Wednesday, May 14th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 134, known as Childrens Day UK, National Night Shift Workers’ Day, Receptionist Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1894 – Blackpool Tower first opened to the public who paid a 6d (six pence) entrance fee, six pence more for a ride in the lifts to the top, and a further six pence for the circus.
Todays birthdays
1952 – David Byrne (73), Scottish-born American musician, songwriter and lead singer with new wave band Talking Heads (‘Once in a Lifetime’), born in Dumbarton, Scotland.
1961 – Tim Roth (64), English actor (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Reservoir Dogs), born in Dulwich, London.
1964 – Shelley Preston (61), English singer and former member of Bucks Fizz (‘Making Your Mind Up’, ‘The Land of Make Believe’), born in the London Borough of Hillingdon.
1968 – Greg Davies (57), Welsh comedian, actor (The Inbetweeners, Cuckoo) and presenter (Taskmaster), born in St Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales.
1969 – Cate Blanchett (56), Australian actress (Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnarok, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Talented Mr. Ripley), born in Melbourne, Australia.
1973 – Natalie Appleton (52), Canadian singer and member of “All Saint’s” (‘Never Ever’, ‘Pure Shore’s, ‘Bootie Call’), with her younger sister Nicole, born in Mississauga, Canada.
1976 – Martine McCutcheon (49), English actress (Eastenders) and singer (‘Perfect Moment’), born in the London Borough of Hackney, London.
1984 – Olly Murs (41), English singer (‘Dance With Me Tonight’, ‘Heart Skips a Beat’), born in Witham, Braintree, Essex.
1984 – Mark Zuckerberg (41), American businessman and philanthropist and co-founder of Facebook, born in White Plains, New York, United States.
Famous deaths
2019 – Freddie Starr (b. 1943), English comedian, impressionist, singer and actor (Opportunity Knocks and the Royal Variety Performance).
2020 – Little Richard (b. 1932), American singer, songwriter, and pianist (“Tutti Frutti”, “The Girl Can’t Help It”).
The day today
1929 – Yorkshire and England cricketer Wilfred Rhodes took his 4000th first-class wicket during a performance of 9 for 39 at Leyton. He is the only player in history to have reached that plateau. He was also the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches.
1951 – Trains ran on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
1965 – The field at Runnymede, the site of the signing of the Magna Carta, was dedicated by the Queen as a memorial to the late John F Kennedy, US President.
2013 – The American author Dan Brown released his fourth novel in the Da Vinci Code series, Inferno, which became an instant success. His books all made it to film all starring Tom Hanks as Langdon.
2013 – Stuart Hazell, aged 37, was jailed for a minimum of 38 years after he was given a life sentence for murdering the 12 year old schoolgirl Tia Sharp. He denied killing the youngster and hiding her body in the loft of the home he shared with her grandmother. Tia’s family sat through days of shocking and graphic evidence at the Old Bailey before Hazel eventually changed his plea to guilty, in a dramatic turn of events.
2014 – Google added coast-to-coast public transport information for the whole of Great Britain to its Google Maps app. The data included departure times and routes for buses, ferries, trains and trams in England, Scotland and Wales.
2014 – Teenage cancer fundraiser Stephen Sutton died peacefully in his sleep. The 19-year-old, from Burntwood in Staffordshire, raised more than £3.2m for charity after news of his plight spread on social media. (By 7th April 2015 the figure had risen to more than £4.5m.)
Today in music
1977 – Leo Sayer went to No.1 on the US singles chart with the Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager song ‘When I Need You’, the singers second US No.1, also No.1 in the UK.
1977 – During a UK tour, Talking Heads played a gig at The Rock Garden in London where Brian Eno who was in the audience saw the band, who then went on to produce them.
1983 – Spandau Ballet scored their first and only UK No.1 album with True. The title track from the album spent four weeks at No.1 on the UK singles charts and reached No.2 in the US. Other singles from the album included ‘Gold’ (a No.2 UK hit and a Top 30 hit in the U.S.), ‘Lifeline’, and ‘Communication’.
1994 – Scottish band Stiltskin were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Inside’. The song had been used on a Levi’s TV Jeans commercial. The bands only No.1 and only Top 30 hit.
1998 – George Michael was fined £500 after being convicted of a “lewd act” in a Los Angeles lavatory. The Los Angeles court also ordered him to undergo psychological counselling and carry out 80 hours community service.
2000 – Tom Jones was at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Reload’ making the singer the oldest artist to score a UK No.1 album with new material.
2002 – The musical We Will Rock You opened in London, England at the Dominion Theatre. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought, fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and does the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown. WWRY has since become the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre.
Today in history
1080 – William Walcher, the Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland, was murdered. As revenge, William the Conqueror ravaged the area and took the opportunity to invade Scotland and build the castle at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
1779 – The classic English horse race “The Oaks” was first run at the Epsom Racecourse in southern England.
1796 – Edward Jenner became the first British physician to carry out a successful vaccination; on an eight year old boy against smallpox. His pioneering work laid the foundation for modern immunology techniques.
1847 – HMS Driver completed the first circumnavigation of the world by a steamship when it arrived back at Spithead on the Hampshire coast.
1881 – The death of Mary Jane Seacole, a British-Jamaican business woman and nurse who set up the “British Hotel” behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described it as “a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers”, and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991 and in 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.
1894 – Blackpool Tower first opened to the public who paid a 6d (six pence) entrance fee, six pence more for a ride in the lifts to the top, and a further six pence for the circus.