November 1st "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 306 of the “leap” year! Known as National Authors Day, World Vegan Day, National Calzone Day, Prime Meridian Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1848 – WH Smith opened its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station in London. These bookstalls become outlets for cheap editions of publications produced for railway travellers, the popular ‘yellowbacks’.
Todays birthdays
1958 – Robert Hart (66), English lead vocalist and songwriter with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (“Blinded by the Light”, “Mighty Quinn”), born in Bournemouth.
1962 – Sharron Davies (62), English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games, born in Plymouth.
1963 – Rick Allen (61), English musician who has been the drummer of the hard rock band Def Leppard (“Pour Some Sugar on Me”) since 1978, born in Dronfield, Derbyshire.
1966 – Jeremy Hunt (58), Conservative MP (for South West Surrey in 2005) and Secretary of State for Health between September 2012 and July 2018, born in Kennington, London.
1973 – Geoff Horsfield (51), English former professional footballer (Lincoln City F.C., Port Vale F.C.) and football coach, born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
1993 – River Phoenix (b. 1970), American actor (Stand By Me, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sneakers).
2020 – Sean Connery (b. 1930), Scottish actor (The Rock, Entrapment, Highlander) and the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film in Dr No (1962).
The day today
1956 – Premium Bonds first went on sale in Britain with the winning numbers picked at random by a machine with the acronym ‘ERNIE’. The first Premium Bond was bought by the then Lord Mayor of London, Sir Cuthbert Ackroyd.
1993 – The Maastricht Treaty came into effect, and with it, the European Union was formed. The original twelve nations that signed the treaty were Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Irish Republic, France, Denmark, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Greece.
1996 – The original cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired its final episode. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird invented the TMNT in 1984 in comic book form.
2007 – Martina Hingis admits testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon, maintains her innocence but retires from tennis.
2023 – Collins Dictionary announced “AI” as the most notable word in 2023.
Today in music
1970 – Matthews Southern Comfort were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Joni Mitchell song ‘Woodstock’. The group’s only UK No.1 hit.
1997 – Scandinavian dance-pop act Aqua started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Barbie Girl.’ A massive world-wide hit, the single sold more than 8 million copies.
2000 – All Saints came top of a poll to find the sexiest female act. 12,000 UK television viewers voted for the group, The Spice Girls came second and Atomic Kitten third. The 50s group The Beverley Sisters were voted into 11th place beating TLC…. Also on this day, Robbie Williams offered to donate his bone marrow to save a fan’s life after meeting leukaemia suffer Johanna MacVicar. Williams asked his fans to sign up as potential donors after being told of the desperate shortage of male donors.
2007 – Winners at this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards held in Munich, Germany included Avril Lavigne who was named best solo artist, and her song Girlfriend was voted most addictive track. Muse won two awards for best UK and Ireland act and best headline act, Linkin Park won the award for best band of 2007, and German band Tokio Hotel took the prize for best international act. Amy Winehouse won the Artist Choice prize, an award chosen by her fellow musicians and The ultimate urban prize went to R&B star Rihanna.
2015 – Taylor Swift was being sued for $42m (£27m) for allegedly stealing the lyrics to her hit 2014 song ‘Shake It Off’, which topped music charts around the world. R&B singer Jesse Braham claimed in legal papers Swift stole the words from a song he wrote in 2013 called ‘Haters Gone Hate’.
Today in history
1210 – King John of England taxed all of England’s Jews for 66,000 Francs and imprisoned those who couldn’t pay.
1520 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan became the first European to discover the Strait of Magellan. The Strait of Magellan is the passage located south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
1688 – William III of Orange set out from the Netherlands to invade England and to overthrow James II of England during the Glorious Revolution. William’s successful invasion led to him ascending the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II.
1765 – The British Parliament enacted The Stamp Act in the American colonies. The act was repealed in March of 1766 on the same day that the Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts which asserted that the British government had free and total legislative power of the colonies.
1848 – The first WHSmith railway bookstore opened at London Euston Railway Station, London, UK.