December 22nd "2023" daily prep
Welcome to day 356 of the year! Known as National Short Person Day and Be a Lover of Silence Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of March 30th. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
2010 – The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, was being recognised for its “cultural and historical importance” following advice from English Heritage.
Todays birthdays
1948 – Noel Edmonds (75), English television presenter (Deal or No Deal, Telly Addicts), radio DJ (Radio Luxembourg, BBC Radio 1), writer and producer, born in Ilford, East London.
1957 – Richard “Ricky” Ross (66), Scottish musician and lead singer of the rock band Deacon Blue (“Dignity”), born in Dundee, Scotland.
1962 – Ralph Fiennes (61), English actor (The Menu, Harry Potter, Schindler’s List), born in Ipswich, Suffolk.
1970 – Gary Anderson (53), Scottish professional darts player (two time World Champion winning the title in 2015 and 2016), born in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland.
1993 – Meghan Trainor (30), American singer-songwriter (“All About That Bass”, “Lips Are Movin”), born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States.
The day today
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signed the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon. It was the world’s first, long-range weapon and was developed specifically to target London and later Antwerp. Over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets against Allied targets during the war.
1971 – Doctors Without Borders was founded in Paris by French doctors and journalists.
Also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the humanitarian non-governmental organization has since been one of the most active medical organizations across the world’s conflict zones.
1989 – Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate reopens after 30 years, symbolically ending the east-west division of Germany. Also on this day, writer Samuel Beckett dies aged 83.
1974 – The Provisional IRA threw a bomb onto the 1st floor balcony of the home of the Conservative leader and former Prime Minister Edward Heath. He arrived home 10 minutes after the bomb exploded.
2014 – A grey seal was spotted in a farmer’s field in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, 20 miles inland. The disorientated animal was captured and transferred to a wildlife centre in Nantwich, Cheshire.
Today in music
1962 – Acker Bilk’s ‘Stranger On The Shore’ finally dropped off the UK charts after 55 weeks. That record would stand until 1968 when Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘Release Me’ stayed for 56. The current record is held by Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, which charted for 75 non-consecutive weeks.
1972 – Little Jimmy Osmond was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Long Haired Lover From Liverpool.’ At nine years eight months of age it made him the youngest person to have a No.1 record, also the biggest seller of 1972.
1973 – Elton John started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, it also had a eight week run at No.1 on the US chart. The album contains the Marilyn Monroe tribute, ‘Candle in the Wind’, as well as three successful singles: ‘Bennie and the Jets’, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, and ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’.
1984 – Madonna started a six-week run at No.1 in the US charts with ‘Like A Virgin’, her first US No.1. Produced by Nile Rodgers, family groups sought to ban the song as they believed that the song promoted sex without marriage.
2010 – The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, the first of its kind to be listed, was being recognised for its “cultural and historical importance” following advice from English Heritage. The Beatles were photographed on Abbey Road in Ian Macmillan’s iconic cover shot for the 1969 album Abbey Road.
Today in history
1135 – The crowning of King Stephen. King Henry I left no legitimate heirs and named his eldest daughter, Matilda as his heir. When Henry died, Stephen of Blois (Matilda’s cousin) invaded England, and in a coup d’etat had himself crowned instead of Matilda. The period which followed is known as The Anarchy, as parties supporting each side fought in open warfare , both in Britain and on the continent for the better part of two decades.
1550 – The death of Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell). Shortly before the Battle of Bosworth (Richard – then aged 16) was taken to see King Richard III at his encampment. The King informed the boy that he was his son, and told him to watch the battle from a safe vantage point, telling him that, if he won, he would acknowledge him as his son. If he lost, the boy was told that he had to forever conceal his identity. King Richard was killed in the battle, the boy fled to London and was apprenticed to a bricklayer, but kept up the Latin he had learned by reading during his work.
1715 – James Edward Stuart, son of James II, the deposed Catholic King of England, landed at Petershead in north-east Scotland, after his exile in France, to lead a Jacobite rebellion against England. The rebellion failed.
1716 – Lincoln’s Inn Theatre in London put on England’s first pantomime which included the characters Harlequin, Columbine and Pantaloon.
1880 – The death of George Eliot (real name Mary Anne Evans), English novelist and poet and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She visited Gainsborough in 1859 and renamed the town St. Oggs in her novel “The Mill on the Floss”.
Fact of the day
Two of Santa’s reindeer originally had different names. In the 1823 poem, A Visit from Saint Nicholas, which originally introduced the world to Santa’s reindeer, two of the flying creatures had slightly different names. Donner and Blitzen were instead Dunder and Blixem, a Dutch way of referring to “thunder and lightning.”