Thursday, July 10th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 191, known as National Kitten Day, Conwy River Festival, Global Energy Independance Day, Don’t Step On A Bee Day. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
1940 – World War II: The first in a long series of German bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which lasted three and a half months, began.
Todays birthdays
1945 – Virginia Wade (80), English former tennis player, winner of 3 Grand slams (US Open 1968, Australian Open 1972, Wimbledon 1977), born in Bournemouth, Dorset.
1954 – Neil Tennant (70), English singer and songwriter with the Pet Shop Boys (“West End Girls”, “It’s a Sin”, “Domino Dancing”), born in North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
1970 – Jason Orange (55), English singer and former member of Take That (“Back For Good”, “Could It Be Magic”), born in Crumpsall, Manchester.
1972 – Peter Serafinowicz (53), English actor (Shaun of the Dead, The Gentlemen, John Wick: Chapter 2), comedian and voice over artist, born in Liverpool.
1980 – Jessica Simpson (45), American singer (“I Wanna Love You Forever”) and actress (The Dukes of Hazzard 2005), born in Abilene, Texas, United States.
1993 – Perrie Edwards (32), English singer and member of Little Mix (“Black Magic”, “Shout out to My Ex”), born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
Famous deaths
2020 – Jack Charlton (b. 1935), English footballer (Leeds United) and manager (Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle United, Republic of Ireland) and part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup.
The day today
1940 – World War II: The first in a long series of German bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which lasted three and a half months, began.
1958 – Britain’s first parking meters were installed, in Mayfair, London.
1972 – William Whitelaw, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, broke the news that he had been involved in secret talks with the provisional IRA in London, as he announced that the two week ceasefire in Northern Ireland had come to an end.
1985 – The French government sank the Rainbow Warrior, using underwater explosives. The Greenpeace ship was moored in Auckland, New Zealand, with plans to confront French nuclear testing in the Moruroa Atoll in the southern Pacific Ocean.
1996 – The bodies of Lin Russell, 6 year-old daughter Megan and 9 year old daughter Josie, were found half a mile from their home in Kent. Michael Stone, 38, was later found guilty of two counts of murder (of Lin and Megan) and one count of attempted murder (Josie) and given three life sentences.
1997 – More than 100,000 people packed Hyde Park in London for a countryside rally to protest against Government proposals to ban fox hunting.
2011 – The British newspaper, News of the World, published its last-ever edition following a phone-hacking scandal.
After 168 years in print, the newspaper came to an end after the owner Rupert Murdoch received a high amount of criticism after his staff was accused of phone hacking and police bribing to obtain the newspapers’ stories.
Today in music
1965 – The Rolling Stones started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ the group’s first chart-topper there. In the UK, the song was initially played only on pirate radio stations because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive.
1968 – Eric Clapton announced that Cream would break-up after their current tour. The group’s third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world’s first platinum-selling double album and Cream are widely regarded as being the world’s first successful supergroup.
1979 – Chuck Berry was sentenced to five months in jail after being found guilty of tax evasion. Berry was well known for demanding cash from concert promoters before he’d go on stage and this became cause for the Internal Revenue Service to be skeptical of Berry’s tax returns, accusing him officially of income tax evasion.
2000 – Coldplay released their debut album Parachutes. Four singles were released from the album, ‘Shiver’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Trouble’ and ‘Don’t Panic’. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002, the British Album of the Year award at the 2001 Brit Awards, and many other accolades. Parachutes is also the 22nd-best-selling album of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. As of 2020, it has sold over 13 million copies worldwide.
2005 – The four members of Led Zeppelin were voted the UK’s ideal supergroup after 3,500 music fans were asked to create their fantasy band for Planet Rock Radio. Jimmy Page won best guitarist, followed by Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore. John Paul Jones was named top bassist, with John Bonham, who died in 1980, winning best drummer and Robert Plant beat the late Freddie Mercury to best singer.
2011 – A pub in Dundee, Scotland called Lennon’s Bar was forced to change the name of the venue and remove all Beatles memorabilia as the former Beatles wife Yoko Ono threatened legal action for copyright infringement.
2016 – Cliff Richard instructed lawyers to make formal legal complaints to South Yorkshire Police and the BBC over their handling of a police raid on his home in 2014. Police investigating historical sex allegations launched an investigation in 2014, which was filmed by the BBC.
Today in history
138 AD – The death of the Roman Emperor Hadrian who ordered the building of a wall across northern England to keep out the ‘barbarian Scottish tribes’.
1040 – Lady Godiva rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.
1212 – The most severe of several early fires of London began in Southwark and burned most of the city to the ground including Southwark Cathedral.
1460 – In England’s Wars of the Roses, the Yorkists (commanded by Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick) defeated the Lancastrians and captured Henry VI at the Battle of Northampton.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey, the 9 days Queen, took the throne of England until 19th July when she was succeeded by Mary I. She was later charged with high treason and executed in November of the same year.
1900 – Queen Victoria gave the Royal Assent to the Australian Federation Bill which set up of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.