Monday, June 16th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 167, known as World Sea Turtle Day, National Fudge Day, Take Your Cat To Work Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Pearl (Alexandrite and Moonstone is also recognised).
1915 – The foundation of the Women’s Institute, regularly referred to as simply the WI. Its two aims were to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War.
Todays birthdays
1939 – James Bolam (90), English actor (The Likely Lads, New Tricks, Only When I Laugh, The Beiderbecke Tapes), born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.
1962 – Arnold Vosloo (63), South African actor (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Hard Target, Blood Diamond), born in Pretoria, South Africa.
1967 – Jürgen Klopp (58), German former football manager (Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool F.C.) and player (Mainz 05), born in Stuttgart, Germany.
1969 – Mark Crossley (56), British football coach and former professional footballer (Goalkeeper), (Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday, Wales), born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
1991 – Joe McElderry (34), English singer and songwriter (“The Climb”), who won the sixth series of the ITV show The X Factor in 2009, born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
Famous deaths
1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst (b. 1857), English activist and academic best known for organizing the women’s suffrage movement in the United Kingdom.
1946 – John Logie Baird (b. 1888), Scottish-English physicist and engineer (inventor of the first publicly demonstrated colour television system and the first viable purely electronic colour television picture tube).
The day today
1903 – Pepsi Cola became an official trademark. The Pepsi Cola Company started in late 1902 and gained immediate success.
1915 – The foundation of the Women’s Institute, regularly referred to as simply the WI. Its two aims were to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. It is now the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK.
1958 – Yellow ‘No Waiting’ lines were introduced to British streets to regulate parking, loading, and unloading. The aim was to reduce congestion, improve pedestrian access, and generally enhance traffic flow.
1978 – Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, was released. The musical romantic comedy was an instant hit and quickly became the highest-grossing musical film at the time. The film’s soundtrack was also wildly popular, with the soundtrack album ranking as the second-best album that year.
1982 – England international Bryan Robson scored a goal against France in Bilbao after just 27 seconds of the game. It was one of the quickest World Cup goals in history until 2002 when Hakan Sukur of Turkey scored against South Korea in just 11 seconds.
1998 – Judges in America upheld the decision to convict British au pair Louise Woodward of manslaughter and the passing of a reduced sentence for the killing of Matthew Eappen – the young boy left in her care in Massachusetts.
2016 – Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall, West Yorkshire. On 23rd November 2016 local man Thomas Mair was found guilty of murder and other offences connected to the killing. Mair was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
Today in music
1966 – The Beatles made a surprise live appearance on the UK television program Top Of The Pops performing ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’. It became The Beatles’ last live musical television appearance, with the sole exception of the June 1967 worldwide transmission of ‘All You Need Is Love’.
1970 – Mungo Jerry were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with In The Summertime. It went on to become the best-selling UK single of 1970 spending seven weeks at No.1 and was a hit in 26 other countries.
1973 – Suzi Quatro had her first UK No.1 single with the Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman song ‘Can The Can’. 10CC were at No.2 with ‘Rubber Bullets’ and Fleetwood Mac were at No.3 with ‘Albatross.’
1984 – Frankie Goes To Hollywood had their second UK No.1 single with ‘Two Tribes.’ It stayed at No.1 for nine weeks making Frankie Goes To Hollywood the first band to have their first two singles go to the top of the UK chart. During this run the group’s previous single ‘Relax’ climbed back up the charts to No.2.
1990 – Roxette started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘It Must Have Been Love’. The song, taken from the film ‘Pretty Woman’ became the duo’s third US No.1 and a No.3 hit in the UK.
2002 – 46 years after his first hit, Elvis Presley started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘A Little Less Conversation’, (Elvis vs. JXL), giving Elvis a total of 18 UK No.1 singles, the most by any artist in chart history. This also set a new record for the longest span of No.1 hits with 44 years, 11 months and 9 days. His first UK No.1 single was ‘All Shook Up’ in 1957.
2013 – Black Sabbath established a new UK chart record for the longest gap between No.1 albums when their new release, 13 debuted at the top of the charts, 42 years and 8 months after their second album Paranoid reached No.1.
2023 – Kylie Minogue scored her biggest solo hit in more than a decade with the dance anthem ‘Padam Padam’. This means Kylie is one of only four women to reach the UK’s top 10 in five separate decades, alongside Cher, Lulu and Diana Ross.
Today in history
1487 – At the Battle of Stoke Field, Nottinghamshire, English Tudor King Henry VII defeats the remaining Yorkists led by John de la Pole and Lord Lovell in the last battle of the Wars of the Roses.
1567 – Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned at the island fortress of Loch Leven Castle, following the battle of Carberry Hill.
1779 – Spain declared war on Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began. In February 1783 the siege was lifted and the French and Spanish troops retired, disheartened and defeated, after three years and seven months’ conflict. The final peace treaty left Gibraltar with the British, but the victorious British garrison sustained a loss of 1,231 men, and expended 8,000 barrels of gunpowder.
1824 – A meeting at Old Slaughter’s coffee house in London leads to the formation of what is now the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).
1880 – The distinctive Salvation Army ladies’ bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in London.
1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland killed 183 children. At the end of the show an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.