January 23rd "2024" daily prep

Welcome to day 23, known as Measure Your Feet Day and National Handwriting Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of May 2nd. Your star sign is “Aquarius and your birthstone is Garnet.
2005 – Former Happy Mondays dancer Bez, won the £50,000 Celebrity Big Brother prize after gaining 54% of the final viewer vote. The “Madchester” pop legend danced his way to becoming the sixth member of the indie-dance band in the late-1980s.
Todays birthdays
1959 – Clive Bull (65), English radio talk show host, best known for presenting a late-night show on LBC in London.
1964 – Mariska Hargitay (60), American actress (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), born in Santa Monica, California.
1969 – Andrei Kanchelskis (55), Ukrainian former footballer (Russia; Manchester United, Rangers), born in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine.
1972 – Ewen Bremner (52), Scottish actor (Trainspotting -“Spud”, Snatch, Fools Gold), born in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1984 – Arjen Robben (40), Dutch former professional footballer (Chelsea, Bayern Munich), born in Bedum, Netherlands.
The day today
1900 – Second Boer War: The defeat of the British at the Battle of Spion Kop, 24 miles west-south-west of Ladysmith on a steep terraced hilltop. Many football grounds in the English Premier League and Football League, have one terrace or stand ‘Spion Kop’ or ‘Kop’ because of the steep nature of their terracing.
1963 – At 7.30 pm in Beirut, the American Eleanor Philby was waiting for her husband Kim, a Middle East correspondent for two London journals, to collect her. Instead, he was on his way to Moscow – ‘the most damaging double agent in British history’.
1989 – Legislation came into force which permitted garages to display fuel prices by litre only, not by the gallon.
2015 – The owner of the mobile network ‘Three’ confirmed that it was in exclusive negotiations to acquire O2 UK from Spanish telco Telefonica for £10.25bn. It would have made the combined Three and O2 operator the biggest in the UK, with a 41% share of the market but the deal was blocked in May 2016 by the European Commission.
2018 – Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond retires after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. On the same day, 12 camels are disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips.
Today in music
1965 – ‘Downtown’ made Petula Clark the first UK female singer to have a No.1 on the US singles chart since Vera Lynn in 1952. The song was also a No.2 hit in the UK. Recorded in three takes (with the second take ultimately chosen as the completed track), session players in the studio recording included Jimmy Page.
1971 – George Harrison became the first solo Beatle to have a No.1 when ‘ ‘My Sweet Lord’ went to the top of the UK single charts. The song from his ‘All Things Must Pass’ album stayed at No.1 for five weeks. The track returned to the top of the UK charts in 2002, following his death.
1988 – Michael Jackson went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’. It was the third single from Jackson’s seventh studio album Bad for which Jackson had written over sixty songs for the album, with plans of releasing a three disc album, but producer Quincy Jones convinced Jackson to make Bad a one disc LP.
2003 – R Kelly was arrested on new child pornography charges. The singer was detained in Miami after police said digital sex pictures were discovered at his home in Florida last June. The singer was already facing 21 charges relating to producing child pornography and appearing in a video having sex with an underage girl. He was charged with a further 12 counts of possession of child pornography.
2005 – Former Happy Mondays dancer Bez, won the £50,000 Celebrity Big Brother prize, after gaining 54% of the final viewer vote. The “Madchester” pop legend danced his way to becoming the sixth member of the indie-dance band in the late-1980s after playing maracas with them.
Today in history
1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, and regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, was fatally shot by James Hamilton, a supporter of Mary Queen of Scots. It was the first recorded assassination by a firearm.
1571 – Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange, London, as a bankers’ meeting house. It was founded by the financier Sir Thomas Gresham .
1643 – Sir Thomas Fairfax took Leeds for the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.
1713 – The signing of the Treaty of Utrecht redrew the map of Europe. The treaty signalled the end of the long and bloody War of Spanish Succession. As part of the agreement Gibraltar and Minorca become British.
1806 – Death of William Pitt ‘The Younger’ at the age of 46. He was Britain’s youngest Prime Minister (aged 24) and served twice, from 19th December 1783 to 14th March 1801 and again from 10th May 1804 until his death ‘on this day’.
Fact of the day
Swishing wine inside your mouth allows all your taste buds to detect its flavor. Sweetness is detected at the tip of the tongue and bitterness at the back. Sour tastes are detected on the sides of your tongue.