January 13th "2024" daily prep
Welcome to day 13, known as Make Your Dreams Come True Day, National Sticker Day, Rubber Ducky Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of April 22nd. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Garnet.
2012 – The Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia runs aground at Isola de Giglio, killing 32. The eight-year-old vessel was on the first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea when she deviated from her planned route and struck a rock formation on the sea floor.
Todays birthdays
1961 – Suggs [Graham McPherson] (63), English singer-songwriter and vocalist for the Ska band “Madness” (“Baggy Trousers”, “House of Fun”), born in Hastings, East Sussex.
1965 – Bill Bayley (59), English musician and comedian (Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI), born in Bath, Somerset.
1969 – Stephen Hendry (55), Scottish professional snooker player who is best known for dominating the sport during the 1990s, born in Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1977 – Orlando Bloom (47), English actor (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings,The Outpost), born in Canterbury.
1990 – Liam Hemsworth (34), Australian actor (The Hunger Games), and brother of Chris Hemsworth (Avengers, THOR), born in Melbourne, Australia.
The day today
1926 – The birth of Michael Bond, English children’s writer and creator of ‘Paddington Bear’. Whilst working as a BBC television cameraman Bond had his first book published, ‘A Bear Called Paddington’. It was the start of Bond’s most famous series of books, telling the tales of a bear from ‘Darkest Peru’, whose Aunt Lucy sent him to England, carrying a jar of marmalade. He also wrote the children’s books about the adventures of a guinea pig named Olga da Polga, as well as the animated BBC TV series The Herbs.
1958 – In Scotland, the serial killer Peter Manuel was arrested after a series of attacks over a two year period that left nine people dead, although he is suspected of having killed as many as eighteen. Manuel was hanged in Barlinnie prison on 11th July 1958. He was one of the last prisoners to die on the Barlinnie gallows.
1993 – American, British and French planes bombed a series of targets over southern Iraq. The action was taken in response to repeated Iraqi breaches of the ‘no fly zone’ implemented after the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
2004 – Dr Harold Shipman, who was believed to have killed more than 200 of his patients, was found hung in his prison cell. To date Shipman is the only British doctor to have been proved guilty of murdering his patients, in addition to being one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history.
2020 – A meteorite that landed in Australia in the 1960s revealed stardust up to 7 billion years old. That makes it the oldest known solid material on Earth.
Today in music
1978 – With a budget of only £1,500 borrowed from Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland III, The Police started recording their debut album at Surrey Sound Studios, Surrey, England with producer Nigel Gray. The album ‘Outlandos d’Amour’ which was released in November of that year featured the hits ‘So Lonely’, ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’.
1984 – BBC Radio 1 announced a ban on ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, after DJ Mike Read called it ‘obscene’, a BBC TV ban also followed. The song went on to become a UK No.1 and spent a total of 48 weeks on the UK chart.
1990 – New Kids On The Block had their second and last No.1 UK single with ‘Hangin’ Tough.’ They had a further 7 Top 10 hits by the end of 1991. They broke up after that, but set the scene for numerous boy bands throughout the 90s.
2010 – Beyoncé and Jay-Z were named Hollywood’s top-earning couple by Forbes magazine. The pair earned an estimated £75.1m between June 2008 and June 2009 – more than any other couple married or unmarried.
2016 – Ed Sheeran’s new singles ‘Shape of You’ and ‘Castle On The Hill’ entered the UK singles chart at No.1 and No.2 respectively. The Official Charts Company said it was the first time in history an artist had taken the top two chart positions with brand new songs.
Today in history
1610 – Galileo Galilei discovered Callisto, the fourth moon of Jupiter.
1691 – The death of George Fox, English founder of the religious group of the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers. He was interred in the Nonconformists’ burying ground at Bunhill Fields in London, in the presence of thousands of mourners.
1808 – The death of Thomas Lord, English professional cricketer and founder of Lord’s Cricket Ground in 1787. He is buried in the churchyard of St. John’s Church at West Meon in Hampshire.
1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War is famous for being the only member of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 civilians to survive a massacre after the army’s long retreat from Kabul. He safely reached the British sentry post at Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
1930 – Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse comic strip was published for the first time.
Fact of the day
The longest name of a place still in use is a hill in New Zealand: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (shortened to Taumata)…. It puts “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch” (in Angelsey, Wales) to shame… and no, even as I type this, I have no idea how to pronounce either of them.