Monday, August 4th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 216, known as National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Cook Islands Constitution Day, World Alternative Games Day. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
2012 – The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).
Todays birthdays
1947 – Paul Layton (78), English musician and vocalist with The New Seekers (“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”), born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton (70), American actor and director (Bad Santa, Tombstone, Armageddon, Pushing Tin), born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States.
1958 – Ian Broudie (67), English musician, singer and songwriter with The Lightning Seeds (“Three Lions”, “Lucky You”, “The Life Of Riley”), born in Liverpool.
1961 – Barack Obama (64), American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States.
1962 – Paul Reynolds (63), English singer and lead guitarist with new wave band A Flock of Seagulls (“I Ran”, “Transfer Affection”), born in Liverpool.
1968 – Lee Mack (57), English comedian, actor (Not Going Out, Would I Lie To You) and presenter (The 1% Club), born in Southport, Merseyside.
1981 – Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (44), American former actress (Suits) and wife of Prince Harry, born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Famous deaths
1962 – Marilyn Monroe (b. 1926), American actress (Some Like It Hot, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch) and model.
The day today
1914 – The United States of America declared neutrality at the beginning of World War I.
It wasn’t until April 2, 1917, that President Woodrow Wilson called for a declaration of war against Germany due to various military vessels’ attacks. After the vote, congress accepted, and war with Germany was declared on April 6.
1954 – Britain’s first supersonic fighter plane, the English Electric Lightning P-1, made its maiden flight.
1972 – President Idi Amin declared that Uganda would expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.
1989 – ‘Licence to Kill’ starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond, went on general cinema release in the United Kingdom. It was the sixteenth entry in the James Bond film series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel.
1991 – Greek-owned cruise ship “Oceanos” sank off the coast of South Africa due to uncontrollable flooding.
There were no fatalities however, some crew members were later convicted of negligence.
2000 – Celebrations took place all over the United Kingdom to mark the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was the first ever member of the Royal Family to reach her centenary.
2002 – Police in Soham, Cambridgeshire were ‘extremely concerned’ over the disappearance of two 10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Their school caretaker Ian Huntley was later found guilty of their murder.
2012 – The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).
2014 – People in the UK were encouraged to turn off their lights between 10pm and 11pm, leaving only a single light or candle for a symbolic act of reflection and hope in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of World War 1. On the eve of Britain officially entering the war, Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, uttered the words “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
2020 – 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, exploded. The blast, ignited by a warehouse fire, resulted in the tragic loss of 218 lives and left 7,000 people injured. This explosion was one of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts in history.
Today in music
1962 – The Rolling Stones played the first of 22 weekly shows at Ealing Jazz Club in Ealing, London. They were known as The Rollin’ Stones during this period.
1964 – The Kinks released ‘You Really Got Me’ on Pye Records in the UK. The influential distortion sound of the guitar was created after guitarist Dave Davies sliced the speaker cone of his guitar amplifier with a razor blade and poked it with a pin.
1966 – The Troggs were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘With A Girl Like You’, the group’s only UK No.1 single.
1975 – Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and his wife were both badly injured when the hire car he was driving spun off the road and crashed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant smashed both his ankle and his elbow, and was not fully fit for the best part of two years.
1996 – Oasis played two sold out nights at Balloch Castle Country Park, Loch Lomand, Scotland to over 80,000 fans. Oasis roadie James Hunter was crushed to death between a fork-lift truck and a lorry during the bands two days shows.
2000 – Craig David scored his second UK No.1 single with ‘7 Days’. At the age of 19, he became the youngest male artist to score two No.1’s since Donny Osmond in 1973.
2017 – ‘Despacito’ by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Justin Bieber became the most-watched YouTube video ever, passing the Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth collaboration ‘See You Again’ with nearly 3 billion views in just seven months.
2021 – Forbes reported that Rihanna was now the wealthiest female musician in the world and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer. Forbes estimated the singer was worth $1.7 billion with the bulk of her fortune coming from the value of Fenty Beauty, of which she owns 50%. Much of the rest was her stake in her lingerie company, Savage x Fenty, worth an estimated $270 million, and her earnings from her career as a chart-topping musician
Today in history
1265 – The Battle of Evesham (Worcestershire) took place, in which the army of Prince Edward, the future king Edward I of England, defeated the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. De Montfort and many of his allies were killed.
1347 – English troops under Edward III conquer Calais and becomes a strategic town for the English during Hundred Years’ War.
1693 – French monk Dom Pierre Pérignon accidentally made champagne. However, he wasn’t the first to discover this sparkling beverage as sparkling white wine had been around for many years, and other winemakers were producing champagne around the time. Pérignon contributed to the development of what we call champagne today; consequently, his name is one of the most well-known champagne brands.
1704 – Gibraltar was captured for the British by Admiral Sir George Rooke.
1792 – The birth of Percy Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets. In September 1812 Shelley, pursued by debtors and authorities who wished to question the poet about his radical political activities fled to Tremadog and lived at at Tan-yr-allt, the former home of William Madocks, the designer and builder of most of Tremadog.
1870 – The British Red Cross Society was founded, by Lord Wantage.