Saturday, May 24th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 144, known as Empire Day, National Asparagus Day, World Schizophrenia Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Emerald.
1819 – Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent. Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in January 1901. Her reign lasted 63 years and 216 days.
Todays birthdays
1941 – Bob Dylan (84), American singer-songwriter (“Blowin’ In The Wind) often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history, born in Duluth, Minnesota, United States.
1944 – Patti LaBelle (81), American R&B singer often referred as the “Godmother of Soul” (“Lady Marmalade”, “If Only You Knew”), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
1949 – Jim Broadbent (76), English actor (Paddington, Bridget Jones Diary) best known as Inspector Roy Slater in Only Fools and Horses, born in Holton cum Beckering, Lincolnshire.
1960 – Kristin Scott Thomas (65), English actress (The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer, Gosford Park, Military Wives), born in Redruth, Cornwall.
1964 – Adrian Moorhouse (61), English former swimmer who dominated British swimming in the late 1980s (gold medal 1988 Summer Olympics), born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
1966 – Eric Cantona (59), French actor and former professional footballer (Leeds United, Manchester United, France), born in Marseille, France.
1973 – Dermot O’Leary (52), English broadcaster (X-Factor, This Morning, Soccer Aid) and radio presenter (BBC Radio 2), born in Colchester, Essex.
Famous deaths
1995 – Harold Wilson (b. 1916), English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1964-1970 and again from 1974-1976).
2023 – Tina Turner (b. 1939), American-Swiss rock and pop singer, dancer, actress and author (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”).
The day today
1930 – Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly solo from the UK to Australia.
Amy departed from Croydon Airport in Surrey, England, on May 5 and flew a total of 11,000 miles until she reached Darwin, Australia.
1969 – The Black and White Minstrel Show, at London’s Victoria Palace, closed after completing 4,354 performances over a period of seven years.
1976 – British Airways and Air France Concordes simultaneously began regular commercial service to Washington, D.C., arriving at Dulles International Airport after their first transatlantic crossing.
1976 – In the Judgment of Paris, wine testers rate wines from California higher than their French counterparts, challenging the notion of France being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines.
1989 – “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Harrison Ford, and produced by George Lucas’ Lucasfilms premieres.
2003 – Britain’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest failed to score a single point, a fact later blamed on the UK’s stance during the Iraq conflict.
2019 – At just after 10:00am Theresa May announced that she would stand down as Conservative leader on 7th June, over her failure to deliver Brexit and after losing the support of her own MPs. She continued to serve as Prime Minister while a Conservative leadership contest took place.
2020 – British PM Boris Johnson refuses to sack his senior aide Dominic Cummings, after it is revealed he broke the country’s lockdown rules to drive 250 miles to his parents’ house in Durham. Further allegations were made that Cummings left isolation to go 30 miles to a popular tourist town and that he also made a second trip to Durham during lockdown.
Today in music
1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland. The event was the brainchild of Marcel Baisoncon of the European Broadcasting Union. Seven countries participated and they were each allowed two songs. Both Luxembourg and the winner Switzerland used the same singer for both. Switzerland won with ‘Refrain’ by Lys Assia.
1968 – The Rolling Stones released the single ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ in the UK, the track gave them their seventh UK No.1 hit. Keith Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards’ country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded: “Oh, that’s Jack – that’s jumpin’ Jack.”
1974 – David Bowie released his eighth studio album Diamond Dogs. The cover art features Bowie as a striking half-man, half-dog grotesque painted by Belgian artist Guy Peellaert. It was controversial as the full painting clearly showed the hybrid’s genitalia.
1997 – Hanson started a run on the singles chart with ‘MMMBop’, the brothers first US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK. ‘MMMBop’ was phenomenally successful, especially for a debut single, reaching No.1 in 27 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Mexico.
1997 – The Spice Girls went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Spice’, making them only the third all girl group to do so after The Supremes and The Go-Go’s and the first ever UK girl group to do so.
1999 – Queen singer Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991, was honoured on a new set of millennium stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Mercury, who featured on the 19p stamp, was a keen stamp collector, and his collection was bought by the Post Office in 1993. The stamp marked his contribution to the Live Aid charity concert in 1985, and caused controversy by featuring a small portion of Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, in the background – UK stamps by tradition only carry pictures of living persons who are members of the Royal Family.
2007 – Amy Winehouse, Madonna and Arctic Monkeys were among the winners at this years Ivor Novello Awards. Winehouse won best contemporary song for her hit ‘Rehab’, while Madonna collected the international hit of the year for ‘Sorry.’ Sheffield-based band Arctic Monkeys collected the best album award for ‘Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not.’
Today in history
1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII’s reign.
1689 – Parliament introduced the Toleration Act. The Act granted freedom of worship to Nonconformists (i.e. dissenting Protestants) and granted them their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. Farfield Friends’ Meeting House (near Addingham, West Yorkshire,) was built in 1689 and licensed as a place of worship. The building is one of the earliest Quaker Meeting Houses in the world and has been chosen by Historic England as ‘One of the 10 most significant Faith and Belief places in England’.
1768 – John Wesley first attended evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, then went on to a meeting at Aldersgate where he experienced his conversion. This was the start of Wesley’s Methodism, and over 270 years later there are 54 million Methodists in 60 countries. The design and construction of the octagon Heptonstall Chapel in West Yorkshire were overseen by John Wesley. He laid the foundation stone and preached in the unfinished shell of the church. The chapel, is the oldest Methodist church in continuous use and was founded in 1742.
1809 – Dartmoor Prison was opened to accommodate French prisoners of war. From 1850 it becomes a prison for convicts.
1819 – Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent. As Queen Victoria, she reigned for 63 years, from 1837 until her death in 1901. She married Prince Albert in 1840 and had four sons and five daughters. After Albert’s death in 1861, she went into virtual retirement.