December 30th "2023" daily prep
Welcome to day 364 of the year! Known as Bacon Day and Resolution Planning Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of April 8th. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1999 – George Harrison is stabbed in the chest when an intruder breaks into his home in Henley-on-Thames. Wife Olivia fights the attacker off by hitting him over the head with a lamp.
Todays birthdays
1959 – Tracy Ullman (64), British-American actress (Robin Hood: Men in Tights), comedian (Tracey Ullman’s Show), singer, writer, producer, and director, born in Slough.
1969 – Jay Kay (54), British singer/songwriter and co-founder of the acid jazz and funk band Jamiroquai (“Virtual Insanity”, “Cosmic Girl”), born in Stretford, Greater Manchester.
1970 – Sister Bliss [Ayalah Bentovim] (53), British elcectronia and trip-hop keyboardist and DJ (Faithless – “Insomnia”, “God Is a DJ”), born in London.
1975 – Tiger Woods (48), American professional golfer (won 82 official PGA Tour events), regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, born in Cypress, California, United States.
1986 – Ellie Goulding (37), English singer and songwriter (“Love Me Like You Do”, “Burn”), born in Herefordshire.
The day today
1924 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announced the existence of other galactic systems at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
1922 – The founding of the Soviet Union was announced. The formation of the USSR was formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre. The Soviet Union was organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR, and Transcaucasian SSR.
1999 – George Harrison and his wife Olivia were attacked when an intruder broke into their home in Henley-on-Thames. Olivia beat off the attacker with a poker and heavy lamp. George was stabbed in the chest was admitted to hospital with a collapsed lung.
2011 – Actor David Tennant marries actress Georgia Moffett, the daughter of another former Doctor Who, Peter Davison.
2016 – Alan Williams, The Beatles’ first manager, dies aged 86. Williams worked with The Beatles from 1960 to 1961, getting the band gigs in Britain, and in Hamburg. On the same day, Ray Davies of The Kinks is awarded a knighthood.
Today in music
1967 – The Beatles scored their 15th US No.1 with ‘Hello Goodbye’, Gladys Knight and the Pips were at No.2 with ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ and The Monkees at No.3 with ‘Daydream Believer’
1969 – Peter Tork quit The Monkees buying himself out of his contract which left him broke. He went on to form a group called Release and played banjo on George Harrison’s soundtrack to the film Wonderwall.
1999 – In the Queen’s Millennium Honours list, former Slade singer Noddy Holder was awarded an MBE and guitarist Mark Knopfler was awarded an OBE.
2002 – Diana Ross was arrested for drunk driving by the Arizona highway patrol after a motorist called to report a swerving vehicle in the western state of Arizona. When asked to walk in a straight line she fell over, could not count to 30 or balance on one foot. Police said the singer was twice over the drink drive limit with a blood-alcohol of 0.20, the legal limit is 0.08.
2014 – The woman who inspired Pulp’s hit song ‘Disco 2000’ died shortly after being appointed an MBE. Deborah Bone, from Hertfordshire was a childhood friend of lead singer Jarvis Cocker in Sheffield. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. The 1995 Britpop hit contains the lyric: “Your name is Deborah. Deborah. It never suited ya.”
Today in history
1460 – The Wars of the Roses: The defeat and death of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and claimant to the English throne, at the Battle of Wakefield.
1813 – All but three buildings in Buffalo were torched by British troops, in retaliation for American troops burning what is now picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Throughout Ontario you’ll find important sites from this conflict, including Old Fort Erie, Chippawa Battlefield and Fort George.
1850 – The birth of John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. He invented the horizontal seismograph that enabled him to detect different types of earthquake waves, and estimate their velocities. Along with two other British scientists he founded the Seismological Society of Japan.
1865 – Author Rudyard Kipling was born, in India, but was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. His best known fictional works are Jungle Book and Just So Stories. He celebrated British imperialism with tales and poems of British soldiers in India and in 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1887 – A petition, signed by more than 1 million women in Britain, was sent to Queen Victoria calling for public houses to be closed on Sundays.
Fact of the day
Kleenex tissues were originally intended for gas masks
When there was a cotton shortage during World War I, Kimberly-Clark developed a thin, flat cotton substitute that the army tried to use as a filter in gas masks. The war ended before scientists perfected the material, so the company redeveloped it to be smoother and softer, then marketed Kleenex as facial tissue instead.