Thursday, August 28th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 240, known as National Bow Tie Day, Power Rangers Day. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Peridot.
2016 – The last remaining 22 branches of BHS closed, bringing an end to 88 years of British retail history. The department store’s collapse in April led to the loss of 11,000 jobs.
Todays birthdays
1961 – Jennifer Coolidge (64), American actress (2 Broke Girls), best known for playing Stifler’s mom in American Pie, born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
1961 – Kim Appleby (64), English singer, songwriter and half of the pop duo Mel and Kim (“Respectable”), born in Stoke Newington, London.
1965 – Shania Twain (60), Canadian singer-songwriter (“You’re Still The One”, “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”), born in Windsor, Canada.
1968 – Billy Boyd (57), Scottish actor best known for his role as Peregrin “Pippin” Took in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1969 – Jack Black (56), American actor (School of Rock, Shallow Hal), comedian and musician (Tenacious D), born in Santa Monica, California, United States.
1982 – LeAnn Rimes (43), American singer, songwriter and actress (“Can’t Fight the Moonlight”), born in Mississippi, United States.
1986 – Florence Welch (39), English singer-songwriter and lead singer with indie rock band, Florence and the Machine (“Dog Days Are Over”), born in Camberwell, London.
Famous deaths
2004 – Laura Branigan
(b. 1952), American singer (“Gloria”, “Self Control”).
2024 – Sven-Göran Eriksson (b. 1948), Swedish footballer and manager, the first non-British manager of the England football team.
The day today
1981 – For the third time in 10 days, a world record in the mile run was set. Sebastian Coe, who broke Steve Ovett’s record on August 19th and lost it to Ovett on August 26th , broke it again – by a full second – in Brussels, Belgium. Coe’s new record time was 3:47.33.
1986 – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was at the re-opening of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in which she and Conservative Party members had been staying in 1983 when it was bombed by the IRA.
1994 – Thousands of shops throughout England and Wales opened legally for the first time on a Sunday, following a change in the Sunday trading laws.
1996 – The divorce of Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Diana was finalized in a decree absolute issued in London’s High Court. Under the terms of the divorce settlement, Diana was stripped of her ‘Royal Highness’ title.
2003 – An electricity blackout cut off power to around 500,000 people living in the south east England and brought 60% of London’s underground rail network to a halt.
2004 – British athlete Kelly Holmes secured a place in Olympic history by winning the 1500m gold in Athens. Holmes also won the 800m earlier and thus became the first Olympic Briton in 84 years to achieve the middle-distance double.
2013 – Leeds businessman Lee Beaumont who became tired of ‘cold calls’ offering to help him reclaim payment protection insurance (PPI), or install solar panels set up his home phone as a premium rate 0871 number. Companies who phone him now spend 10p per minute on calls, from which he receives 7p. The number of ‘cold calls’ to his 0871 number fell by 66% in one month.
2016 – The last remaining 22 branches of BHS closed, bringing an end to 88 years of British retail history. The department store’s collapse in April led to the loss of 11,000 jobs, affected 22,000 pensions, sparked a lengthy parliamentary inquiry, and left its high-profile former owners potentially facing a criminal investigation. The company had 164 stores throughout the United Kingdom at the time it entered administration, and 74 international stores across 18 separate territories.
Today in music
1965 – The Beach Boys ‘California Girls’ was at No.3 on the US singles chart, the single peaked at No.26 in the UK.
1968 – The Beach Boys were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Do It Again’. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love it became the group’s second and final UK No.1.
1968 – Simon And Garfunkel started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Bookends’. The duo’s fourth studio album featured ‘America’, ‘Mrs. Robinson’ and ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’.
1972 – Alice Cooper was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘School’s Out’. 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.”
1988 – Kylie Minogue set a new UK record when her debut album Kylie, became the biggest selling album by a female artist in Britain, with sales of almost 2 million.
1993 – German-based multi-national dance act Culture Beat started a four-week run at No.1 in the UK singles chart with ‘Mr Vain’ sung by British singer, Tania Evans.
2005 – Green Day cleaned up at that years MTV awards held in Miami winning seven awards including, Video of the Year for ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ and the Viewer’s Choice Award. Best Choreography went to Gwen Stefani for ‘Hollaback Girl’ and Breakthrough Video went to Gorillaz for ‘Feel Good Inc.’ The awards went ahead despite concerns over Hurricane Katrina, which hit Florida the previous week.
2009 – Noel Gallagher quit Oasis saying he could no longer work with his brother Liam. Noel, the group’s lead guitarist and chief songwriter, had recently been involved in a series of rows with Liam, and admitted he and his brother rarely spoke, did not travel together and only saw each other on stage.
Today in history
1207 – King John of England grants the small town of Liverpool a charter which gave it right to elect a mayor and aldermen (a member of a municipal council).
1609 – Henry Hudson, an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada is the first European to sail into Delaware Bay which he named South Bay.
1640 – The Scots, under Sir Alexander Leslie, defeated royalist English forces under Lord Conway at the battle of Newburn near Newcastle. Newcastle was then occupied by the Scots in the English-Scottish wars.
1833 – The House of Commons approved the Abolition Act, introduced earlier by Thomas Buxton, abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire.
1837 – Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins start to manufacture Worcestershire Sauce. On 16 October 1897, Lea & Perrins relocated manufacturing of the sauce from their pharmacy in Broad Street to a factory in the city of Worcester on Midland Road, where it is still made.