December 2nd "2024" Daily Prep

Welcome to day 337 of the “leap” year! Known as Cyber Monday, National Bartenders Day, Special Education Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
The rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, was opened. The previous cathedral had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
1697 – The rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, was opened. The previous cathedral had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Todays birthdays
1968 – David Batty (56), English former professional footballer (Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United), born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
1968 – Lucy Liu (56), American actress (Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill), born in Jackson Heights, New York, United States.
1978 – Chris Wolstenholme (46), English musician, bassist and backing vocalist for the rock band Muse (“Supermassive Black Hole”, “Hysteria”, “Time Is Running Out”), born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
1978 – Nelly Furtado (46), Canadian singer and songwriter (“Turn Off the Light”, “Maneater”), born in Victoria, Canada.
1981 – Britney Spears (43), American singer (“Oops!…I Did It Again”, “Toxic”) and dancer, born in McComb, Mississippi, United States.
Famous deaths
1997 – Shirley Crabtree (b. 1930), English wrestler (Big Daddy) who was often partnered against Giant Haystacks.
The day today
1929 – Britain’s first 22 public telephone boxes came into service. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and installed as part of a new scheme for policing and were made available for general use in the Barnes, Kew and Richmond Districts. The red K6 phone boxes have become a British icon.
1943 – The first Bevin Boys (named after the Minister of Labour and National Service, Ernest Bevin), aged between 18 and 25 were directed into the mining industry. Many experienced miners had been called up to the armed forces, resulting in a grave shortage of coal. Bevin Boys were targets of abuse from the general public, who mistakenly believed them to be draft dodgers or cowards.
1995 – 28 year old Nick Leeson was sentenced for financial dealings which contributed to the fall of Barings Bank, Britain’s oldest merchant bank. He admitted to a judge in Singapore two charges of fraud connected with Baring’s £860m ruin.
1997 – Representatives of 41 countries met in London to discuss the whereabouts of gold and other valuable assets seized by the Nazi government from Jews in Germany and other occupied countries before and during World War II.
2020 – The UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination. The medicines’ regulator (the MHRA) said that the vaccine offered up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, with the first 800,000 doses already on their way to the UK.
Today in music
1978 – Rod Stewart was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy’, the singers fifth UK chart topper. A plagiarism lawsuit by Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor confirmed that the song had been derived from his composition ‘Taj Mahal’. Stewart agreed to donate all his royalties from the song to United Nations Children’s Fund.
1983 – MTV aired the full 14-minute version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video for the first time. Now regarded as the most influential pop music video of all time, in 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
2002 – Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was arrested and charged with assault after he Kung-Fu kicked a police officer. The incident happened at the Bayerischer hotel in Munich, the singer lost his two front teeth in the brawl and an Oasis minder was knocked out cold.
2003 – Darkness singer Justin Hawkins was held for two hours at JFK Airport, New York after police mistook him for a wanted man with the same name and looks. The police only agreed to let him go after Justin’s fiance and manager Sue Whitehouse produced a tour schedule to prove that he was in England on July 4th when the crime was committed.
2016 – Duran Duran said they were “outraged and saddened” at losing a High Court fight to reclaim US rights to some of their most famous songs. The group had argued that US copyright laws gave them the right to call for a reversion of copyright after 35 years. ‘Girls on Film’, ‘Rio’ and ‘A View to a Kill” were among the disputed tracks.
Today in history
1697 – The rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, was opened. The previous cathedral had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
1755 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse (located off the coast of Devon) was destroyed by fire. Four lighthouses have been built on the site. The light was lit on the fourth, (Douglass’s lighthouse, designed by James Douglass) in 1882 and it is still in use.
1766 – Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a ground law, thus being first in the world with freedom of speech.
1867 – Charles Dickens, the English novelist (The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist) gave his first public reading. Taking place at a New York City theater, Charles Dickens gave his first reading of a six-month American book tour.
1899 – John Cobb, British racing driver was born. He made money as a director of fur brokers and could therefore afford to specialise in large capacity motor-racing. He was born and lived in Esher, Surrey, near the Brooklands race track. He broke the land speed record at Bonneville on August 23, 1939, achieving 367.91 mph. Without this being beaten he raised the record to 394.19 mph in 1947. He died in 1952, attempting to break the world water speed record on Loch Ness in the jet speedboat Crusader at a speed in excess of 200 mph.