Wednesday, May 7th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 127, known as Bladder Cancer Awareness Day, National Tourism Day, Beaufort Scale Day, National Roast Leg of Lamb Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1765 – HMS Victory, the ship which became the flagship of British Admiral Horatio Nelson, was launched at Chatham. The ship is preserved today as a historic relic at Portsmouth.
Todays birthdays
1944 – Richard O’Sullivan (81), English comedy actor best known for his role as Robin Tripp in the 1970s sitcoms Man About the House, born in Chiswick, London.
1946 – Brian Turner (79), British chef, writer and TV personality (Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen), born in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
1968 – Eagle-Eye Cherry (57), Swedish singer and musician (“Save Tonight”), born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1980 – Kate Lawler (45), English television personality (first female winner of Big Brother UK) and radio DJ (Capital FM and Virgin Radio), born in Beckenham, Greater London.
1986 – Matt Helders (39), English singer, musician and a founding member of indie band Arctic Monkeys (“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”), born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
1984 – Diana Dors (b. 1931), English actress (Lady Godiva Rides Again).
The day today
1915 – World War I : The Cunard liner Lusitania, bound for Liverpool, was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland with the loss of almost 1,200 lives. The loss of 128 US citizens brought the USA to the verge of war with Germany.
1928 – The voting age for women in Britain was reduced from 30 to 21.
1945 – Germany signed an unconditional surrender in a small school in Rheims (France) when General Jodl, German Army Chief of Staff, signed his name on documents that formally ended six years of war in Europe.
1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, later renamed to Sony, was founded with approximately 20 employees.
1994 – Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” was found at a hotel, just three months after it had been stolen from a museum.
1997 – The sci-fi film “The Fifth Element,” written and directed by Luc Besson and starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman, was first released (6th June release in the UK). At the time, “The Fifth Element” was the most expensive European film ever made.
2000 – Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as President of Russia.
2002 – The Queen officially opened the Gateshead Millennium Bridge that spans the River Tyne between Gateshead’s Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The tilting bridge (the world’s first) is sometimes referred to as the ‘Blinking Eye Bridge’ due to its shape and its tilting method to let tall ships pass underneath.
2014 – An international league table (Better Life Index) showed that people in Britain were 24 per cent more likely to go out of their way to help a stranger than the average inhabitant of the world’s other leading industrial countries.
Today in music
1966 – The Mamas & the Papas started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Monday Monday’ becoming the first song with a day of the week in the title to top the chart.
1967 – Pink Floyd appeared at The Mojo Club, Tollbar, Sheffield, England, opened and owned by Peter Stringfellow. Acts who have also appeared at the club include Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, Rod Stewart, Ike and Tina Turner, The Who, Small Faces and Jimi Hendrix.
1977 – The Eagles went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Hotel California’, the group’s fourth US No.1, a No.8 hit in the UK. The Eagles also won the 1977 Grammy Award for Record of the Year for ‘Hotel California’ at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards in 1978. The song’s guitar solo is ranked 8th on Guitar Magazine’s Top 100 Guitar Solos and was voted the best solo of all time by readers of Guitarist magazine.
1988 – Terence Trent D’arby went to No.4 on the UK singles chart with “Wishing Well” taken from the same album as “Sign Your Name” which peaked at No.2.
2000 – Britney Spears went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’. Written and produced by hit-makers Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, who had previously collaborated with Spears on ‘…Baby One More Time’.
2006 – Snow Patrol went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Eyes Open’ the bands fourth album. Also a No.1 in Ireland, and Australia and a No. 27 hit on the US Chart. The bands first album ‘Songs For Polarbears’ peaked at No.143 when released in 1998.
Today in history
1625 – State funeral of James VI and I (1566-1625) was held at Westminster Abbey.
1663 – The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, built by Thomas Killigrew, opened under a charter granted by Charles II.
1765 – HMS Victory, the ship which became the flagship of British Admiral Horatio Nelson, was launched at Chatham. The ship is preserved today as a historic relic at Portsmouth.
1821 – Sierra Leone, Gambia, and the Gold Coast were taken over by the British government to form British West Africa.
1860 – The birth of English freak showman Thomas Noakes, (later known as Tom Norman). In 1884, he took over the management of Joseph Merrick, otherwise known as the ‘Elephant Man’ and exhibited him for a few weeks until police closed down the show. Over the next few years, Norman’s travelling exhibitions featured Eliza Jenkins, the ‘Skeleton Woman’, a ‘Balloon Headed Baby’ and a woman who bit off the heads of live rats, the ‘most gruesome’ act that Norman claimed to have seen. Other acts included fleas, fat ladies, giants, dwarfs and retired white seamen, painted black and speaking in an invented language, billed ‘savage Zulus’.
1864 – The world’s oldest surviving clipper ship, the City of Adelaide is launched by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, for transporting passengers and goods between Britain and Australia.