June 11th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 163, known as German Chocolate Cake Day, National Corn on the Cob Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of September 18th in the previous year. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Pearl.
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
1946 – Jenny Pitman (78), British 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 (65), English actor (House, Stuart Little, Blackadder) and comedian (Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster), born in Blackbird Leys, Oxford.
1969 – Peter Dinklage (55), American actor (Cyrano, Game of Thrones, Pixels, The Hunger Games), born in Morristown, New Jersey, United States.
1986 – Shia LaBeouf (38), American actor (Transformers, Disturbia, Fury, The Peanut Butter Falcon), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
1939 – Jackie Stewart (85), British former Formula One racing driver nicknamed the “Flying Scot”, born in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland.
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 presenter (Dragons Den).
The day today
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.
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.
Today in music
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
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.