August 9th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 222 of the year! Known as Book Lovers Day, Hand Holding Day, Rice Pudding Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of November 16th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
1984 – Daley Thompson of Great Britain scores 8,797 points to win the Olympic decathlon in Los Angeles and broke the world record for the event four times. He was unbeaten in competition for nine years.
Todays birthdays
1944 – Sam Elliott (80), American actor (Roadhouse, Tombstone, We Were Soldiers), born in Sacramento, California, United States.
1954 – Pete Thomas (70), English rock drummer (Elvis Costello and the Attractions – “Olivers Army”), born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
1959 – Michael Korrs (65), American fashion designer, born in Long Island, New York, United States.
1968 – Gillian Anderson (56), American actress (X-Files, The Crown, The Fall), born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
1990 – Bill Skarsgård (34), Swedish actor (Pennywise – It, It Chapter Two), born in Vällingby, Stockholm, Sweden.
Famous deaths
2022 – Olivia Newton-John (b. 1948), English-Australian singer-songwriter (“Xanadu”, “Physical”) and actress (Grease, Two of a Kind).
The day today
1945 – American forces made a second attack on Japan during World War II and dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
1963 – ITV transmitted the first edition of the pop music programme Ready Steady Go, presented by Cathy McGowan to rival the BBC’s Top of the Pops.
1979 – Brighton becomes the first major resort in Britain to agree to set aside part of its seafront to nudists.
1984 – Daley Thompson won the Olympic decathlon at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.
2006 – At least 24 suspected terrorists were arrested in an overnight operation. The arrests were in relation to a plot to detonate liquid explosives carried on board at least 10 airliners travelling from Britain to the United States and Canada. In July 2010 three men were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to murder.
Today in music
1975 – The Bee Gees started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Jive Talkin’, the group’s second US No.1 it made No.5 in the UK.
1980 – ABBA scored their eighth UK No.1 single with ‘The Winner Takes It All’. Taken from their ‘Super Trouper’ album. By this time, both couples were divorced. Also on this day; AC/DC scored their first UK No.1 album with Back In Black. It was the first AC/DC album recorded without former lead singer Bon Scott (who died on 19 February 1980 at the age of 33), and was dedicated to him. The album has sold an estimated 49 million copies worldwide to date, making it the second highest selling album of all time, and the best selling hard rock or heavy metal album, as well as the best selling album ever released by a band.
2005 – The Magic Numbers walked out of an appearance on UK music show Top Of The Pops after presenter Richard Bacon said the band had been put in a “fat melting pot of talent.” The band left the studio in protest at the “derogatory, unfunny remarks”.
2007 – Amy Winehouse cancelled a series of European shows after being admitted to hospital suffering from “severe exhaustion”. The 23-year-old singer was taken to University College London Hospital and later discharged. In the past few weeks she had pulled out of the T in the Park festival – also citing “exhaustion”, Liverpool’s Summer Pops event and concerts in Norway and Denmark.
2015 – Little Mix were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Black Magic’. It was released as the lead single from their third studio album, Get Weird.
Today in history
1173 – The foundations for the Tower of Pisa were placed in Italy.
1721 – Prisoners at Newgate Jail, London, were used as ‘guinea pigs’ to test vaccines used against disease. The prison was demolished in 1904.
1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer was born. He built the Menai suspension bridge in Wales plus a further 1200 bridges and more than 1000 miles of roads in Britain. The town of Telford in Shropshire is named after him.
1796 – Horatio Nelson captured from the French, the island of Elba, to which Napoleon Bonaparte was later exiled.
1870 – The Elementary Education Act was passed. It gave compulsory, free education to every child in England and Wales between the age of five and 13.