March 13th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 73, known as National No Smoking Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of June 20th in the previous year. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
2015 – Lesley Simpson became the first female Guizer Jarl (chief Viking) in the 130-year history of Shetland’s world famous fire festivals. The event is one of several Viking-themed torchlit processions that are held on Shetland every year.
Todays birthdays
1940 – Candi Staton (84), American singer–songwriter (“Young Hearts Run Free”, “You Got the Love”), born in Hanceville, Alabama, United States.
1950 – William H Macy (74), American actor (Wild Hogs, Jurassic Park III, Boogie Nights, Shameless USA), born in Miami, Florida, United States.
1960 – Adam Clayton (64), English-born Irish musician who is the bass guitarist of the rock band U2 (“With Or Without You”, “In The Name Of Love”), born in Chinnor, Oxfordshire.
1973 – Edgar Davids (51), Dutch former professional footballer (Ajax, AC Milan, Juventus, Tottenham Hotspur), born in Paramaribo, Suriname.
1992 – Kaya Scodelario (32), British actress (Skins; The Truth About Emanuel; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.
Famous deaths
2021 – Murray Walker (b. 1923), English motorsport commentator of live Formula One coverage for the BBC between 1976 and 1996, and for ITV between 1997 and 2001.
The day today
1926 – Alan Cobham landed at Croydon Aerodrome, near London, after a 16,000-mile flight to Cape Town and back to establish a commercial air route across Africa. Formerly a member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, he became a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company, and was the first pilot for the newly formed de Havilland Aeroplane Hire Service. In 1932 he started National Aviation Day displays which toured the country and was generally known as ‘Cobham’s Flying Circus’.
1935 – Voluntary driving tests were introduced in Britain and became compulsory in June of the same year.
1970 – Conservatives celebrated a record majority in the Bridgwater by-election. It was the first time 18-year-olds had been allowed to vote since the age of majority was reduced from 21 to 18 in January. Susan Wallace became the first 18-year-old to cast her vote.
1996 – Thomas Hamilton, a lone gunman carrying 4 handguns killed 16 children and their teacher at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. The killer fired randomly around the school gym in an attack that lasted just three minutes, but caused carnage in the class of five and six year olds. He then turned the gun on himself. Hamilton had been a scout master briefly before being sacked by the Scout Association. The event became a rallying point for anti-gun legislation. Two days after the shooting, a vigil and prayer session was held at Dunblane Cathedral and on Mothering Sunday, the Queen and Princess Anne attended a memorial service at Dunblane Cathedral.
2015 – Former Granada TV weather presenter Fred Talbot was jailed for five years for indecent assault in connection with two schoolboys during his former career as a biology teacher in the 1970s. Talbot (65) was known to millions for his forecasts on a floating weather map for ITV’s This Morning show.
Today in music
1966 – Rod Stewart left the British blues band Steampacket to work as a solo artist. Arguably, the UK’s first “supergroup” Steampacket was formed in 1965 by Long John Baldry and also featured singer Julie Driscoll, organist Brian Auger and guitarist Vic Briggs.
1985 – Bob Geldof and Midge Ure received the Best Selling A Side award at the 30th Ivor Novello Awards as the composers of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
1999 – Cher started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Believe’, making the singer the oldest woman to top the Hot 100 at the age of 53. The song reached No.1 in almost every country it charted, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. It also became the highest-selling single by a solo female artist in the United Kingdom. ‘Believe’ remains one of the best-selling singles of all time with sales of over 11 million copies worldwide.
2006 – The Sex Pistols refused to attend their own induction into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Blondie, Herb Alpert and Black Sabbath were all inducted but the Pistols posted a handwritten note on their website, calling the institution ‘urine in wine’, adding ‘We’re not your monkeys, we’re not coming. You’re not paying attention’.
2018 – The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was at No.1 on the UK album chart. As of February 24, 2019, the soundtrack has totalled 28 non-consecutive weeks at No.1 on the UK chart, making it the longest reigning album of the decade, ahead of Adele’s 21, which notched 23 weeks at No.1.
Today in history
1619 – The death of Richard Burbage, English actor and theatre owner. Richard and his brother Cuthbert had family interests in two London theatres, and ended up tied up in lawsuits. The Blackfriars Theatre they kept, the other, called simply The Theatre, was dismantled when they could not resolve terms for a new lease with the landowner. The beams, posts, and other remnants of The Theatre were moved to a new location on the south side of the Thames River and reassembled into a new playhouse called the Globe, famous as Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
1697 – Itza, the last Mayan kingdom, was conquered by Spanish forces. The Itza capital was Nojpetén, a city located on an island in the middle of Lake Petén Itzá. The Itza Kingdom was defeated when Nojpetén was assaulted by boat. The island that Nojpetén stood upon is now the Guatemalan town of Flores.
1764 – The birth, in Falloden, Northumberland, of Charles Earl Grey, British Prime Minister. He is linked with Earl Grey tea, after a blended tea was supplied to him as a gift and the sample was copied. He is commemorated by Grey’s Monument, a 135 ft high column in the centre of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
1811 – A French and Italian fleet is defeated by a British squadron off the island of Vis in the Adriatic during the Napoleonic Wars.
1873 – Eight clubs met to form the Scottish Football Association. They were Queen’s Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Dumbreck, Third Lanark, Eastern, Granville and Kilmarnock.