May 25th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 146, known as National Wine Day, Geek Pride Day, Global Africa Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of September 1st in the previous year. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Emerald.
1967 – Glasgow Celtic became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.
Todays birthdays
1939 – Ian McKellen (85), English actor (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, X-Men, The DaVinci Code), born in Burnley, Lancashire.
1958 – Paul Weller (66), English singer-songwriter and musician (“Going Underground”, “Peacock Suit”), born in Sheerwater, Surrey.
1959 – Julian Clary (65), English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter (It’s Only TV…but I Like It, Sticky Moments), born in Surbiton, South West London.
1963 – Mike Myers (61), Canadian actor (Austin Powers, Shrek, Waynes World, So I Married an Axe Murderer), born in Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.
1975 – Lauryn Hill (49), American rapper best known as a member of The Fugees (“Killing Me Softly With His Song”) and actress, born in Newark, New Jersey, United States.
1976 – Cillian Murphy (48), 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
1951 – British diplomats Burgess and Maclean were reported missing. It was later discovered that both were Soviet spies and had defected to Moscow.
1967 – Glasgow Celtic became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.
1982 – HMS Coventry was sunk by Argentine Skyhawks during the Falklands War. Nineteen of her crew were lost and a further thirty injured.
1979 – Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver, was released.
2012 – The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
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.
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.
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.
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.