UK No.1 position for the second time with the single ‘Mony Mony’. In a peculiar twist, in 1987 Billy Idol’s version of the song replaced another Tommy James hit at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’, covered by Tiffany.
1976 – The Rolling Stones, 10CC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and Hot Tuna all appeared at The Knebworth Festival, Hertfordshire, England, tickets £4.50.
1997 – Oasis’ third album ‘Be Here Now’, became one of the fastest selling albums ever, shifting over 350,000 units on the first day of release. The cover image for Be Here Now was shot at Stocks House in Hertfordshire, the former home of Victor Lownes, the head of the Playboy Clubs in the UK.
2002 – Atomic Kitten were facing legal action after sacking Andy McCluskey, the songwriter who wrote the bands first No.1 ‘Whole Again.’ The band were about to be dropped by Innocent records when they recorded the song that became a huge hit. The girls then wanted a bigger share of royalties, which McCluskey had turned down. Under the original deal each girl got 4p from the sale of one single.
2013 – It was reported that Beyoncé had spent almost £1,500 at an Essex branch of chicken chain Nando’s following her performance at the V Festival in the UK. The headliner’s receipt was posted on Twitter and Nando’s Chelmsford manager confirmed a member of Beyonce’s entourage called in with the order. The order included 48 whole chickens, 24 tubs of coleslaw, 58 chicken wing platters and 48 portions of chips. The receipt showed the meal was apparently paid for in cash.
2024 – Taylor Swift finished the European leg of her Eras Tour with a record-breaking show at Wembley Stadium. It was Swift’s eighth concert at Wembley this summer – overtaking a record for any solo singer, which was set by Michael Jackson with his Bad Tour in 1988. The star’s eighth Wembley show also saw her equal the overall record for the most nights at the venue on a single tour, set by Take That on their Progress Tour in 2011.
Today in history
1673 – The naval battle of Texel took place in the North Sea. The battle was between the Dutch Republic and the combined Engish and French fleets. The winner was unclear, but the fight claimed 3,000 lives.
1689 – The Battle of Dunkeld took place, between Jacobite clans supporting the deposed King James VII of Scotland and a government regiment of covenanters, led by the 27 year old Colonel William Cleland supporting William of Orange, King of Scotland. Fighting took place in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral and the Jacobites were routed, having lost around 300 men. Losses on the government side are unclear, but they included Colonel Cleland, who is buried in the cathedral.
1754 – The birth of William Murdock, Scottish engineer and long-term inventor who invented the oscillating steam engine and coal-gas lighting. He was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham. Murdoch remained an employee and later a partner of Boulton & Watt until the 1830s, but his reputation as an inventor has been obscured by the reputations of Boulton and Watt and the firm they founded.
1756 – The birth of William IV, the third son of George III. William was the last king and the penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover, Victoria being the last monarch.
1808 – The Battle of Vimeiro in which the British and Portuguese forces under General Arthur Wellesley (later known as the Duke of Wellington) defeated the French under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro in Portugal. The battle put an end to the first French invasion of Portugal.
1858 – Victoria Cross winner Sir Sam Browne invented the Sam Browne belt to hold his sword and pistol after he had lost an arm in action. It soon became standard military kit.