Wednesday, June 11th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 162, known as German Chocolate Cake Day, National Corn on the Cob Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Pearl (Alexandrite and Moonstone is also recognised).
1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
Todays birthdays
1939 – Jackie Stewart (86), British former Formula One racing driver nicknamed the “Flying Scot”, born in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.
1946 – Jenny Pitman (79), English former racehorse trainer who became the first woman to train a Grand National winner when Corbiere won the race in 1983, born in Leicestershire.
1959 – Hugh Laurie (66), English actor (House, Stuart Little, Blackadder) and comedian (Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster), born in Blackbird Leys, Oxfordshire.
1960 – Nick Hallam (65), English DJ, producer and co-founding member of Stero MC’s (“Connected”, “Step it Up”), born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire.
1961 – Rob Birch (64), English singer, songwriter and co-founding member of Stero MC’s (“Connected”, “Step it Up”), born in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire.
1969 – Peter Dinklage (56), American actor (Cyrano, Game of Thrones, Pixels, The Hunger Games), born in Morristown, New Jersey, United States.
1986 – Shia LaBeouf (39), American actor (Transformers 1,2 and 3… Lawless, Disturbia, Fury), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Famous deaths
1979 – John Wayne (b. 1907), American actor, director and producer (True Grit, The Alamo, Rooster Cogburn).
2022 – Hilary Devey (b. 1957), English businesswoman and television personality (Dragons Den, The Intern).
The day today
1907 – Gloucestershire dismissed Northamptonshire for 12 runs. It was the lowest total in English county cricket. George Dennett (a left arm spin bowler) took 8 wickets for 9 runs and the other 2 were caught by England Test Player Gilbert Jessop.
1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. While it remains debated whether they successfully escaped, their daring attempt is widely recognized as the only escape from Alcatraz that made it into the public consciousness.
1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain. On the same day, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher won elections for a record third term.
2009 – The World Health Organization declares H1N1 swine flu to be a global pandemic, the first such incident in over forty years
2010 – The 19th World Cup football tournament opened in the host country of South Africa, marking the first time that the event was played on the African continent; Spain won the tournament 1-0 against the Netherlands.
2012 – Downing Street admitted that David Cameron had left his eight year old daughter in the pub after a Sunday lunch two months previously, because of a mix-up with his wife Samantha. The story proved embarrassing for the Prime Minister, as it came on the same day that the government relaunched its £450m ‘Troubled Families Programme’.
2014 – JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, made a £1m donation to help fund the campaign against Scottish independence.
Today in music
1965 – It was announced that all four members of the British group The Beatles, would be awarded MBEs (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday honours list. John Lennon returned his MBE to the Queen on 25th November 1969, as an act of protest against the Vietnam war.
1966 – European radio stations mistakenly reported that The Who’s lead singer Roger Daltrey was dead. Actually, it was guitarist Pete Townshend who had been injured in a car accident a few days earlier.
1969 – The Beatles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Ballad Of John and Yoko’ the group’s 17th UK No.1. The only two Beatles that played on the track were John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
1988 – Nelson Mandellas 70th birthday tribute took place at Wembley Stadium, London, featuring Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Stevie Wonder, Tracy Chapman, George Michael, Eric Clapton, UB40, The Eurythmics and Simple Minds. The event was broadcast live on BBC 2 to 40 different countries with an estimated audience of 1 billion.
1997 – Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall received a Master of Science Degree at UMIST, Manchester for his fund-raising work following an IRA bombing in the city the previous year.
2011 – Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon, re-entered the Billboard Album chart at No. 47, and reached the milestone of 1,000 weeks on Billboard’s charts. The album which was released in 1973 has done consistently well reaching No.1 on more than one occasion.
2022 – Justin Bieber was forced to cancel his current tour after he revealed he was suffering from facial paralysis. The 28-year-old said in an Instagram video that the condition was due to a diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
Today in history
1488 – James III of Scotland was murdered by rebellious Scottish nobles and was succeeded by his 15 year old son, James IV.
1509 – King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon. When his marriage to Catherine did not produce a male heir, King Henry became infatuated with Anne Boleyn. After Pope Clement VII refused to grant a divorce from Catherine, King Henry took it upon himself to assume supremacy over the church. This set off a chain of events that eventually led to England’s division with the Catholic Church.
1685 – The exiled James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth, sailed from Holland and landed in Lyme Regis with a small force to overthrow the new Catholic King James II.
1770 – HMS Endeavour under the command of Lieutenant James Cook was sailing north along the east coast of Australia. At 11pm it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef and started taking on water. Desperate to lighten the ship, the crew heaved nearly 48 tonnes of material over the side, including six cannons.
1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
1817 – The first predecessor of the bicycle is demonstrated Using his revolutionary Laufmaschine, also known as Draisine, a two-wheeler without pedals, German inventor Karl Drais completed a 14 km test run in less than an hour, presenting a viable alternative to transportation by horse.
1847 – Sir John Franklin, English naval officer and Arctic explorer, died in Canada, in an attempt to discover the North-West Passage.