Saturday, July 26th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 207, known as National Aunt and Uncle Day, Holistic Therapy Day, National Dog Photography Day, World Tofu Day. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Ruby.
1845 – The SS Great Britain, the first iron ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage. She is now restored and can be viewed at the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol.
Todays birthdays
1943 – Mick Jagger (82), English rock vocalist and songwriter with the Rolling Stones (“Jumpin’ Jack Flash
“, “Paint It, Black”), born in Dartford, Kent.
1945 – Helen Mirren (80), English actress (The Queen, Yellowstone: 1923, Anna, Prime Suspect, MobLand), born in Hammersmith, London.
1949 – Roger Taylor (76), English musician, songwriter and backing vocalist for the rock band Queen (“We Will Rock You”), born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
1964 – Sandra Bullock (61), American actress (Speed, The Blind Side, Demolition Man, Miss Congeniality), born in Arlington County, Virginia, United States.
1967 – Jason Statham (58), English actor (The Transporter, Expendables, Snatch, The Meg, Wrath of Man), born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.
1973 – Kate Beckinsale (52), English actress (Underworld series, Pearl Harbour, Serendipity, Van Helsing), born in Chiswick, London.
Famous deaths
2023 – Sinéad O’Connor (b. 1966), Irish singer and musician (“Nothing Compares 2 U”).
The day today
1945 – Winston Churchill resigned as Britain’s prime minister after his Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in a landslide victory. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister. He said: ‘Labour can deliver the goods.’
1966 – Bobby Charlton scores both England goals as they beat Portugal 2-1 in the semi-final of the World Cup. This victory propelled England to the final against West Germany. Charlton’s first goal came after a failed clearance by the Portuguese goalkeeper, and the second was a powerful strike late in the game.
1989 – 56-year-old Leslie Merry was knocked off his feet, a rib broken and his spleen ruptured by a turnip thrown from a passing car in east London. He finally died of respiratory failure brought on by the accident.
1990 – It was announced that the Fraud Squad would investigate the National Union of Mineworkers’ accounts over Soviet miners’ untraced donations.
2007 – Shambo, a black Friesian bull living in the Hindu Skanda Vale Temple near Llanpumsaint in Wales, was slaughtered due to a bovine tuberculosis infection. He had been adopted by the local Hindu community as a sacred animal and the slaughtering caused widespread controversy.
2013 – The former BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall’s 15-month sentence for a series of indecent assaults was doubled by the Court of Appeal, increasing the term to 30 months. In June of the same year, Hall, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, had admitted 14 counts against girls aged from nine to 17 between 1967 and 1985.
2021 – Platform diver Tom Daley won his first Olympic gold medal in men’s synchronized diving, 13 years after his first Olympic games.
2024 – The Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony was held outdoors for the first time ever.
In a spectacular event, 6,800 athletes paraded in 85 boats along the Seine River in Paris, heading towards the Eiffel Tower. There, the Olympic flame was launched into the sky from a cauldron attached to a hot air balloon.
Today in music
1968 – The Jackson Five signed a one-year contract with Motown Records. They made history in 1970 as the first recording act to have their first four singles to reach No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100, with the songs being ‘I Want You Back’, ‘ABC’, ‘The Love You Save’ and ‘I’ll Be There’.
1977 – Led Zeppelin cut short their 11th North American tour after Robert Plant’s five-year-old-son Karac died unexpectedly of a virus at their home in England, UK.
1986 – Peter Gabriel went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Sledgehammer’, a No.4 hit in the UK. The song’s music video has won a number of awards, including a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards.
2006 – The final edition of Top Of The Pops was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London. Just under 200 members of the public were in the audience for the show which was co-hosted by veteran disc jockey Sir Jimmy Savile, its very first presenter. Classic performances from the Spice Girls, Wham, Madonna, Beyonce Knowles and Robbie Williams featured in the show alongside The Rolling Stones who were the very first band to appear on Top of the Pops on New Year’s Day in 1964.
2009 – AC/DC singer Brian Johnson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC television programme Top Gear. His time of 1:45.9 tied him with Simon Cowell for the second fastest time. He was introduced by host Jeremy Clarkson as “a man who has sold more albums than The Beatles and I bet almost none of [the audience] have ever heard of him.”
2023 – Irish singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor died age 56. She was best known for her single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, released in 1990, which reached No.1 and brought her worldwide fame. O’Connor, who was outspoken in her social and political views, released 10 studio albums between 1987 and 2014. In 1991, she was was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and took home the Brit Award for international female solo artist. Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990), received glowing reviews upon release and became her biggest success, selling over seven million copies worldwide. On 7 January 2022, O’Connor’s son, Shane, committed suicide at the age of 17. She subsequently decided to cancel her 2022 tour and her album No Veteran Dies Alone was postponed indefinitely.
Today in history
1469 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Edgecote Moor (northeast of Banbury – Oxfordshire) took place. It pitted the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV and was considered to be an important turning point in the course of the war.
1745 – The first recorded women’s cricket match was played near Guildford, Surrey, between teams from Hambledon and Bramley.
1755 – Italian adventurer and author Giacomo Casanova was arrested in Venice for his offensive remarks on religion.
He was later sentenced to five years in prison without a trial.
1788 – New York became the 11th state to join the United States of America. New York is now the fourth-most populous state in the United States.
1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway opened in south London. It was the world’s first railway to be publicly subscribed by Act of Parliament as a railway throughout. The 9 mile track was a horse-drawn plateway of approximately standard gauge that linked the former Surrey towns of Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham.
1845 – The SS Great Britain, (the first iron ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel), sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage. She is now restored and can be viewed at the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol.
1858 – Lionel Rothschild took his seat in the House of Commons to become Britain’s first Jewish member of Parliament.