August 6th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 219 of the year! Known as Farmworker Appreciation Day, Hiroshima Day, Fresh Breath Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of November 13th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
2012 – Pioneering astronomer and physicist Sir Bernard Lovell, the founder of University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory died, aged 98.
Todays birthdays
1963 – Charles Ingram (61), English fraudster (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), novelist and former British Army major, born in Shardlow, Derbyshire.
1972 – Geri Halliwell (52), British pop singer, songwriter “Ginger Spice” (Spice Girls), born in Watford, London.
1976 – Melissa George (48), Australian actress (Home and Away, Paradise Lost, Grey’s Anatomy), born in Perth, Australia.
1983 – Robin van Persie (41), Dutch footballer (Netherlands, Arsenal, Manchester United), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
1990 – Ferne McCann (34), English model, television personality and presenter (The Only Way Is Essex), born in Brentwood, Essex.
Famous deaths
2004 – Rick James (b. 1948), American singer-songwriter and producer (“Super Freak”, “Party All the Time” – sung by Eddie Murphy).
2012 – Bernard Lovell (b. 1913), English physicist and astronomer (founder of University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory).
The day today
1914 – World War I: The first Battle of the Atlantic took place. Two days after war had been declared war on Germany over their invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats left their base in Helgoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
1949 – The ‘acid bath murderer’ John Haigh was executed. He was convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed a total of nine, dissolving their bodies in concentrated sulphuric acid before forging papers in order to sell their possessions and collect substantial sums of money.
1962 – Jamaica became independent, after being a British colony for 300 years.
1971 – After being the first man to sail the world non-stop in the wrong direction, Chay Blyth returned to the UK.
Usually, the race would go with the winds, from west to east; however, Blyth decided to do it the opposite way and became the first man to complete a full loop. In 1992 Blyth created the first “wrong way” yacht race around the world, and since then, this race has been held every four years.
2009 – The funeral service took place at Wells Cathedral for Britain’s last World War I veteran Harry Patch, aged 111.
Today in music
1960 – Chubby Checker appeared on US TV show American Bandstand and performed ‘The Twist.’ The song went to No.1 on the US chart and again 18 months later in 1962. It is the only song to go to the top of the charts on two separate occasions.
1988 – Yazz and the Plastic Population started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Only Way Is Up’. The song was originally released as the title track to the 1982 album by soul singer Otis Clay.
1994 – Lisa Loeb started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Stay (I Missed You), a No.6 hit in the UK. Actor and friend Ethan Hawke had asked her to provide a song for the upcoming movie Reality Bites and ‘Stay’ was featured in the film.
2001 – Whitney Houston became one of the highest-paid musicians in the world after signing a new deal with Arista records, said to be worth more than $100m.
2004 – Rick James was found dead at his Los Angeles home. Known as ‘The King of Punk-Funk’ James scored the 1981 US No.3 album ‘Street Songs’ and 1981 US No.16 single ‘Super Freak part 1’. In the late 60s James worked as a songwriter and producer for Motown, working with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Addicted to cocaine, he once admitted to spending $7,000 a week on drugs for five years.
Today in history
1504 – Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury was born. He had an extremely long nose and was extremely inquisitive, hence the expression ‘Nosy Parker’.
1623 – Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare died. She was buried next to her husband in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.
1809 – Alfred Tennyson, English poet was born. He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, (after Shakespeare). Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, and “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die”.
1880 – In a remarkable race at the Astley Stakes in Lewes, East Sussex, 5 of the 9 horses passed the winning post virtually simultaneously. The judge declared a triple dead heat for first place, with a double dead heat for fourth.
1889 – The Savoy Hotel in London was opened.