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.
On This Day 2026
Hello, … Welcome to day 15

Thursday, January 15th Daily Prep.

Today is National Bagel Day, National Fresh Squeezed Juice Day, National Hat Day and Wikipedia Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Garnet.
2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River, NYC. After colliding with a pack of Canada geese, the aircraft lost all engine power.
US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River, NYC. After colliding with a pack of Canada geese, the aircraft lost all engine power.
Today’s birthdays
1945 – Princess Michael of Kent (81), A member of the British royal family and author (Queen of Four Kingdoms), born in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.

1947 – Pete Waterman (79), English record producer and songwriter (“I Should Be So Lucky”, “Never Gonna Give You Up”) born in Stoke Heath, Coventry.

1961 – Damian O’Neill (65) Northern Irish musician and lead guitarist with punk band, the Undertones (“Teenage Kicks”), born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
1964 – Craig Fairbrass (62), English actor (Eastenders), known for portaying the role of Pat Tate in the Rise of the Footsoldier film franchise, born in Mile End, London.
1965 – James Nesbitt (61), Northern Irish actor (Cold Feet, Murphy’s Law, Bloodlands), born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
1972 – Claudia Winkleman (54), English television presenter (Strictly Come Dancing, The Piano, The Great British Sewing Bee), born in London.
1974 – Edith Bowman (52), Scottish radio DJ and television presenter (RI:SE), born in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland.
Famous deaths
2014 – Roger Lloyd-Pack (b. 1944), English actor (Vicar of Dibley) best known for his role as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses.
2018 – Dolores O’Riordan (b. 1971), Irish pop singer with the Cranberries (“Zombie”).
2025 – Linda Nolan (b. 1959), Irish singer with the girl group the Nolans (“I’m in the Mood for Dancing”), and TV personality.
The day today
1927 – BBC radio broadcast the first live commentary of a rugby match. Captain Teddy Wakelam narrated the match at Twickenham, between Wales and England. The following Saturday Wakelam provided the first football commentary from Highbury, where Arsenal was playing Sheffield United.
1962 – The centigrade, or Celsius, scale was used in the British Meteorological Office weather forecasts for the first time, more than 200 years after the death of the Swedish scientist who invented it.
1967 – The first NFL Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.
1985 – Mike Gatting (207) and Graeme Fowler (201) become first pair of England batsmen to complete double centuries in the same innings during 9-wicket 4th cricket Test win against India at Madras.
1991 – Elizabeth II signed letters allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth country to institute its own separate Victoria Cross award.
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines, angering ministers in the UK.
1998 – Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends first premiered on BBC2, launching Theroux’s distinctive documentary style exploring fringe communities and subcultures. In the first episode, Louis travels to Dallas, at the heart of the American bible belt. There, born-again Christian evangelists offer to have him saved for the Lord as the highlight of a live TV show
2001 – Wikipedia was launched. The website’s name comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki,” which means “quick.”
2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River, NYC. After colliding with a pack of Canada geese, the aircraft lost all engine power. Pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to make an emergency crash landing in the Hudson River. Everyone on board survived.
2015 – The death of Ethel Lang, aged 114. At the time of her death she was the oldest person in Britain and the last living British person to have been born during the reign of Queen Victoria. She lived to see six UK monarchs and 22 prime ministers.
2019 – Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU is rejected by UK parliament 432 votes to 202, becoming the largest parliamentary defeat in its democratic era.
Today in music
1965 – The Who released their first single ‘I Can’t Explain’ which was written by Pete Townshend when he was 18 years old. With Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar and The Ivy League on backing vocals, it went on to reach No.8 on the UK chart and peaked at No.93 on the US chart.

1971 – David Bowie released ‘Holy Holy’ as a single in the UK which failed to chart. A more frantic version of the song was recorded in 1971 for The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars but was dropped from the album, and subsequently appeared as the B-side to ‘Diamond Dogs’ in 1974.

1972 – Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’ started a four week run at No.1 in the US singles chart. The song is a recounting of “The Day the Music Died” (a term taken from the song) the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.), and the aftermath. The song was listed as the No.5 song on the RIAA project Songs of the Century.
1983 – Men At Work started a four-week run at No.1 in the US singles chart with ‘Down Under’ which went on to sell over two million copies in the US alone. The song was also a No.1 in the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, and was a top 10 hit in many other countries.

1983 – Phil Collins had his first UK No.1 single with his version of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love,’ a hit for The Supremes in 1966. Collins’ version was the first track on the very first Now That’s What I Call Music CD.

2002 – 1980s British pop legend Adam Ant was arrested and charged with throwing a car alternator through a window at the Prince of Wales pub in Camden, London and then threatening patrons with a starting pistol. He was later fined £500 and placed under a 12-month Community Rehabilitation Order for psychiatric care, with a suspended sentence.
2016 – Nineteen of David Bowie’s albums entered the UK album charts in the wake of his death. His new album, Blackstar, reached No.1, and in the top 40, Nothing Has Changed – The Very Best Of was at No.5, The Best Of 1969 / 1974 was at No.11, Hunky Dory, No.14, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, No.17, Best of Bowie, No.18, Aladdin Sane, No.23, The Next Day, No.25, Low No.31 and Diamond Dogs, No. 37. Thirteen Bowie tracks also entered the top 100, led by ‘Heroes’ at No.12. Also his songs were streamed more than 19 million times on services like Apple Music and Spotify.
2018 – Irish musician and singer-songwriter Dolores O’Riordan from The Cranberries died unexpectedly while she was in London, England, for a recording session. An inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court later ruled that she died as a result of accidental drowning in a bath following sedation by alcohol intoxication. The Cranberries had the 1994 hit singles ‘Linger’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Zombie’ and the band’s 1993 album Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t spent a total of 86 weeks on the UK chart. They rank as one of the best-selling alternative acts of the 1990s, having sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide.
Today in history
1535 – Henry VIII assumed the title ‘Supreme Head of the Church’.
1559 – Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England at the age of 26. She was the daughter of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn and the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
1759 – The opening of the British Museum, at Montague House, London. Access often depended on who you were and who you knew. Permission had to be given by the librarian and only 10 people an hour were allowed in. Its permanent collection numbers some eight million works and is amongst the finest, most comprehensive, and largest in existence. It illustrates and documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present day.
1790 – Fletcher Christian, eight fellow mutineers from the ship Bounty, six Tahitian men and 12 women, landed on the remote Pacific island of Pitcairn following the mutiny led by Christian.They stripped the Bounty of all that could be floated ashore before setting it on fire.
1797 – The first top hat was worn by John Hetherington, a London haberdasher. He was fined £50 the first time he wore his new creation, ‘for causing a disturbance’.
1822 – The formation of HM Coastguard, initially created to tackle the tax-dodging illicit trade in goods, Over the last two centuries it has evolved into a British institution and has become a world model for search and rescue coordination.
1859 – The National Portrait Gallery opened to the public in Great George Street. There were only 56 portraits and viewing was by appointment on Wednesdays and Saturdays.