May 8th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 129, known as Nightshift Workers Day, No Socks Day, White Lotus day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of August 15th in the previous year. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1984 – The Thames Barrier is officially opened, preventing the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded except under extreme circumstances.
Todays birthdays
1926 – David Attenborough (98), British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer (The Blue Planet, Planet Earth), born in Isleworth, London.
1960 – Terry Christian (64), English broadcaster (The Wright Stuff, Jeremy Vine), journalist and author, born in Stretford, Greater Manchester.
1975 – Enrique Iglesias (49), Spanish singer and songwriter (“Hero”, “Bailando”), born in Madrid, Spain.
1983 – Matt Willis (41), English musician and co-founder of pop-punk band Busted (“Year 3000”, “What I Go to School For”), born in Tooting, South London.
1983 – Vicky McClure (41), English actress (Line of Duty, Trigger Point, This Is England, Broadchurch), born in Wollaton, Nottingham.
Famous deaths
1984 – Diana Dors (b. 1931), English actress (Lady Godiva Rides Again).
The day today
1962 – Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie are honoured for saving 1200 Jews during WWII, in a ceremony on the Avenue of the Righteous, Jerusalem.
1980 – The World Health Organization announces smallpox has been eradicated. Smallpox was the most devastating disease sweeping in epidemic form through many countries since earliest times, leaving death, blindness and disfigurement in its wake.
1984 – The Thames Barrier is completed. On the same day, the Soviet Union announces it will not participate in Los Angeles Summer Olympics in retaliation for the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi receives a four year prison sentence for fraud. On the same day, Sir Alex Ferguson announces his intention to retire as manager of Manchester United at the end of the season.
2019 – UK goes a week without using a coal-fired power station for first time in 137 years due to use of more renewable energy.
Today in music
1954 – BBC radio banned the Johnny Ray song ‘Such a Night’ after listeners complain about its ‘suggestiveness’. Ray was famous for his emotional stage act, which included beating up his piano, and writhing on the floor.
1970 – The Beatles twelfth and final album, Let It Be was released, (it was recorded before the Abbey Road album, and was originally to be called ‘Get Back’). The album came in a deluxe-boxed edition with a ‘Get Back’ book.
1976 – ABBA scored their third UK No.1 single with ‘Fernando’, the song went on to become ABBA’s biggest selling single, with sales over 10 million. And also on day Abba started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with their ‘Greatest Hits’ album. On the same day, BBC Radio 1 DJ Johnny Walker announced he was quitting the station after being told he must pretend to like The Bay City Rollers.
1993 – Aerosmith entered the US album chart at No.1 with ‘Get A Grip’, a No.2 hit in the UK. The album went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide as well as winning the band two Grammy awards. On the same day, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits received an honorary music doctorate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
2016 – Following his unexpected death, Prince had the top two spots on the Billboard albums chart with The Very Best of Prince at No.1 and Purple Rain at No.2.
Today in history
1660 – The Convention Parliament proclaimed that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I in January 1649. Charles arrived in London on May 29, and was crowned king at Westminster Abbey on April 23, 1661.
1608 – A newly nationalized silver mine in Scotland at Hilderston, West Lothian is re-opened by Bevis Bulmer.
1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.
1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.
1899 – Lady Gregory secured a temporary licence for a play to be given at the Antient Concert Rooms in Great Brunswick St in Dublin, and so enabled the Irish Literary Theatre to give its first production. The play chosen was The Countess Cathleen by W. B. Yeats.