On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 61 of the year.

Monday, March 2nd

Today is Egg McMuffin Day, Dr. Seuss Day and World Teen Mental Wellness Day. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Aquamarine.
1969 – Concorde’s first flight took place when the 001 prototype took off from Toulouse in France. When the French test pilot landed Concorde for the first time, he simply said ‘The big bird flies…’. The British-made prototype 002 flew from Bristol’s Filton Airfield in the UK a few weeks later.
Concorde's first flight took place when the 001 prototype took off from Toulouse in France. When the French test pilot landed Concorde for the first time, he simply said 'The big bird flies…'. The British-made prototype 002 flew from Bristol's Filton Airfield in the UK a few weeks later.
Today’s birthdays
1947 – Harry Redknapp (79), English former football manager (West Ham, Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur) and player, born in Poplar, East London.
1962 – Jon Bon Jovi (64), American singer/songwriter (“Livin’ on a Prayer”, “You Give Love a Bad Name”), born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States.
1968 – Daniel Craig (58), English actor (Layer Cake, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre), born in Chester, Cheshire.
1970 – Alexander Armstrong (56), English broadcaster (Pointless) and comedian (The Armstrong and Miller Show), born in Rothbury, Northumberland.
1977 – Chris Martin (49), English singer/songwriter and the lead vocalist and co-founder of Coldplay (“Viva La Vida”, “Yellow”), born in Whitestone, Devon.

1980 – Rebel Wilson (46), Australian actress (Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect, The Hustle), born in Sydney, Australia.

1988 – James Arthur (37), English singer/songwriter (“Say You Won’t Let Go”) who won the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012, born in Middlesbrough.

1981 – Bryce Dallas Howard (45), American actress (The Help, Jurassic World, Terminator Salvation), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Famous deaths
1930 – D. H. Lawrence (b. 1885), English novelist (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), poet, playwright, and critic.

1939 – Howard Carter (b. 1874), English archaeologist and historian who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922.

1999 – Dusty Springfield (b. 1939), English singer (“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”, “Son of a Preacher Man”).

The day today
1905 – The death of Cuthbert Brodrick, architect of Leeds Town Hall, one of the largest town halls in the United Kingdom and the Grand Hotel, Scarborough. At the time of its grand opening in 1867, it was the largest hotel and the largest brick structure in Europe.
1944 – The Balvano train disaster occurred in southern Italy, when a steam-hauled freight train (No. 8017) stalled inside the Armi tunnel, causing over 500 people, mostly stowaways, to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. It is considered the deadliest railway accident in Italian history.

1958 – A British team, led by explorer Vivian Fuchs, completed the first crossing of the Antarctic. His 12-man party endured severe hardships to travel the 2,500 from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound in just 99 days.

1965 – The musical “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie Andrews, premiered. The movie is one of the greatest musicals of all time and won many awards, including the Academy Awards Best Picture of 1966.
1969 – The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline. The Anglo-French plane took off from Toulouse and was in the air for just 27 minutes.
1986 – The Queen signed the Australia Act in Canberra. The Act resolved the anomalous power of the United Kingdom’s parliament to legislate over the individual Australian states, a power that it had exercised since colonial times.
1995 – British financial dealer Nick Leeson, who bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt Airport.
1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
2000 – Chilean General Augusto Pinochet left Britain after UK Home Secretary Jack Straw told him that he was free to leave and declared that he would not be extradited to Spain to face charges of human rights abuses.
2001 – Joanne Kathleen Rowling (J. K. Rowling), author of Harry Potter, received an OBE from HRH Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.
2011 – Kevin O’Brien produced one of the most stunning innings in cricket history, scoring the fastest century in World Cup history off just 50 balls to lead Ireland to a famous 3-wicket victory over England in Bangalore.
2015 – Police were given new powers to catch motorists driving under the influence of drugs. The levels for the illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis, meant that there would be ‘virtually zero tolerance’ for drivers apprehended with these substances in their system.
2015 – The last surviving Dambusters pilot (Squadron Leader Les Munro) decided to sell his gallantry medals awarded for the famous raid and donate the proceeds to the newly-built Bomber Command Memorial in London, dedicated to the 55,573 airmen killed during the Second World War.
2016 – British scientists, led by Dr. Martin Smith, identified Tortotubus protuberans as the oldest known land fossil, dating back 440 million years to the Silurian period. Discovered in Gotland, Sweden, and Scotland, this 440-million-year-old microfossil resembles a fungus and was crucial in forming early soil, enabling later plant and animal life to colonize land.
2019 – Swiss 20-time Grand Slam tennis champion Roger Federer beats Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 to win his 100th ATP Tour title at the Dubai Championships.
2020 – Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed and successfully enacted a constitutional amendment that explicitly defines marriage as a union solely between a man and a woman, effectively banning same-sex marriage in Russia.
2021 – coinciding with the anniversary of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birth, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that it would cease publishing and licensing six books due to the inclusion of racist and insensitive imagery. The six discontinued titles are: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), McElligot’s Pool (1947), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) and The Cat’s Quizzer (1976).
2023 – The head of UK security service at MI5 apologizes for not acting on intelligence to stop the 2017 Manchester Arena attack at an Ariana Grande concert by a suicide bomber.
2024 – LeBron James becomes the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 regular-season points as his LA Lakers slip to a 124-114 defeat to Denver Nuggets in Los Angeles.
2025 – Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost became the first commercial lander to make a successful soft landing on the Moon. About the size of a small car and with ten different scientific instruments on board, Blue Ghost began a two-week research mission. Firefly Aerospace was contracted by NASA as part of their Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, an initiative aimed at boosting the commercial Lunar industry.
Today in music
1960 – After completing his national service and flying back to America, Elvis Presley stepped on British soil for the first and only time in his life when the plane carrying him stopped for refuelling at Prestwick Airport, Scotland.
1961 – The Everly Brothers had their third UK No.1 single with ‘Walk Right Back’ a song written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets.
1963 – The Four Seasons became the first group to have 3 consecutive No.1’s in the US when ‘Walk Like A man’, started a three week run at the top, a No.12 in hit the UK.

1967 – Engelbert Humperdinck was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Release Me.’ The singers first of two number 1’s, the song spent six weeks at the top of the chart and a record fifty six weeks on the chart.

1974 – At this year’s Grammys Stevie Wonder won four awards: Album of the year for ‘Innervisions’, Best R&B song and Best vocal for ‘Superstition’ and Pop vocal performance for ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life’.
1975 – A policeman who stopped a Lincoln Continental for running a red light in Los Angeles was surprised to find Paul McCartney at the wheel with his wife Linda. The cop detected a smell of marijuana and on searching the car found eight ounces of the drug. Linda was arrested for the offence.
1985 – The Smiths were at No.1 on the UK indie charts with ‘How Soon Is Now.’ Soho had the 1990 No.8 UK hit with ‘Hippy Chick.’ a song based on a guitar sample from the song.
1991 – 21 years after its first release ‘All Right Now’, by Free made No.2 in the UK singles chart after being re-issued to coincide with its use in a Wrigleys Chewing gum TV ad.
1996 – Oasis scored their second UK No.1 single when ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ went to No.1. From the bands ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’ album it was the first Oasis single to feature Noel on lead vocals instead of his brother, Liam Gallagher.
1999 – Dusty Springfield died after a long battle against cancer, aged 59. The British singer had her first UK hit single in 1963 with ‘I Only Want To Be With You’, which reached No.4, the 1966 UK No.1 & US No.4 single with ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ plus over 15 other UK Top 40 singles. During her 1960s peak, she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic.
2003 – Christina Aguilera started a two week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with Linda Perry written and produced song ‘Beautiful’. The singers fourth UK No.1 which earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
2003 – Norah Jones started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with her debut album ‘Come Away With Me’. The album spent over a year on the chart and was also a US No.1.
2008 – Three months after its initial release, the deluxe edition of Amy Winehouse’s Grammy Award-winning album ‘Back to Black’ went to No.1 on the UK album chart.
2009 – DJ and Ivor Novello award winner Norman Cook checked himself into rehab to battle an alcohol addiction. His manager Garry Blackburn said. “Norman is voluntarily seeking help for his alcohol problem but he’s in good shape.”
2024 – Winners at The Brit Awards 2024 held at The O2 Arena in London, UK included: Miley Cyrus who won Best International Song for ‘Flowers’, Kylie Minogue won the Global Icon Award, Dua Lipa won Best Pop Act and Raye won British Album of the Year for My 21st Century Blues, Song Of The Tear for ‘Escapism’, British Artist of the Year and Best R&B Act.
Today in history
1484 – The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
1545 – The birth of Sir Thomas Bodley, English diplomat, scholar and founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is second only in size to the British Library.
1797 – The Bank of England printed the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.
1807 – William Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland becomes British Prime Minister for the second time after the fall of William Grenville’s Whig government.
1882 – An unsuccessful attempt was made by Scotsman Roderick Maclean to assassinate Queen Victoria. As she was leaving Windsor railway station he stepped forward from the cheering crowd, lifted a revolver and fired into her carriage. Before a second shot could be fired, he was overpowered by the crowd and arrested by Superintendent Hayes. Remaining calm, the Queen and her companions rode on to Windsor Castle.
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