August 24th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 237 of the year! Known as Sponge Cake Day, Cheap Flight Day, Slavery Remembrance Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 1st in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Peridot.
2016 – Astronomers announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet named Proxima b. The planet orbits the nearest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, 4.22 lightyears away.
Todays birthdays
1957 – Stephen Fry (67), English actor (Blackadder), broadcaster, comedian (A Bit of Fry and Laurie), director, audiobook narrator and writer born in Hampstead, London.
1958 – Steve Guttenberg (66), American actor (Police Academy, Three Men and a Baby, Cocoon), producer and director born in New York, United States.
1961 – Mark “Bedders” Bedford (63), English rock-ska bassist (Madness – “House Of Fun”), born in Islington, London.
1963 – Hideo Kojima (61), Japanese director, screenwriter and video game designer (Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding), born in Tokyo, Japan.
1988 – Rupert Grint (36), English actor, known for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, born in Harlow, Essex.
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
1967 – Two penguins from Chessington Zoo were taken on a day trip to a local ice-rink to cool off during sweltering London temperatures.
1981 – American Mark Chapman was given a 20 year sentence for shooting John Lennon, the former member of the British group, The Beatles – in New York. Chapman has applied for parole every two years since 2000. All the applications have been rejected.
1985 – Five year old John Shorthouse was shot dead in Birmingham after armed officers stormed into his house looking for his father.
1998 – Britain, the United States and the Netherlands agreed to put two Libyans on trial for planting the bomb which blew up a Pan Am airliner over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all those on board and several on the ground.
2014 – The death, aged 90, of Richard Attenborough, who championed the British film business for more than 60 years as an actor, director and prolific movie-maker. He won two Academy Awards for directing and producing Gandhi in 1983.
Today in music
1975 – Queen started recording ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at Rockfield studio’s in Monmouth, Wales, (the song was recorded over three weeks). Freddie Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.
1985 – Huey Lewis and the News started a two week run at No.1 on the singles chart with ‘The Power Of Love’, as featured in the movie Back To The Future.
1991 – Lenny Kravitz was at No.2 in the singles chart with ‘It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over’, held off the No.1 position by Bryan Adams ‘(Everything I Do), I Do It for You’.
1996 – ‘Missing’ by UK duo Everything But The Girl broke the all-time US chart stay record previously held by The Four Seasons’ ‘December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)’, when it appeared on the Billboard chart for the 55th week.
2019 – Billie Eilish ended the record-breaking 19-week run of ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus when ‘Bad Guy’ claimed the top spot on the US Hot 100 chart. The song which peaked at No.2 on the UK chart was also a No.1 hit in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Russia.
Today in history
1456 – The first printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.
Johannes Gutenberg invented one of the first printing presses in Germany and spent four years creating the printing plates for the Gutenberg Bible. This Bible was one of the first books ever printed.
1482 – The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed were captured from Scotland by an English army. The border town has remained English ever since.
1662 – The second statute of the Act of Uniformity required England to accept the Book of Common Prayer in religious service. Upwards of 2000 clergy refused to comply with the act, and were forced to resign.
1759 – William Wilberforce, English philanthropist, was born. He campaigned for many important causes, most notably the abolition of slavery in Britain and its colonies.
1814 – British forces led by Major-General Robert Ross captured Washington, D.C. After defeating American forces at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, the British set fire to many federal buildings, including the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington Navy Yard.