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 324 of the year.

Thursday, November 20th Daily Prep.

Known as National Absurdity Day, Peanut Butter Fudge Day and Name Your PC Day, World Pancreatic Cancer Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1992 – A fire broke out in Windsor Castle. It destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms. The fire started in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel, where a faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar.
A fire broke out in Windsor Castle. It destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms. The fire started in Queen Victoria's Private Chapel, where a faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar. Within minutes the blaze was unstoppable.
Today’s birthdays
1942 – Norman Greenbaum (83), American singer-songwriter (“Spirit in the Sky”), one of the best-selling one hit-wonders of all time, born in Massachusetts, United States.
1957 – Jimmy Brown (68), English rock-reggae drummer and a founding member of UB40 (“Red Red Wine”), born in Birmingham, West Midlands.
1960 – Paul King (65), Irish singer and lead singer of the eponymous 1980s band King (“Love and Pride”), born in Galway, County Galway, Ireland.
1973 – Neil Hodgson (52), British former motorcycle racer, who won the 2000 British Superbike Championship, and the 2003 Superbike World Championship, born in Burnley, Lancashire.
1981 – Kimberley Walsh (44), English pop singer and member of the girl group Girls Aloud (“Sound of the Underground”, “Love Machine”), born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Famous deaths
2024 – John Prescott (b. 1938), British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007.
The day today
1944 – World War II: The end of the ‘blackout’ in London. After five years in the dark, the lights were switched back on in Piccadilly Circus, the Strand and in Fleet Street.

1947 – Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. The ceremony was a high-profile event that brought morale to the public after the war.

1970 – The ten-shilling note (50p) was officially withdrawn by the Bank of England. The note was issued by the Bank of England for the first time in 1928 and continued to be printed until 1969. The note ceased to be legal tender in 1970 and was removed in favour of the fifty pence coin.
1992 – A fire broke out in Windsor Castle. It destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms. The fire started in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel, where a faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar. Within minutes the blaze was unstoppable and had spread to St George’s Hall next door. The fire was first spotted around 11:30 in the morning and within three hours 225 firefighters from seven counties were battling the flames. At the peak of the operation they were using 36 pumps, discharging 1½ million gallons of water.
1998 – Zarya, the first International Space Station module, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Otherwise known as the Functional Cargo Block, it was originally designed for the Russian MIR space station. It was crucial during the initial stages of the ISS, as it provided electrical power, guidance, propulsion, and storage. It was named Zarya, meaning “Dawn” in Russian, to celebrate the dawn of a new era of international cooperation.
2007 – Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 went missing. The Child Benefit data on them included the name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people. Chancellor Alistair Darling said there was no evidence the data had gone to criminals – but urged people to monitor bank accounts “for unusual activity”.
2012 – 32 year old Kweku Adoboli, a City trader who lost £1.4bn of Swiss bank UBS’s money was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.It was Britain’s biggest banking fraud and a ‘a gamble or two’ away from destroying Switzerland’s largest bank’.
2013 – Hull was named the UK’s next City of Culture, beating Leicester, Dundee and Swansea Bay to the right to hold the title in 2017.
2014 – Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine was stopped on his way to work at the BBC by a police officer holding a speed radar gun. The device showed that he had been cycling at 16mph through Hyde Park, where the limit is 5mph.
2014 – The UK’s first bus powered entirely by human and food waste went into service between Bristol and Bath. The 40-seat ‘Bio-Bus’ runs on biomethane gas generated through the treatment of sewage and food waste.
2016 – Scotsman Andy Murray breaks through for a first season-ending ATP World Tour Finals tennis title with a 6-3, 6-4 win in London over 5-time defending champion Novak Đoković.
2019 – Snake fossils found in Rio Negro Province, Argentina, showed snakes with hind legs that lived over 70 million years ago. The species was named Najash rionegrina.
2022 – Dutch driver Max Verstappen retains Formula 1 Drivers’ C’ship for Red Bull with a win in the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP; Verstappen’s 3rd straight Abu Dhabi win and his 19th win in 22 races.
Today in music
1955 – The song that changed popular music history ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley & His Comets went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The song was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle. The song entered the charts a further six times until 1974.
1966 – The Supremes were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, the group’s seventh US No.1 spent two weeks at the top of the charts was also a No.8 hit in the UK.
1971 – Isaac Hayes started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Theme From Shaft’, it made No.4 in the UK. Hayes won a Grammy award for Best Original Film Score with ‘Theme From Shaft’.
1974 – Drummer with The Who, Keith Moon collapsed during a concert after his drink was spiked with horse tranquilliser. 19-year-old Scott Halpin who was in the audience, volunteered to replace him on drums for the remaining three numbers.
2005 – Robbie Williams smashed a Guinness World Record by selling more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 World Tour in one day. The tickets, snapped up on the first day of sale, were valued at an estimated £80 million.
2007 – Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke admitted he was among the thousands of people who paid nothing to download the band’s latest album In Rainbows. Speaking to BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Yorke said: “There wasn’t any point. I just move some money from one pocket to the other.” According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all for it. Yorke added that no one was allowed to have copies of the master recording in case it was leaked beforehand.
2015 – Justin Bieber topped the UK singles chart with ‘Sorry’ breaking a chart record for the most tracks inside the top 40. The chart featured eight songs from Bieber’s new album Purpose, the first time a living artist had so many simultaneous entries. His eight entries saw him break a record set by Elvis Presley in 1957, when he had seven songs in the top 40 singles chart.
2015 – “25” the third studio album by the English singer-songwriter Adele is released by XL Recordings and Columbia Records. The album won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
2023 – It was reported that Russia had added Ukrainian Eurovision Song Contest winner Jamala to its wanted list. The singer, whose real name is Susana Jamaladinova, was accused of spreading fake information about the Russian armed forces. Jamala has been openly critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She won the contest in 2016 with the song entitled 1944, which was inspired by the forced deportation of her people – the Crimean Tatars – by Russia during that year.
Today in history
868 AD – St. Edmund, Saxon king of East Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings, who tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, then beheaded him. He gave his name to the town Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. It is believed to be within the town’s Abbey Gardens where some say St. Edmund could be buried.
1272 – Edward I was proclaimed King of England after the death of his father, Henry III. He reached a rather imposing six feet two inches in height, which was extremely rare for the time and earned him the nickname ‘Longshanks’, meaning long legs. He was also known as ‘Hammer of the Scots’ and marched his army north to rid himself of Robert the Bruce once and for all. He was also involved in the Ninth Crusade, the last major Crusade to the Holy Land.
1620 – The birth of Peregrine White a child of William and Susanna White, Mayflower passengers. He was the first English child born in the Plymouth Colony at Cape Cod Harbour.
1787 – Birth of Sir Samuel Cunard, a ship owner born in Nova Scotia who came to Britain in 1838 and, together with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line in 1839. Their first ship, the Britannia, set sail the following year taking 14 days and 8 hours to cross the Atlantic.
1815 – The Treaty of Paris was signed, following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 ended his rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile on the island of Elba.