Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
On This Day 2025
Hello, … Welcome to day 305 of the year.

Saturday, November 1st Daily Prep.

Known as All Saints Day, National Authors Day, World Vegan Day, National Calzone Day, Prime Meridian Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
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. In total, 193 episodes aired between 1987 and 1996.
The original cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aired its final episode.
Today’s birthdays
1958 – Robert Hart (67), English lead vocalist and songwriter with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (“Blinded by the Light”, “Mighty Quinn”), born in Bournemouth, Dorset.
1962 – Sharron Davies (63), 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.
1962 – Anthony Kiedis (63), American musician and lead vocalist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers (“Californication”), born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.
1963 – Rick Allen (62), English musician and the drummer of the hard rock band Def Leppard (“Pour Some Sugar on Me”) since 1978, born in Dronfield, Derbyshire.
1963 – Mark Hughes (62), Welsh football coach and former player (Manchester United) who is the head coach of National League club Carlisle United, born in Wrexham, North Wales.
1966 – Jeremy Hunt (59), British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2022 to 2024, born in Kennington, London.
1972 – Toni Collette (53), Australian actress (Muriels Wedding, The Sixth Sense, Shaft), born in Western Sydney, Australia.
1973 – Geoff Horsfield (52), English former professional footballer (Lincoln City F.C., Port Vale F.C.) and football coach, born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
1984 – Natalia Tena (41), English actress best known for playing Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter film series, born in London.
Famous deaths
1993 – River Phoenix (b. 1970), American actor (Stand By Me, My Own Private Idaho, 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
1914 – World War I: The Royal Navy suffered its first defeat of the war with Germany at the Battle of Coronel, fought off the western coast of Chile. HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth were both sunk, with a combined loss of 1,570 lives and no survivors from either ship.

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.

1986 – A leak at a chemical factory in Basel, Switzerland, caused the Rhine to turn red. After a fire broke out and caused damage to a storage unit, thousands of highly poisonous chemicals leaked into the Rhine river, causing it to turn red. The substances killed over half a million fish.
1987 – Brazilian Williams driver Nelson Piquet finishes 15th in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka but clinches his 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.
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. In total, 193 episodes aired between 1987 and 1996.
1998 – Finnish McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen wins season ending Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to claim his first F1 World Drivers Championship, winning the title by 14 points over Michael Schumacher.
2001 – Australia, Canada, and Turkey announced they would send armed forces to Afghanistan. The three nations joined the US in its war on Afghanistan after the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The war ended nearly twenty years later, on August 30, 2021.
2007 – Martina Hingis admits testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon, maintains her innocence saying “I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel 100 per cent innocent” during a press conference.
2009 – British Mercedes driver Jenson Button finishes 3rd in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit to win his first F1 World Drivers Championship by 11 points over Sebastian Vettel.
2012 – Gmail became the world’s most popular email service after its launch in 2004 by offering significantly more storage, advanced search capabilities, and a more organised, web-based interface than its competitors. By integrating with other Google services and continuously adding new features, Gmail has maintained its leading position and now serves over 1.5 billion active users globally.

2023 – Collins Dictionary announced “AI” as the most notable word in 2023.

Today in music
1968 – George Harrison released his first solo album, ‘Wonderwall Music’ on the Apple label. The songs which were mostly Harrison instrumentals, featured Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and an unaccredited banjo contribution by Peter Tork of The Monkees.

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. The group caused controversy with the double entendres in their ‘Barbie Girl’ single, with Mattel filing a lawsuit against the group. The lawsuit was finally dismissed by a judge in 2002, who ruled, “The parties are advised to chill”.
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.
2000 – 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.
1611 – William Shakespeare had his first known performance of “The Tempest.” The performance was at the Whitehall Palace and performed for James I and his English Royal Court.
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 WH Smith railway bookstore opened at London Euston Railway Station, London, UK.