December 24th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 359 of the “leap” year! Known as Christmas Eve, Last-Minute Shopper’s Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1914 – Late on Christmas Eve, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man’s land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football.
Todays birthdays
1960 – Carol Vorderman (64), Welsh broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her career began in 1982 when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, born in Bedford.
1969 – Ed Milliband (55), British politician (Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024) and former Leader of the Labour Party, born in Fitzrovia, London.
1971 – Ricky Martin (53), Puerto Rican singer (“Livin’ La Vida Loca”), and songwriter, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1991 – Louis Tomlinson (33), English singer who rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful”), born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
1992 – Melissa Suffield (32), English actress known for her role in the BBC soap opera EastEnders as Lucy Beale. She appeared on the show from 2004 to 2010, born in London.
Famous deaths
2016 – Liz Smith (b. 1921), English actress best known as Letitia Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley and as Norma (“Nana”) in The Royle Family.
2016 – Rick Parfitt (b. 1948), British musician best known as a rhythm guitarist, singer and songwriter with rock band Status Quo.
The day today
1965 – A meteorite weighing about 100 lb (45kg) was the largest to fall on Britain and landed in the village of Barwell, Leicestershire.
1979 – The first European Ariane rocket was launched. It had been officially agreed upon at the end of 1973 after delicate discussions between France, Germany and Britain. The project was Western Europe’s second attempt to develop its own launcher, following the unsuccessful Europa project.
1988 – Three North Sea oil fields were shut down after a giant floating storage vessel, the Medora, broke free of its moorings in gale-force winds.
2013 – Alan Turing, the World War Two codebreaker at Bletchley Park was granted a Royal pardon over his homosexuality conviction. The work done at Bletchley Park, particularly the codebreaking feats of Alan Turing, were credited with shortening the Second World War by several years. In August 2014 a film ‘The Imitation Game’ was released, based on the biography ‘Alan Turing: The Enigma’.
2018 – Because of ongoing major conservation work on Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, the bell of Rochdale Town Hall replaced the usual chimes of Big Ben on BBC Radio 4 news bulletins. The Rochdale bell was selected, in part, because it uses the same ‘Westminster chime’ as Big Ben.
Today in music
1967 – The Bee Gees performed their Christmas special ‘live’ from Liverpool Cathedral, England which was broadcast on UK TV.
1972 – On the second UK leg of his 182 date Ziggy Stardust Tour, David Bowie played the second of two nights at the Rainbow Theatre, London. This tour had the classic Spiders From Mars line up of Mick Ronson on guitar, vocals, Trevor Bolder, bass and Mick “Woody” Woodmansey on drums.
1977 – The Bee Gees started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, the group’s 4th US No.1. It stayed in the top 10 for 17 weeks giving it the longest chart run in history, a No.3 in the UK.
2016 – Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt died in hospital in Marbella, Spain aged 68. He died from a severe infection after going to hospital, following complications to a shoulder injury. His partnership with Francis Rossi became the core of Status Quo, one of Britain’s most enduring bands. Status Quo had over 60 chart hits in the UK, more than any other rock band, including “Pictures of Matchstick Men” in 1967, “Whatever You Want” in 1979 and “In the Army Now” in 2010. Twenty-two of these reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. In July 1985 the band opened Live Aid at Wembley Stadium with “Rockin’ All Over the World”.
2021 – LadBaby made chart history when his song ‘Sausage Rolls for Everyone’, a sausage roll-themed parody of Ed Sheeran and Elton John’s No.1 single ‘Merry Christmas’ and also featuring Sheeran and John, debuted at No.1 in the UK Singles Chart. It gave the Nottingham-born YouTuber and musician his fourth consecutive Christmas No.1 single. LadBaby became only the second act in history, after The Beatles, to secure four Christmas No.1 singles, but was the very first to achieve four consecutive Christmas chart-toppers, surpassing the records of both The Beatles and The Spice Girls.
Today in history
1116 – The birth of King John, youngest son of Henry II, who was forced by the barons to sign the Magna Carta. When he tried to revoke his authorization, civil war broke out. He was jokingly nicknamed ‘Lackland’ as it seemed unlikely that John would ever inherit substantial lands.
1650 – Edinburgh Castle was once again under attack by the English led by Oliver Cromwell. After several months of siege, Edinburgh Castle was surrendered to Oliver Cromwell and the English forces. When Charles II was restored as King. He set up an army garrison in Edinburgh Castle that remained until the 1920’s.
1777 – British expolorer James Cook visited Christmas Island. Even though he was not the first explorer to discover Christmas Island, he was the one to give it the name “Christmas Island” since he visited the island on Christmas Eve. These days the island is officially called Kiritimati.
1814 – The war of 1812 between the US and Britain was brought to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
1828 – William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, went on trial in Edinburgh. The pair murdered at least 16 people during the period 1827-1828, selling the cadavers to Dr Robert Knox’s anatomy school.