January 31st "2024" daily prep
Welcome to day 31, known as Backwards Day, Brandy Alexander Day, Inspire your Heart with Art Day, National Hot Chocolate Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of May 10th. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Garnet.
1967 – The Beatles spent a second day at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, to complete filming for the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ promotional video.
Todays birthdays
1956 – John Lydon (68), British-born Irish-American singer and songwriter (Sex Pistols – “Anarchy in the U.K.”), born in Finsbury Park, London.
1970 – Minnie Driver (54), British and American actress (GoldenEye, Good Will Hunting), born in London.
1971 – Patrick Kielty (53), Northern Irish comedian and presenter (Patrick Kielty Almost Live, Debatable Game Show), born in County Down.
1981 – Justin Timberlake (43), American singer (“Cry Me a River”, “Sexyback” and actor (In Time, The Social Network), born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.
1987 – Marcus Mumford (37), American-born British singer (Mumford & Sons – “I Will Wait”, “Little Lion Man”), born in Yorba Linda, California, United States.
The day today
1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty night, off the Isle of May at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines and damage to another five British warships. In all 270 people lost their lives.
1961 – A chimpanzee named Ham became the first primate to go to space aboard the US MR-2 spacecraft. The trip was part of the Mercury Mission, which aimed to put the first man into Earth’s orbit. Ham played a vital role in teaching us that tasks could be carried out in space.
2000 – Family GP Dr Harold Shipman is jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain’s most prolific convicted serial killer. It was later estimated that he could have been responsible for the deaths of up to 300 people.
2001 – In The Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset Al Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.
2016 – The death of the radio and TV brodcaster Terry Wogan, aged 77. He presented Children in Need, Wake Up to Wogan, Come Dancing, the game show Blankety Blank and he was the BBC’s commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008. His weekday radio programme on BBC Radio 2, ‘Wake Up to Wogan’, had eight million regular listeners, making him the most listened to radio broadcaster in Europe. He was granted a knighthood in 2005 and was entitled to use ‘Sir’ in front of his name as he held dual British and Irish citizenship.
Today in music
1984 – Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’ entered the UK charts at No.4. The track which was released after Queen’s recording and touring hiatus of over a year spent eleven weeks in the chart, peaking at No.2.
1987 – Paul Simon went back to No.1 on the UK album chart with Graceland, (the album stayed on the chart for a total 163 weeks). ‘Graceland’ later won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while the title song won the 1988 Grammy Award for Record of the Year.
1999 – US dance music producer Armand Van Helden went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘You Don’t Know Me’. Helden also had a No.1 with the remix of the Tori Amos track ‘Professional Widow’.
2003 – Robbie Williams topped a chart based on UK album sales from the past 5 years. The former Take That singer had sold 9.7 million albums in Britain, an average of more than 5,000 every day. The Corrs were in second place with 5.8m sales, Westlife in third with 5.1, Madonna in fourth with 5m and The Beatles in fifth with 4.7m.
2008 – Natasha Bedingfield entered the US chart at number three with her album Pocketful of Sunshine, equaling the record set by soul singer Sade in having the highest-ever US chart debut for a UK-signed female. The British singer sold 50,000 copies of the record in its first week of release.
Today in history
1606 – Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, was hanged, drawn and quartered. Known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who had planned the failed Plot in November 1605.
1788 – Death, in Rome, of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie). After his father’s death, Charles was recognised as ‘King Charles III’ by his supporters.
1849 – The abolition of the Corn Laws. These trade barriers had been designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom against competition from less expensive foreign imports and their abolition marked a significant step towards free trade.
1858 – The Great Eastern, the five-funnelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell, was launched at Millwall. At the time, it was the world’s largest ship.
1867 – The four bronze lions each 18 feet (5.5 m) square, cast from captured French guns at the base of Nelson’s Column were completed. They depict the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Copenhagen and the death of Nelson at Trafalgar.
Fact of the day
The oldest condom ever found dates back to the 1640s.
Evidence of this was found in a cesspit at Dudley Castle. The condom was made from the innard of animals and fish which was a common material for early birth control.