Wednesday, July 30th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 211, known as National Day of Friendship, National Cheesecake Day, National Father-in-Law Day, Share a Hug Day. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Ruby.
1966 – England won the Football World Cup in London, beating West Germany 4 – 2. This was England’s first (and only) win since the tournament began in 1930. England forward Geoff Hurst became the only man to score a hat-trick in a world cup final.
Todays birthdays
1944 – Jimmy Cliff (81), Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae, soul musician and singer (“Wonderful World, Beautiful People”, “Wild World”), born in St. James Parish, Jamaica.
1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger (78), Austrian-American actor (The Terminator, Commando, Kindergarten Cop) and former professional bodybuilder, born in Thal, Austria.
1958 – Daley Thompson (67), English former decathlete. Winner of the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, born in Notting Hill, London.
1958 – Kate Bush (67), English singer, songwriter and dancer (“Babooshka”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Running Up That Hill”), born in Bexleyheath, London.
1958 – Liz Kershaw (67), English radio broadcaster and one of the longest serving female national radio DJs in the UK, born in Littleborough, Lancashire.
1961 – Laurence Fishburne (64), American actor (Boyz n the Hood, The Matrix, John Wick, The Amateur), born in Augusta, Georgia, United States.
1963 – Lisa Kudrow (62), American actress best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the US sitcom Friends, born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1970 – Christopher Nolan (55), English filmmaker (The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer), born in Westminster, London.
Famous deaths
2007 – Mike Reid (b. 1940), English actor best known for his role as Frank Butcher in Eastenders and the host of the children’s game show Runaround.
The day today
1935 – ‘Penguin’ paperback books, founded by Allen Lane, went on sale in Britain.
1938 – The first edition of The Beano was published. It is the longest running British children’s comic magazine, published by DC Thomson in Dundee. By April 1950 the weekly circulation was almost 2,000,000. The Beano reached its 4,000th issue on 28th August 2019.
1940 – The birth of Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor and pioneer of the first home computers (Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and Spectrum). His ZX 80 computer was launched in 1980 (as reflected in the name) and cost less than £100. At that time computers cost at least £700 (over £3,000 when adjusted for inflation). Sinclair was an inventor first and a businessman second. In 1983, he formed Sinclair Vehicles and released the Sinclair C5, a small, one-person battery electric recumbent tricycle. In 2010 Sinclair stated that he did not use computers himself, and preferred using the telephone to email. He died on 16th September 2021.
1948 – The world’s first radar station was opened, to assist shipping at the port of Liverpool.
1966 – England won the Football World Cup in London, beating West Germany 4 – 2. This was England’s first (and only) win since the tournament began in 1930. England forward Geoff Hurst became the only man to score a hat-trick in a world cup final for a winning team.
1973 – British victims of the drug Thalidomide were awarded £20 million compensation as their 11 year case against the Distillers company ended in victory.
1975 – 17-year-old Neville Ebbin was riding his electric cycle down a stretch of road in Bermuda when he was hit and killed by a taxi driver named Willard Manders.
One year later – almost to the day – Neville’s younger brother (who was now 17) was riding his dead brother’s electric cycle on that exact same stretch of road and was hit by the same driver in the same taxi. The taxi driver was also carrying the same passenger.
2006 – The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2213 episodes were screened, the first being broadcast on New Year’s Day 1964.
2014 – A large part of the 144-year-old Grade II listed pier at Eastbourne’s seafront was ‘reduced to a mangled wreck’ after a huge blaze that is believed to have started in wall panelling. In the aftermath, Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne pledged up to £2 million to help Eastbourne’s tourism industry recover from the pier’s loss.
Today in music
1966 – The Troggs started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Wild Thing’. Because of a distribution dispute, The Troggs’ single was available on two competing labels: Atco and Fontana. Because both pressings were taken from the identical master recording, Billboard combined the sales for both releases, making it the only single to simultaneously reach No. 1 for two companies.
1977 – The Bee Gees younger brother Andy Gibb started a four-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I Just Wanna Be Your Everything’, his first of three US No.1’s, it peaked at No.26 in the UK.
1993 – Founding member and original bassist for The Wonder Stuff, Rob Jones died in New York aged 29. Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff had the 1991 UK No.1 with ‘Dizzy’, (a No.1 for Tommy Roe in 1969).
2003 – The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush, The Guess Who, Justin Timberlake, The Flaming Lips, Sass Jordan and The Isley Brothers played a benefit concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to prove that the city is safe from SARS. With 450,000 spectators, it was the largest concert in Canadian history.
2006 – British gay magazine Attitude listed the ‘Top 10 Gay Albums’ of all time. No.1 was Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters, 2, Arrival – ABBA, 3, Vauxhall and I – Morrissey, 4, Light Years – Kylie Minogue, 5, Older – George Michael, 6, Welcome To The Pleasuredome – Frankie Goes To Hollywood, 7, Erotica – Madonna, 8, I Am a Bird Now – Antony and the Johnsons, 9, Bad Girls – Donna Summer and No. 10 The Man Who Sold The World – David Bowie.
2006 – Shakira feat Wyclef Jean started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hips Don’t Lie.’ A remake of Wyclef Jean’s 2004 song ‘Dance Like This’, the song went on to top the charts in over 50 countries.
2009 – Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher won his long battle to be recognised as co-writer of the band’s hit ’A Whiter Shade Of Pale’. Law Lords ruled that Fisher, who claimed he wrote the song’s organ melody, was entitled to a share of future royalties.
Today in history
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
1538 – St Augustine’s Abbey, one of the most important monasteries in England, is dissolved – its Abbot John Essex and 30 monks leave voluntarily, before it is ransacked.
1718 – William Penn, English Quaker leader and founder of the American colony of Pennsylvania died.
1746 – The death of Francis Towneley, English Jacobite who was executed for his role in the rebellion of 1745. His head was placed on a pike on Temple Bar, London but was secretly removed and has since been in possession of the Towneley family. The skull is now preserved in the chapel at Towneley Hall.
1818 – Emily Brontë, English novelist and author of Wuthering Heights was born in Thornton, West Yorkshire. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
1900 – London Underground’s The Central line, originally called the Central London Railway, opened as a cross-London route from Bank to Shepherd’s Bush. Popular from the start, part of its success stemmed from the cost: a flat fare of two old pence to travel. This inspired the press to call it the ‘Tuppenny Tube.