On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 36 of the year.

Thursday, February 5th

Today is National Weatherperson’s Day, Time to Talk Day, World Nutella Day and Optimist Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Amethyst.
2004 – Tragedy occurred in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, when 23 Chinese cockle-pickers drowned after being trapped by rapidly rising tides.
Tragedy occurred in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, when 23 Chinese cockle-pickers drowned after being trapped by rapidly rising tides.
Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
Today’s birthdays
1951 – Russell Grant (75), English astrologer, media personality and author of several astrology books, born in Hillingdon, Middlesex.
1969 – Michael Sheen (57), Welsh actor (Underworld Trilogy, Frost/Nixon, The Twilight Saga, Unthinkable, Tron Legacy), born in Newport, Wales.
1975 – Alison Hammond (51), English television personality (Big Brother, The Great British Bake Off) and television presenter (This Morning), born in Birmingham, West Midlands.
1977 – Ben Ainslie (49), English competitive sailor (winning five Olympic medals, including four golds), born in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo (41), Portuguese professional footballer (captains Al Nassr and the Portugal national team), born in Funchal, Portugal.
1992 – Neymar Júnior (34), Brazilian professional footballer currently playing for Santos FC and Brazil, born in São Paulo, Brazil.
Famous deaths
2020 – Kirk Douglas (b. 1916), American actor (Spartacus, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral).
2021 – Christopher Plummer (b. 1929), Canadian actor (The Sound of Music, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dolores Claiborne).
The day today
1918 – The SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77. She sank with the loss of 210 lives and was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
1920 – The Royal Air Force College Cranwell, the world’s first military air academy, was founded in Lincolnshire. Initiated by Sir Hugh Trenchard to establish a permanent training base for the independent air force, it provided both flying training and academic education for RAF officers. The iconic College Hall was later opened in 1934.
1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the “BBC pips”.
1924 – Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison after serving approximately two years of a six-year sentence.
1953 – Sweet rationing in Britain officially ended almost 8 years after the end of World War II in Europe. Shops were flooded with children and adults, and many stores ran out of stock quickly. While sweets were freed in 1953, general food rationing did not end completely in the UK until July 1954.
1954 – Harwell, established in 1946 in Oxfordshire on a former RAF airfield, became Britain’s first Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) and the birthplace of the UK nuclear industry. It hosted Western Europe’s first nuclear reactor, GLEEP (Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile), which began operations in 1947.
1958 – Parking meters first appeared on the streets, in London’s exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935.
1958 – A nuclear bomb was lost off the coast of Georgia, US. A B-457 bomber was conducting a training mission off the coast of Georgia near Tybee Island. The bomber collided with an F-86 fighter jet in midair, and the pilot jettisoned the bomb to avoid it exploding while the bomber made an emergency landing. There have been many attempts to locate the bomb, but it still hasn’t been found.
1971 – NASA’s Apollo 14 mission landed on the Moon. The Apollo 14 mission was the third of the Apollo missions to land astronauts on the Moon and the eighth crewed mission of the Apollo program.
1982 – The small, independent Laker Airlines, created by former British pilot Sir Freddy Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible, collapsed with debts of £270m.
1993 – British explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Michael Stroud achieved the first and longest unsupported, unaided crossing of the Antarctic continent. The 93-day journey covered over 1,350 miles (approx. 2,170 km), during which they dragged 400 lb sledges, facing extreme endurance conditions and losing significant body weight. The expedition raised over £2 million for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and served as a study on human metabolism in extreme environments.
1996 – Two British supermarket chains (Safeway and Sainsbury) became the first to stock genetically modified food when they sold GM tomato puree.
2004 – Tragedy occurred in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, when 23 Chinese cockle-pickers drowned after being trapped by rapidly rising tides. Only 15 survivors managed to return to safety. A massive search and rescue operation was launched, but 21 bodies were recovered within hours, with one person found in 2010 and another never found.
2013 – The UK House of Commons voted 400 to 175 in favor of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill at its second reading, marking a major step toward legalizing same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The legislation, championed by Prime Minister David Cameron, passed despite significant opposition from Conservative MPs.
2014 – Overnight storms caused the loss of the sea wall and railway line at Dawlish, between Exeter and Cornwall. Around 30 residents had to be evacuated from their homes in the seaside town, while beach huts that once stood on the sea wall were destroyed. The line reopened on 4th April 2014, in time for the Easter holidays.
2016 – In the notorious Bangladesh Bank cyber heist of February 2016, hackers attempted to steal close to $1 billion from the bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the New York Fed). They succeeded in stealing $81 million before a crucial spelling error and the high volume of transactions raised red flags, prompting authorities to halt the remaining transfers. The attack has been primarily attributed to the North Korean state-sponsored hacking collective known as the Lazarus Group.
2020 – US President Donald Trump was acquitted of impeachment charges by the US Senate. Charges that Trump abused his power to aid his own re-election were dropped, despite overwhelming amounts of evidence laid against him.
2024 – Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III was diagnosed with a form of cancer, discovered during a procedure for a benign prostate enlargement. While the specific type was not disclosed, the King, 75, began regular treatments as an outpatient, postponing public duties while continuing to handle state business.
Today in music
1957 – Bill Haley arrived on the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner in Southampton, England, where he was about to make history as the first American rock artist to tour the UK. Upon his arrival, Haley and his band, the Comets, were greeted by a crowd of around 5,000 fans. The group kicked off their tour the following day with a show at London’s Dominion Theatre.

1966 – Petula Clark had her second No.1 in the US singles chart with ‘My Love’, making her the first British female to have two US No.1 hits. ‘My Love’ became a No. 4 in the UK.

1969 – The Move were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Blackberry Way’, the group’s only UK No.1 and the band’s most successful single.
1972 – T Rex were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Telegram Sam’, the group’s third UK No.1 which was taken from their album The Slider. The song is also known for bringing the term “main man” into popular culture.
1983 – Def Leppard’s album ‘Pyromania’, started a 92 week run on the US charts (No. 18 in the UK), it never reached No.1 but sold over 6 million copies in the US alone. It was the first album to feature guitarist Phil Collen, who replaced founding member Pete Willis.
2004 – Janet Jackson’s right breast became the most searched-for image in net history, Jackson’s breast was seen by millions on TV after Justin Timberlake pulled at her bodice during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show on February 1. Search engines reported a big jump in searches for Janet Jackson and Super Bowl, as people turned to the web for images of the event.
2005 – Forty-five years after originally topping the UK Singles chart with ‘It’s Now or Never’, Elvis Presley returned at No.1 after the song was re-issued a few days earlier.

2015 – 70’s glam rocker Gary Glitter (real name Paul Gadd) was found guilty of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one of having sex with a girl under the age of 13 between 1975 and 1980.

2023 – Beyoncé won four Grammys breaking the record for most all-time Grammy wins with 32. Other winners at the event held in Los Angeles included Harry Styles who won Album of the Year for Harry’s House, becoming the first male British solo artist to win since George Michael in 1989. Lizzo won Record of the Year for ‘About Damn Time’, becoming the first black woman to win the award since Whitney Houston in 1994.
Today in history
1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1782 – The Spanish defeated British forces and captured the island of Minorca.

1788 – The birth, in Bury, Lancashire, of Sir Robert Peel, the first commoner to become British Prime Minister, although he was hardly from humble beginnings, as his father was a cotton millionaire. Peel was the founder of the Metropolitan Police, first nicknamed ‘Peelers’, then ‘Bobbies’, after his name.
1811 – The Regency Act was passed in Britain, allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father, King George III, was considered insane. He later became George IV.
1852 – The embankment of the Bilberry reservoir in West Yorkshire collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme and into Holmfirth. It caused 81 deaths and is recorded as the 23rd most serious, worldwide, in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides.
1869 – The world’s largest golden nugget was discovered. It was discovered in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, by Job Deason and Richard Oates and weighs 214 lb (97.14 kg).