January 22nd "2024" daily prep
Welcome to day 22, known as Come in From The Cold Day, National Hot Sauce Day, National Polka Dot Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of May 1st. Your star sign is “Aquarius and your birthstone is Garnet.
1901 – Queen Victoria died after being diagnosed with ‘cerebral exhaustion’, aged 81 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. At the time, her reign was the longest in British history, spanning 63 years.
Todays birthdays
1959 – Linda Blair (65), American actress and Golden Globe winner (Regan MacNeil – The Exorcist), born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
1964 – Nigel Benn (60), British former professional boxer who competed from 1987 to 1996 (WBO middleweight, WBC super-middleweight), born in Ilford, East London.
1968 – Frank Leboeuf (56), French sports commentator and former footballer (Chelsea, Marseille), born in Marseille, France.
1968 – Guy Fieri (56) , American chef, author, and television host (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), born in Columbus, Ohio, United States.
1971 – Stan Collymore (53), English football pundit, sport strategist, and former player (Liverpool, Aston Villa, Leicester City), born in Tittensor, Staffordshire.
The day today
1924 – Stanley Baldwin resigned as British Prime Minister at the end of an unsuccessful election and the new Labour Party had their first Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald.
1927 – The first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United, at Highbury.
1955 – Joe Davis recorded the first official maximum snooker break of 147 in an exhibition match at Leicester Square Hall. The first “Televised” 147 was made by Steve Davis in the 1982 Lada Classic against John Spencer.
1992 – Rebecca Ridgway became the first woman to row around Cape Horn in a canoe. The expedition began on 8th January in Chile & the 200 mile expedition, through the Beagle Channel to Cape Horn Island, was directed by her father, ex -transatlantic rower John Ridgway.
2015 – Survival expert Ray Mears, who was due to make at least £10,000 as a speaker at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show was sacked after he chose caravans as one of his pet hates on the TV show ‘Room 101’.
Today in music
1969 – The Beatles moved from Twickenham Film Studios to Apple Studios in London to start recording the Get Back LP. Billy Preston was brought into the sessions (John, Paul, and George knew Preston from 1962 when he was a member of Little Richard’s backing group). The Beatles were determined to record the album “live”, flaws and all.
1972 – Don McLean’s album American Pie started a seven-week run at No.1 on the US album chart. His second studio album was dedicated to Buddy Holly one of his childhood icons and featured both the chart-topping singles ‘American Pie’ (No.1 US hit for four weeks in 1972) and ‘Vincent’. The repeated phrase “the day the music died” in ‘American Pie’refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll. This became the popular nickname for that crash.
1994 – D:Ream had their first UK No.1 single with ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, it stayed at No.1 for four weeks. In 1997 the track was adopted by the UK Labour Party as their theme for the 1997 UK General Election. Keyboard player Brian Cox became a renowned physicist and science broadcaster on the BBC.
2006 – Arctic Monkeys scored their second UK No.1 single with ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, from their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. The song contains the line, “and he told Roxanne to put on her red light,” a reference to The Police song, Roxanne.
2012 – Adele broke an American chart record that has stood for years after being set by The Beatles and Pink Floyd. The singers second album 21 clocked up 16 weeks at No.1 on the US chart matching the success of the Titanic original soundtrack. 21, released last January had now beaten The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s and Pink Floyd’s The Wall which had previously held the accolade with runs of 15 weeks at No.1.
Today in history
871 AD – The Battle of Basing, in the then kingdom of Wessex (now Hampshire) following an invasion of Danes. The Saxon army, led by King Ethelred, was beaten but, like its predecessors, this was an indecisive battle. Ethelred died in April and was succeeded by Alfred the Great. Much of King Alfred’s 28 year reign was taken up with the Danish conflict.
1561 – The birth of Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans. He was a statesman, a lawyer, a philosopher, an essayist and Lord Chancellor of England. Some even claim that he was the real author of Shakespeare’s works.
1719 – The death of Sir William Paterson, Scottish trader, financier and co-founder of the Bank of England. Paterson was instrumental in the movement for the Union of Scotland and England, culminating in his support of the Act of Union – 1707.
1879 – The Zulus massacred British troops at Isandlwana, the first major encounter in the Anglo–Zulu War. Later, at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, two British officers and 150 British and colonial troops defended their garrison from the attacks of between 3,000 and 4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, along with a number of other decorations and honours. The battle was immortalized in the 1964 film Zulu, starring Michael Caine.
1901 – Queen Victoria died, aged 81, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. At the time, her reign was the longest in British history, spanned 63 years and saw the growth of ‘an empire on which the sun never set’.
Fact of the day
The human tongue has a unique print. Much like fingerprints, the human tongue also holds its unique pattern that can be identified differently from everyone else’s. The tongue is a unique organ that is well protected and difficult to replicate.