January 18th "2024" daily prep
Welcome to day 18, known as National Peking Duck Day, Thesaurus Day and Winnie The Pooh Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of April 27th. Your star sign is “Capricorn” and your birthstone is Garnet.
1888 – Birth of Sir Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer. It was a Sopwith Camel that shot down Von Richthofen, the Red Baron. On Sopwith’s 100th birthday, a Sopwith Pup built after World War I, led a fly-past over his home in Hampshire.
Todays birthdays
1955 – Kevin Costner (69), American actor (The Bodyguard, Waterworld, Yellowstone, Field of Dreams), born in Lynwood, California, United States.
1964 – Jane Horrocks (60), British actress (Little Voice, Absolutely Fabulous, Hunting Venus), born in Rossendale, Lancashire.
1964 – Richard Dunwoody (60), British former champion jockey (Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup), born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1973 – Crispian Mills (51), English singer-songwriter anf front man of band, Kula Shaker (“Hush”, “Tattva”, “Hey Dude”), born in Hammersmith, London.
1983 – Samantha Mumba (41), Irish pop and R&B singer (“What’s It Gonna Be”) and actress (The Time Machine), born in Dublin, Ireland.
The day today
1919 – Bentley Motors Limited was founded by Walter Owen Bentley, but the manufacturer did not make a complete car for 27 years, only engines and chassis. Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I. He also designed and made production cars that won the Le Mans 24 hours in the 1920s. Bentley was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1931, which itself was purchased by the Volkswagen Group of Germany in 1998, although the business is still based in Crewe.
1934 – The first arrest was made in Britain as a result of issuing pocket radios to police. A Brighton shoplifter was arrested just 15 minutes after stealing three coats.
2005 – France revealed the world’s largest commercial aircraft, nicknamed the superjumbo. Officially called the Airbus A380, it’s a double-decker 262 ft carrier and has a capacity of 555 passengers. Its first flight was on April 27, 2005.
2014 – Lewis Clarke, a 16-year-old boy from Bristol set a new record by becoming the youngest person to trek to the South Pole. He spent 48 days at temperatures as low as -50C (-58F) and winds of up to 120 mph (193 kmh), covering a distance of 702 miles.
2020 – Premiership Rugby announces reigning European and English champions Saracens are to be relegated for exceeding the salary cap over the previous three seasons.
Today in music
1989 – At just 38 years old, Stevie Wonder became the youngest living person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At a ceremony held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, other inductees include The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, Otis Redding and Dion DiMucci.
1990 – English singer Mel Appleby died of Pneumonia aged 23 following treatment for metastatic paraganglioma. Appleby was one half of the duo Mel and Kim who had the 1997 UK No.1 ‘Respectable’. She initially worked as a glamour model, (in 1987 she did a photo shoot for Mayfair).
1993 – Elton John resigned his directorship of Watford Football Club. Having supported Watford Football Club since growing up locally, Elton John became the club’s chairman and director in 1976, investing large sums of money as the club rose three divisions into the English First Division.
1997 – Tori Amos was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Professional Widow’ (It’s Got To Be)’. The song had been remixed by Armand Van Helden and was rumoured to be about Courtney Love the former wife of Kurt Cobain.
2001 – Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was granted a quickie divorce from Meg Matthews at the High Court in London. The couple had split last September, eight months after Meg had given birth to their daughter, Anais.
Today in history
1486 – After 30 years of civil war the Royal Houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV.
1670 – Henry Morgan captured Panama. Morgan was a privateer who made a name for himself during activities in the Caribbean, primarily raiding Spanish settlements. The privateers were private people or ships, authorised by a government to attack foreign shipping during wartime. It was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers. Morgan was one of the most notorious and successful privateers of all time, and one of the most ruthless.
1778 – English navigator Captain James Cook became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands. He named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich, who was then first Lord of the Admiralty. Captain Cook had associations with Whitby as a merchant navy apprentice and there is a monument to him at the top of the town.
1779 – The birth of Peter Mark Roget, English doctor and lexicographer, who produced his Roget’s Thesaurus in 1852 after 47 years’ work. It was originally called ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition.’
1788 – A British fleet of eleven ships and 800 convicts landed at Botany Bay, Australia. They created the first British penal colony, in Port Jackson – Sydney.
Fact of the day
The smell of freshly cut grass is noted to be the grass screaming in distress. This smell is a chemical that grass uses to call other critters to come and rescue them. The chemical compounds that the plant releases can also be used to poison an enemy and alert surrounding plants.