May 3rd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 124, known as National Paranormal Day, Public Radio Day, National Space Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of August 10th in the previous year. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1926 – Britain’s first General Strike, in support of the miners started ‘On This Day’. It ended on 12th May.
Todays birthdays
1934 – Frankie Valli (90), American singer, best known as the frontman of the Four Seasons (“Walk Like a Man”, “Big Girl’s Don’t Cry”), born in Newark, New Jersey, United States.
1958 – Sandi Toksvig (66), Danish-British writer, comedian and broadcaster (The Great British Bake Off, QI, Fifteen to One), born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1959 – Ben Elton (65), British comedian and author who became a writer on the sitcoms The Young Ones and Blackadder, born in Fitzrovia, London.
1961 – Steve McClaren (62), English former professional footballer and coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for Manchester United, born in Fulford, York.
1965 – Rob Brydon (59), Welsh actor (Gavin and Stacey), comedian and presenter (Would I Lie To You?), born in Swansea, Wales.
Famous deaths
2015 – Ben E. King (b. 1938), American singer-songwriter and producer (Stand by Me”).
2019 – Peter Mayhew (b. 1944), English-American actor best known for his role as “Chewbacca” in the original Star Wars films.
The day today
1934 – The birth of boxer Henry Cooper. He was known for the effectiveness of his left hook, “Enry’s ‘Ammer”, and his knockdown of the young Muhammad Ali. Cooper, who died on 1st May 2011, held the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight titles several times throughout his career and is the only British boxer to have been awarded a knighthood.
1952 – Newcastle United became the first team since 1891 to win two FA Cups in succession by beating Arsenal 1-0.
1968 – The first heart transplant in Britain was carried out at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. It was undertaken on an unnamed 45-year-old man.
1999 – The body of missing English climber George Mallory was found near the summit of Mount Everest. He had gone missing more than 60 years earlier.
2014 – An ornate golden crown that went onto the coffin of Richard III when he was re-buried in Leicester Cathedral (26th March 2015) was displayed at Tewkesbury Abbey. The crown ‘gold with sapphires, diamonds, garnets, studded with jewels’ was commissioned and paid for by the historian Dr John Ashdown-Hill who helped identify the king’s remains.
Today in music
1968 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded ‘Voodoo Chile.’ It was featured on the ‘Electric Ladyland’ double album and became a UK No.1 single on 21st November 1970 two months after the guitarist’s death. Hendrix’s solo on the track was named the 11th greatest solo of all-time in Guitar World’s 100 Greatest Guitar Solos.
1975 – The Bay City Rollers started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK chart with their second album ‘Once Upon A Star.’
1986 – Robert Palmer went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Addicted To Love’, it made No.5 in the UK. Palmer originally recorded the song as a duet with Chaka Khan but due to contractual problems her voice was removed.
1997 – Katrina And The Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with the song ‘Love Shine A Light’, making them the first UK winners since Bucks Fizz in 1981.
2009 – Bob Dylan went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Together Through Life’ his seventh UK No.1 album. It was the singer, songwriter’s 33rd studio album, he last topped the UK chart with ‘New Morning’ in 1970. His first No.1 in 1964, was ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’. Dylan now held the record, (previously held by Tom Jones), for the longest gap between solo number one albums.
Today in history
1497 – A rising broke out in Cornwall, provoked by taxation. James Tutchet led an army of 15,000 from Taunton through the southern counties to attack London.
1788 – The first daily evening newspaper, the Star and Evening Advertiser, was published in London.
1830 – The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (Kent) was opened. Sometimes referred to colloquially as the Crab and Winkle Line, it was the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets. It used cable haulage by stationary steam engines over much of its length, with steam locomotives restricted to the level stretch.
1841 – Captain William Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over all of New Zealand – over the North Island on the basis of cession through the Treaty of Waitangi, and over the southern islands by ‘right of discovery’.
1876 – The death of the doctor and philanthropist Samuel Taylor Chadwick. He provided funds to enable houses to be built for people living in cellars, fought for better public health provisions such as cleaner water, established the Chadwick Orphanage for girls, improved the Bolton Workhouse and in 1863 he set up a charity to help European refugees. Sadly, both his own children died at a young age.