Satuday, July 5th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 186, known as Mechanical Pencil Day, Apple Turnover Day, National Workaholics Day, National Bikini Day. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
2012 – The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest building to date standing at a height of 309.6 meters (1,016 feet) and ‘a gleaming feat of glass and gravity-defying engineering’, was officially unveiled in London.
Todays birthdays
1946 – Paul Smith (79), English fashion designer (Paul Smith), born in Beeston, Nottinghamshire.
1950 – Huey Lewis (74), born Hugh Anthony Cregg III, American singer and songwriter (Huey Lewis and the News – “The Power of Love”), born in NYC, New York, United States.
1959 – Marc Cohn (66), American singer, songwriter and musician (“Walking in Memphis”), born in Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
1966 – Gianfranco Zola (59), Italian former football manager (Birmingham City) and former footballer (Chelsea), born in Oliena, Italy.
1973 – Róisín Murphy (52), Irish singer, songwriter and former member of pop duo Moloko (“Sing it Back”), born in Arklow, Ireland.
1979 – Shane Filan (46), Irish singer best known as lead vocalist in Westlife (“You Raise Me Up”), born in Sligo, Ireland.
1988 – Joe Lycett (37), English comedian and television presenter (Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Late Night Lycett), born in Birmingham.
Famous deaths
2016 – Caroline Aherne (b. 1963), English actress and comedian (The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, The Fast Show).
The day today
1945 – Churchill lost the General Election after leading Britain throughout World War II. Attlee’s Labour Party won 393 seats to the Tories’ 213.
1948 – Britain’s National Health Service came into operation when Aneurin Bevan, the health secretary, launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Davyhulme (today known as Trafford General Hospital). It was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all.
1948 – The birth of Aneira Reece at Amman Valley Hospital in Carmarthenshire. She was the first baby born to be born under the National Health Service, just after the clocks chimed midnight. She was named Aneira, after the founding father of the NHS, Aneurin Bevan.
1996 – The birth of Dolly, possibly the world’s most famous sheep. She was cloned by scientists in Edinburgh in what was hailed as one of the most significant breakthroughs of the decade. The cell used as the donor for the cloning was taken from a mammary gland, so she was named after Dolly Parton!
2012 – Police apologised after a terror alert closed the M6 Toll for more than four hours. Armed officers, troops, firefighters and bomb disposal experts responded after a coach passenger saw smoke coming from another passenger’s bag. Police later confirmed that the device was an electronic cigarette which gives off a visible vapour.
2014 – The Tour de France cycle race made its first visit to the north of England. Day 1 started in Leeds and took in the town of Skipton.
Today in music
1963 – The Beatles played at the Plaza Ballroom in Dudley in the West Midlands. Appearing The Beatles was Denny and the Diplomats, led by Denny Laine, who went on to join the Moody Blues and eventually, Paul McCartney’s group Wings.
1969 – The Rolling Stones gave a free concert in London’s Hyde Park before an audience of 250,000, as a tribute to Brian Jones who had died two days earlier.
1999 – The Eurythmics announced their first world tour for more than 10 years and that all profits would be given to charity. The duo made the announcement from the Greenpeace boat ‘Rainbow Warrior’ moored on the River Thames in London.
2002 – It was reported that Dr Dre had become the richest music star after earning £62m in the last year, £37m from his own earnings plus £25m from his record label Aftermath.
2009 – Michael Jackson started a seven week run at No.1 on the UK album charts with The Essential Michael Jackson and was one of eight Jackson albums in the top twenty after the singers death on 25th June.
2023 – Adele voiced her concerns about audiences throwing objects on stage saying that people have forgotten “show etiquette”. During this year Bebe Rexha was injured and taken to hospital after being hit by a phone while performing, Harry Styles was hit in the eye with a sweet at a gig and Pink looked uncomfortable when a bag of human ashes was thrown on stage at a show.
2024 – US singer Sabrina Carpenter broke a UK chart record when she became the first female artist to hold both the No.1 and No.2 positions on the singles chart for three consecutive weeks. ‘Please Please Please’ remained in the top spot on this week’s chart, while her previous single “Espresso” held on at No.2. The Beatles achieved the same feat in the 60s, scoring the chart double on two separate occasions.
Today in history
1295 – Scotland and France formed an alliance, the so-called ‘Auld Alliance’, against their common enemy – England.
1610 – John Guy, English merchant adventurer and politician, set sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists, bound for Newfoundland. He became the first Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland and led the first attempt to establish a colony on the island.
1687 – Isaac Newton who was born at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, published his ‘Principia’, stating Newton’s laws of motion, Newton’s law of gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler’s laws of the motion of the planets. The Principia is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science.
1817 – The first gold coin sovereigns were issued in Britain.
1865 – The Locomotives and Highways Act in Britain introduced a speed limit for road vehicles of 4 mph in rural areas and 2 mph in urban areas.
1888 – Three match girls were fired at the Bryant and May match factory in London for giving information about working conditions. The other 672 employees went on strike, a landmark for women workers in Britain that led to the formation of a Matchgirls’ Union.