Sunday, May 25th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 145, known as National Wine Day, Geek Pride Day, Global Africa Day, International Skin Pigmentation Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Emerald.
1967 – Glasgow Celtic Football Club, under the leadership of manager Jock Stein became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Internacionale of Milan 2-1 at the Estadio Nacionale in Lisbon.
Todays birthdays
1939 – Ian McKellen (86), English actor (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, X-Men, The DaVinci Code), born in Burnley, Lancashire.
1958 – Paul Weller (67), English singer-songwriter and musician (“Going Underground”, “Peacock Suit”), born in Sheerwater, Surrey.
1959 – Julian Clary (66), English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter (It’s Only TV…but I Like It, Sticky Moments), born in Surbiton, South West London.
1960 – Anthea Turner (65), English television presenter (GMTV, Blue Peter), born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
1963 – Mike Myers (62), Canadian actor and voice actor (Austin Powers, Shrek, Waynes World, So I Married an Axe Murderer), born in Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.
1976 – Cillian Murphy (49), Irish actor (Peaky Blinders, Oppenheimer, Inception), born in Douglas, Cork, Ireland.
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
1913 – Birth of Richard Dimbleby, award-winning English broadcaster and journalist who became the BBC’s first war correspondent.
1951 – British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean were reported missing. Their whereabouts were unclear for some time and their defection to the Soviet was not confirmed until 1956 when the two appeared at a press conference in Moscow.
1967 – Glasgow Celtic Football Club, under the leadership of manager Jock Stein became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Internacionale of Milan 2-1 at the Estadio Nacionale in Lisbon.
1977 – Original “Star Wars” movie Episode IV – A New Hope, directed by George Lucas and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, premieres in the USA (27 Dec 1977 UK). “Return of the Jedi” was also released on this day in 1983 (2 June 1983 UK).
1982 – HMS Coventry was sunk by Argentine Skyhawks during the Falklands War. Nineteen of her crew were lost and a further thirty injured.
2012 – The SpaceX Dragon 1 became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station (ISS). This marked a significant milestone in the development of commercial spaceflight, demonstrating the feasibility of privately developed spacecraft resupplying the ISS.
Today in music
1967 – Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ entered the UK chart for the first time, where it went on to become a No.1 hit. ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ became the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK (as of 2009). The first video for the song was shot in the ruins of Witley Court in Worcestershire, England.
1972 – Tubular Bells the debut studio album by the British musician Mike Oldfield was released as the first album on Virgin Records. It comprises two mostly instrumental tracks and Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments. Tubular Bells initially sold slowly but gained worldwide attention in December 1973 when its opening theme was used for the soundtrack to the horror film The Exorcist.
1974 – Rick Wakeman became the first member of the group Yes to have a No.1 UK album when ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’ went to the top of the charts.
1985 – Dire Straits scored their second UK No.1 album with ‘Brothers In Arms’, also No.1 in the US and 24 other countries. One of the first releases marketed to CD buyers, ‘Brothers In Arms’ was an early ‘all digital’ recording. The album won two Grammy Awards at the 28th Grammy Awards, and also won Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards, and has gone on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide.
1998 – Coldplay released their first ever record, an EP called Safety, which featured 3 tracks; ‘Bigger Stronger’, ‘No More Keeping My Feet on the Ground’, and ‘Such a Rush’. The EP was intended as a demo for record companies and is now such a rarity that it is known to fetch in excess of £2000 on eBay.
2003 – Jemini, the UK entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, failed to get a single point, the first time a UK entry had ended up with nul points. The first nul pointers came in 1962, six years after the contest started, when four countries Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain all failed to register.
2006 – Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter Desmond Dekker died of a heart attack at his home in London. He had one of the first international Jamaican hits in 1968, with the ‘Israelites’.
Today in history
946 AD – The death of Edmund I, from the House of Wessex and King of the English from 939. His qualities characterized him as Edmund the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, and the Magnificent.
1659 – Lord protector Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver, resigned his position leading to the restoration of the monarchy and the crowning of Charles II in 1660.
1768 – Captain James Cook sailed on his first voyage of discovery, on which he explored the Society Islands and charted the coasts of New Zealand and West Australia.
1871 – The House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act, creating public holidays on Easter Monday, Whit Monday and Christmas Day.
1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Opera Comique in London.
1895 – At the end of a sensational trial, Irish writer Oscar Wilde was convicted of gross indecency in his relations with the son of the Marquess of Queensberry. He was sentenced to two years hard labour.