Tuesday, March 25th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 84, known as Tolkien Reading Day, Greek Independance Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
1969 – John Lennon and new wife Yoko Ono staged their ‘Beds in Peace’ at the Amsterdam Hilton. It lasted until 31st March and each day they invited the world’s press into their hotel room, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Todays birthdays
1942 – Richard O’Brien (83), English actor, writer (Rocky Horror Picture Show), musician, and television presenter (The Crystal Maze), born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
1942 – Kim Woodburn (83), English television personality and former cleaner (How Clean Is Your House?), known as the “Queen of Clean”, born in Portsmouth.
1947 – Elton John (78), British singer, pianist and composer (“Candle In The Wind”, “I’m Still Standing”), born in Harrow, Northwest London.
1951 – Maizie Williams (74) British model, dancer, singer and former member of the disco music group Boney M (“Rivers Of Babylon”) from 1975-89, born in The West Indies.
1965 – Sarah Jessica Parker (60), American actress (Sex and the City, Failure to Launch), born in Nelsonville, Ohio, United States.
1974 – Finley Quaye (51), Scottish musician and singer (“Sunday Shining”) and winner of the 1998 BRIT Award for Best Male Solo Artist, born in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
1975 – Melanie Blatt (50), English singer and former member of the girl group All Saints (“I Know Where It’s At”, “Bootie Call”), born in University College Hospital, London.
Famous deaths
1999 – Ernie Wise (b. 1925), English comedian and actor best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.
The day today
1940 – The United States agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes for the war effort.
1957 – Six European nations signed the Treaty of Rome thus establishing the Common Market. They were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Holland and Luxembourg.
1969 – John Lennon and new wife Yoko Ono staged their ‘Beds in Peace’ at the Amsterdam Hilton. It lasted until 31st March and each day they invited the world’s press into their hotel room, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. It was Yoko’s idea to get over their peace message while on honeymoon. Although the press were expecting them to be having sex, the couple were sitting in bed, in John’s words ‘like angels’, talking about peace, with signs over their bed reading ‘Hair Peace’ and ‘Bed Peace’.
1975 – The National Front marched through London protesting against integration with Europe.
1989 – For the first time, both the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race crews entered the event with women coxes. The race was won by Oxford.
1996 – The EU imposed a worldwide ban on British beef exports due to concerns about the risk of “mad cow disease” (BSE), a disease that was linked to a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) in humans.
1999 – The 13 year old singer Charlotte Church became the youngest artist to enter the American top 30 album chart.
2002 – The death of Kenneth Wolstenholme, football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is perhaps most noted for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup which included the famous phrase ‘Some people are on the pitch…they think it’s all over….it is now!’, as Geoff Hurst scored England’s fourth goal.
Today in music
1958 – Buddy Holly appeared at The Gaumont Theatre in London, the final date on his only UK tour. Also on the bill was Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Des O’Connor, The Montanas, Ronnie Keene & His Orchestra.
1964 – The Beatles made their debut on UK TV show Top Of The Pops performing ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘You Can’t Do That.’ The show had been recorded on March 19th.
1967 – The Turtles started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Happy Together’. The song was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon, former members of a band known as The Magicians.
1972 – America started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with their debut hit ‘Horse With No Name’, it made No.3 in the UK. The group scored eight other US top 40 hits during the 70s.
1989 – Madonna was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Like A Prayer’, the singers sixth UK No.1, also No.1 in the US. The song was accompanied by a highly controversial music video, which in 2005 was voted the “Most Groundbreaking Music Video of All Time” by viewers of MTV.
2000 – *NSYNC set a new world record after selling a million tickets in one day for the group’s forthcoming tour, netting them over £25 million.
2005 – Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon Osbourne were forced to flee their Buckinghamshire mansion after a blaze broke out as they slept. Ozzy and his wife were roused by a fire alarm and ran to safety in the garden, rescuing their pets as they escaped.
Today in history
1119 – King Richard I was wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on 6th April. Richard spent very little time in England and lived in his Duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest of France, preferring to use his kingdom as a source of revenue to support his armies. He produced no legitimate heirs and acknowledged only one illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac. As a result, he was succeeded by his brother John as King of England.
1306 – Robert the Bruce was chosen to be King of Scots and to lead the fight for Scottish independence against Edward I of England.
1609 – English navigator Henry Hudson (Hudson Bay in Canada was named after him) set off on his third voyage in an attempt to find the north west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
1736 – The death of Nicholas Hawksmoor, British architect. Sir Christopher Wren heard of Hawksmoor’s ‘early skill and genius’ for architecture and took him as his clerk, aged 18. Hawksmoor worked with Wren on projects including Chelsea Hospital, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hampton Court Palace and Greenwich Hospital.
1807 – The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent, eventually bringing an end to the slave trade. British merchants transported nearly three million black Africans across the Atlantic between 1700 and the early 19th century. The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act outlawed slavery itself throughout the British Empire but slaves did not gain their final freedom until 1838.
1807 – The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.