December 27th "2023" daily prep
Welcome to day 361 of the year! Known as Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day, National Fruitcake Day, Visit The Zoo Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of April 5th. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1977 – Thousands of people flocked to UK cinemas to watch the long-awaited blockbuster, Star Wars. Sadly, Carrie Fisher also died on this day in 2016 of a sudden cardiac arrest.
Todays birthdays
1946 – Janet Street-Porter (77), English broadcaster (Loose Women, The F-Word), journalist (Daily Mail) and writer, born in Brentford, West London.
1948 – Gérard Depardieu (75), French actor (Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card), born in Châteauroux, France.
1960 – Maryam D’Abo (63), British actress (Helen of Troy), best known as Bond girl Kara Milovy in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, born in Hammersmith, London.
1981 – Javine [Dionne Hylton] (42), English singer, songwriter and represented the UK at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv with “Touch My Fire”, born in Kensington, London.
1987 – Lily Cole (36), British model (Chanel, Cacharel) and actress (St. Trinian’s, Snow White and the Huntsman), born in Torquay, Devon.
The day today
1904 – The original stage production of Peter Pan took place in London, England.
Originally, Peter Pan was a play, not a novel. The novel adaptation came out later, in 1911.
1945 – The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
1975 – The Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts came into effect in Britain.
1997 – Windsor Castle was reopened to the public following restoration work. 100 rooms of the palace were damaged in a fire in 1992.
2012 – The death, at the age of 83, of Gerry Anderson, the creator of hit TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Joe 90. His other creations included UFO, Space: 1999, Supercar and Fireball XL5.
Today in music
1986 – Jackie Wilson had the UK Christmas No.1 single with ‘Reet Petite’ two years after Wilson’s death, following its use in a commercial for Levi’s. Written in 1957 by Berry Gordy and Tyran Carlo, the success of the song helped Gordy fund the launch of Motown Records.
1997 – The Spice Girls went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Too Much’. The group set another new world record as their first six singles all made No.1.
2005 – It was announced that ‘Crazy Frog’ by Axel F was the best selling UK ringtone of 2005. ‘Tweet Tweet’ by Sweetie Chick was the second and ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’ by Tony Christie and Peter Kay was the third biggest seller. The UK ringtone market was now worth more than double the value of the CD singles sales.
2008 – Taylor Swift started a seven-week run at No.1 on the US album charts with Fearless. The album was the best-selling album of 2009, making Swift, 18 at the time of the album’s release, the youngest artist to have the best-selling album of a calendar year. The album is certified diamond by RIAA and has sold over 7.18 million copies.
2021 – Adele was at No.1 on the album chart with her fourth studio album, 30. Its lead single, ‘Easy on Me’, topped the charts in over 20 countries and was the world’s best-selling album of 2021, selling a total of 5.5 million copies in less than two months of its release.
Today in history
1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which allows Portugal to export wines to England on favorable trade terms.
1773 – The birth of Sir George Cayley, English pioneer of the study of aerodynamics. In 1853 he built the first successful glider to be flown by a man, his reluctant coachman! One of his later inventions was the caterpillar tractor.
1831 – English naturalist Charles Darwin sailed from Plymouth on board his ship, HMS Beagle. His scientific voyage of discovery lasted five years and led to the publication (in 1859) of his highly controversial book The Origin of Species which fuelled the ‘creation versus evolution’ debate. In recognition of Darwin’s outstanding work, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, next to his friend and eminent scientist John Herschel and close to Isaac Newton.
1836 – The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing eight people. A huge build-up of snow on a chalk cliff overlooking the town collapsed into the settlement 100 metres (330 ft) below, destroying a row of cottages.
1845 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in childbirth.
Dr. Crawford W. Long, an American physician, gave ether to his wife during the birth of their second child. The event revolutionalised the use of anesthesia in medicine and surgery.
Fact of the day
The circulatory system is more than 60,000 miles long
If a child’s entire circulatory system—we’re talking veins, arteries, and capillaries—were laid out flat, it would stretch for more than 60,000 miles, according to the Franklin Institute. By the time we reach adulthood, our bodies have become home to approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels.