July 23rd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 205 of the year! Known as National Gorgeous Grandma Day, Vanilla Ice Cream Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of October 30th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Ruby.
1997 – History was made when for the first time in 127 years hen harriers were raised in Derbyshire, 1500 feet above the Goyt Valley near Buxton.
Todays birthdays
1953 – Graham Gooch (71), English former cricketer, captain of England and Essex, opening batsman and prolific run scorer, born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, London.
1957 – Jo Brand (67), English comedian, writer, presenter and actress (Through The Cakehole, QI, Taskmaster), born in Wandsworth, London.
1961 – Woody Harrelson (63), American actor (Woody Boyd in Cheers; White Men Can’t Jump, Zombieland), born in Midland, Texas, United States.
1965 – Slash, born Saul Hudson (59), English rock guitarist and songwriter (Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, “Welcome To The Jungle”), born in Hampstead, London.
1989 – Daniel Radcliffe (35), English actor (Harry Potter, Escape from Pretoria, The Woman in Black), born in London.
Famous deaths
2011 – Amy Winehouse (b. 1983), English singer-songwriter (“Back to Black”, “Tears Dry on Their Own”).
The day today
1955 – British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater, in the Lake District, when his jet-propelled hydroplane – Bluebird, reached 202.32mph. (Note: – Donald Campbell died on 4th January 1967 in his attempt to break his own world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District).
1984 – A government report into cancer levels near the controversial nuclear plant at Sellafield in Cumbria confirmed suspicions of higher than-normal levels of leukaemia in the area, but said it could not definitely link this to the nuclear plant itself.
1986 – Prince Andrew, the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey. Their divorce in May 1996 attracted a high level of media coverage.
1997 – History was made when for the first time in 127 years hen harriers were raised in Derbyshire, 1500 feet above the Goyt Valley near Buxton.
2008 – ‘Back-from-the-dead’ canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne were jailed for more than six years for fraudulently claiming £250,000. The couple had conned family, friends, police and insurance companies into believing that Mr Darwin drowned in the North Sea off Teesside in 2002.
Today in music
1969 – The Rolling Stones were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Honky Tonk Women,’ the group’s eighth and last UK No.1. The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards while on holiday in Brazil.
1983 – Paul Young had his first UK No.1 single with his version of the Marvin Gaye song ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat, (That’s My Home.)’ The song title was parodied by the UK indie band Super Furry Animals with their 1999 song ‘Wherever I Lay My Phone (That’s My Home)’.
2001 – 59-year-old Paul McCartney, who lost his first wife Linda to cancer three years previous, became engaged to 33-year-old Heather Mills, an activist for the disabled. It was the first marriage for the 33-year-old Mills, a former swimwear model whose left leg was amputated below the knee after she was run down by a police motorcyclist in 1993.
2005 – Queen’s 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best rock concert ever by over 7,000 UK Sony Ericsson music fans. Radiohead were voted the best festival act for their 1997 Glastonbury performance and Bob Dylan’s 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall gig won the best ever solo gig.
2006 – George Michael was accused of engaging in anonymous public sex, after being photographed in London’s Hampstead Heath with a 58-year-old unemployed van driver. Despite stating that he intended to sue both the News of the World tabloid who photographed the incident and van driver Norman Kirtland for slander, Michael stated that he openly cruised for anonymous sex and that this was not an issue in his relationship with partner Kenny Goss.
Today in history
1599 – Italian Artist Carrivagio signed his first commission contract to paint the Contarelli Chapel in the French church in Rome.
1745 – Charles Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender’ landed in the Outer Hebrides in his attempt to win back the throne for the Stuarts.
1813 – Sir Thomas Maitland is appointed as the first Governor of Malta, transforming the island from a British protectorate to a de facto colony.
1886 – Arthur Whitten Brown, British aviator was born. He was the navigator of the first successful non-stop transatlantic flight, (14th June 1919), with John Alcock as pilot.
1901 – Tennis player Tim Henman’s great-grandmother (Ellen Stawell Brown) became the first woman to serve overarm at the All England Tennis Club.