On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 37 of the year.

Friday, February 6th

Today is National Bubble Gum Day, Pay a Compliment Day, National Woman’s Heart Day and World Muay Thai Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Amethyst.
1958 – Eight Manchester United players died in the Munich air disaster, along with three club officials, eight journalists, and two crew members, totaling 23 fatalities.
Seven Manchester United players died in the Munich air disaster, along with three club officials, eight journalists, and two crew members, totaling 23 fatalities.
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

1940 – Jimmy Tarbuck (86), English comedian (Sunday Night at the London Palladium) and game show host (Winner Takes All), born in Liverpool.

1940 – Tom Brokaw (86), American author and retired network television journalist (The Today Show from 1976 to 1981), born in Webster, South Dakota, United States.

1943 – Fabian (84), American singer (“Turn Me Loose”, “This Friendly World”) and actor (North to Alaska, Hound-Dog Man), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

1957 – Kathy Najimy (69), American actress (Hocus Pocus, Sister Act, The Wedding Planner), born in San Diego, California, United States.
1962 – Axl Rose (64), American rock singer and lead vocalist with Guns N’ Roses (“Welcome to the Jungle”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”), born in Lafayette, Indiana, United States.
1966 – Rick Astley (60), English singer (“Never Gonna Give You Up”, “Together Forever”), born in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.

1981 – Calum Best (45), English-American model, television personality, entrepreneur and chairman of the Dorking Wanderers women’s team, born in San Jose, California, United States.

1982 – Alice Eve (44), English actress (She’s Out of My League, Star Trek Into Darkness, Men in Black 3), born in London.
1994 – Charlie Heaton (32), English actor (Stranger Things, The New Mutants, Rise Of The Footsoldier II) and musician, born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Famous deaths

1952 – King Georg VI (b. 1895), King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first Head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

1958 – Manchester United victims of the Munich Air Disaster.
  • Geoff Bent (b. 1932), English Footballer.
  • Roger Byrne (b. 1929), English Footballer.
  • Eddie Coleman (b. 1936), English Footballer.
  • Liam Whelan (b. 1935), English Footballer.
  • Mark Jones (b. 1933), English Footballer.
  • David Pegg (b. 1935), English Footballer.
  • Duncan Edwards (b. 1936), English Footballer (died 15 days after the accident).
  • Tommy Taylor (b. 1932), English Footballer.
The day today
1918 – The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.
1931 – Fred Trueman, Former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career.

1952 – Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.

1958 – Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured, but survived.
1964 – Britain and France announced an agreement to construct a railway tunnel under the English Channel, marking a major, though initially stalled, milestone in connecting the two nations. While this 1964 accord proposed a government-funded project, construction did not begin until 1974, with the project later abandoned and restarted via a 1986 treaty before officially opening in 1994.
1971 – Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard became the first and only person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Using a modified 6-iron head attached to a lunar sample scoop handle, he took one-handed swings due to his rigid spacesuit, hitting two balls that traveled roughly 24 and 40 yards.
1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
1990 – Steve Briers from Wales achieved a notable feat by reciting the entire lyrics of Queen’s album “A Night At The Opera” backwards in 9 minutes and 58 seconds. Briers recited all 2,343 words reversing each individual word while keeping the sentences in order. He previously held a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records and later auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent with this ability.
1997 – The Court of Appeal made an historic judgement in favour of Diane Blood to be allowed to be inseminated with her dead husband’s sperm.
2005 – Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10, making him the Labour Party’s longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not.
2015 – 26 year old Royal Marine, Andy Grant, woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You’ll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording “You’ll Never Walk” as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run, won two gold medals at the Invictus Games, abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.
2017 – Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. The Royal Mint is to mark the 65th anniversary of her accession with a range of specially designed Sapphire Jubilee commemorative coins, with the Royal Mail issuing a Sapphire Blue £5 stamp.
2018 – SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, successfully launched the Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It is designed to carry heavy payloads to orbit and beyond, with a capacity of 64 tonnes. The rocket features three reusable boosters and significantly lowers the cost of space access.
2022 – Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to reach her Platinum Jubilee. All the major national papers carried the front page headline that it was the Queen’s wish that Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, be known as Queen Consort when Prince Charles becomes King.
2023 – Turkey and Syria were struck by a catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed 59,259 people. Over the next three weeks, the region was hit with over 10,000 aftershocks. It was the deadliest earthquake in Turkey since 526 AD and Syria since 1822.
Today in music
1965 – The Righteous Brothers (who were not related in any way) started a run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Phil Spector produced ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. The song was also No.1 in the US.
1967 – Pink Floyd were photographed for the weekly British girls magazine Jackie. The magazine was the best-selling teen magazine in Britain for ten years. The best-ever selling issue was the 1972 special edition to coincide with the UK tour of American singer David Cassidy.
1982 – Kraftwerk were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Model / Computer Love’, the first German act to score a UK No.1 single. The single spent 21 weeks on the UK chart.
1990 – Over 200 women filed court actions against Chuck Berry after it was alleged that he had been secretly filming them in the toilets of the restaurant he owned.
1996 – Former Jam members bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler reached a high court settlement with Paul Weller after suing him for more than £100,000, after claiming they were owed royalties and group assets.
1998 – American singer and guitarist Carl Wilson from The Beach Boys died aged 51 after a long battle with lung cancer, (Wilson was diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in early 1997). He sang lead vocal on ‘God Only Knows’, ‘Good Vibrations,’ and ‘I Can Hear Music.’ Wilson also sang backing vocals on Elton John’s ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.’
2005 – Eminem was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Like Toy Soldiers’, the rappers 6th No.1, taken from the album Encore. The track featured samples from ‘Toy Soldiers’ by Martika and ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’ by Paul Simon.
2007 – An exhibition of Kylie Minogue’s stage costumes, awards and accessories was launched in central London. The display at the Victoria and Albert Museum showed her changing image from 1987 onwards, from the dungarees she wore as Charlene in the Australian soap Neighbours and the gold hot pants she wore in her ‘Spinning Around’ video.
2014 – Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was named as the greatest song of all time by NME. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was one of the last songs written for Nirvana’s breakthrough album, ‘Nevermind’, which was released in 1991. The rest of the top five tracks were: 5: ‘Last Nite’, The Strokes, 4: ‘How Soon Is Now?’, The Smiths, 3: ‘I Feel Love’, Donna Summer, 2: ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, Joy Division.
Today in history
1649 – The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.
1665 – The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. She bore Prince George of Denmark 17 children, but 16 died in infancy and the remaining child died when aged 12. Her desire for national unity led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.
1685 – Charles II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died after several days of revelry with his concubines and his favourite mistresses. Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses, but as illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother to look after his mistresses and told his courtiers: ‘I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.’
1804 – The death of Joseph Priestley (FRS) the 18th-century English theologian and chemist born in Birstall near Leeds, West Yorkshire. Priestley is credited with his independent discovery of oxygen by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it in 1774.
1840 – The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand.
1851 – The colony of Victoria, Australia, was hit by the Black Thursday bushfires, burning 19,000 square miles. The disaster followed a long, hot, and dry summer of 1850-51. On the day, temperatures reached roughly 47°C (117°F) in the shade, accompanied by strong, hot north winds that turned the landscape into a “sheet of flame”. Approximately 12 human deaths were recorded along with over one million sheep and thousands of cattle.