August 29th "2024" Daily Prep

Welcome to day 242 of the year! Known as National Lemon Juice Day, International Cabernet Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 6th in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Peridot.
Caeden Thomson, aged 7, who was born 12 weeks early and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, climbed to the top of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain. His parents had previously been told that Caeden would never sit, walk or talk.
2020 – Caeden Thomson, aged 7, who was born 12 weeks early and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, climbed to the top of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain. His parents had previously been told that Caeden would never sit, walk or talk.
Todays birthdays
1958 – Lenny Henry (66), British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer (The Lenny Henry Show), born in Dudley, West Midlands.
1959 – Eddi Reader (65), Scottish singer-songwriter and lead vocalist of Fairground Attraction (“Perfect”), born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1969 – Joe Swail (55), Northern Irish former professional snooker player (retired in May 2019 after being relegated from the tour), born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1973 – Vincent Cavanagh (51), English singer and guitarist best known as a co-founder of British rock band Anathema (“Fragile Dreams”), born in Liverpool.
1993 – Liam Payne (31), English pop singer who rose to fame with pop band, One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful”), born in Wolverhampton.
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
1918 – Britain’s first police strike began at midnight, as 6000 policemen campaigned for better pay.
1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda (40 miles west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean) were voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland. The entire archipelago is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and it became one of Scotland’s five World Heritage Sites in 1986.
1981 – Vandals slashed the picture of Diana, Princess of Wales hanging at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
2012 – The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. It was one of the largest multi-sport events ever held in the United Kingdom after the 2012 Summer Olympics. The mascot was called Mandeville after Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury. In 1948, Stoke Mandeville Hospital organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games, considered to be the precursor to the Paralympics.
2020 – Caeden Thomson, aged 7, who was born 12 weeks early and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, climbed to the top of Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain. His parents had previously been told that Caeden would never sit, walk or talk.
Today in music
1994 – Oasis released their debut album Definitely Maybe which went on to spend 177 weeks on the UK chart. It also became the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK and the album went on to sell over eight million copies worldwide.
1999 – Lou Bega went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Mambo No 5’, originally recorded and composed by Perez Prado in 1949.
2009 – The Los Angeles coroner confirmed Michael Jackson’s death was homicide, primarily caused by the powerful anaesthetic Propofol. The singer suffered a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home in June, aged 50.
2018 – Ariana Grande was at No.1 on the UK album chart with her fourth studio album Sweetener. The album which features guest appearances from Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj and Missy Elliott also topped the US charts and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album marking Grande’s first career Grammy win.
2019 – Noel Gallagher said he wanted to start a petition to break the Foo Fighters up. It followed Dave Grohl and co’s headline performance at the UK Reading Festival, at which the frontman and Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins told the crowd they wanted to start a petition to get Oasis to reunite.
Today in history
1782 – The British battleship HMS Royal George sank off Spithead with the loss of more than 900 crew while repairs were being carried out beneath the ship’s waterline.
1831 – Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated the first electrical transformer at the Royal Institute, London.
1833 – Legislation to settle child labour laws was passed in England. The legislation was called the ‘Factory Act’.
1842 – The Treaty of Nanking was signed between the British and the Chinese, ending the Opium War, and leasing the Hong Kong territories to Britain.
1882 – The England cricket team lost to Australia, in England, for the first time. An ‘obituary’ printed in the Sporting Times, talked of ‘the Ashes’ of English Cricket being taken back to Australia. Test Series between the two countries are now played for ‘The Ashes’.