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 329 of the year.

Tuesday, November 25th Daily Prep.

Known as Shopping Reminder Day, National Natural Fibers Day, National Play Day with Dad, Gazpacho Soup Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Topaz.
1984 – The cream of the British pop world including Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Paul Young and Sting gathered to record the historic Do They Know It’s Christmas? as Band Aid.
The cream of the British pop world including Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Paul Young and Sting gathered to record the historic Do They Know It’s Christmas? as Band Aid.
Today’s birthdays
1955 – Bruno Tonioli (70), Italian-British dancer, choreographer and television personality (Strictly Come Dancing, 2004-19; Dancing With the Stars, 2005-present), born in Ferrara, Italy.
1965 – Dougray Scott (60), Scottish actor (Mission: Impossible 2, Enigma, Ripley’s Game, Hitman, Taken 3), born in Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland.
1965 – Tunde Baiyewu (60), British singer and songwriter of Nigerian descent, best known as the vocalist of Lighthouse Family (“Lifted”, “Ocean Drive”), born in London.
1971 – Dominic Cummings (54), English political strategist and former Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson), born in Durham, County Durham.

1971 – Christina Applegate (54), American actress (Married With Children, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.

1979 – Joel Kinnaman (46), Swedish actor (Robocop – 2014, Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad, The Informer), born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1981 – Xabi Alonso (44), Spanish football coach, former professional player (Real Madrid, Liverpool) and current head coach of La Liga club Real Madrid, born in Tolosa, Spain.
Famous deaths
2005 – George Best (b. 1946), Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United.

2010 – Bernard Matthews (b. 1930), English businessman and the founder of Bernard Matthews Foods, a company that is best known for producing turkey meat products.

2020 – Diego Maradona (b. 1960), Argentine professional football player, manager and one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award, alongside Pelé.

2023 – Terry Venables (b. 1943), English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for England.
The day today
1940 – World War II: The first flight of the deHavilland Mosquito aircraft. The Mosquito was one of the few operational, front-line aircraft to be constructed almost entirely of wood and, as such, was nicknamed ‘The Wooden Wonder’ or Mossie to its crews. When it entered production in 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world.
1944 – A German V-2 rocket hit a crowded Woolworths store in New Cross, Deptford, resulting in the deaths of 168 people. The incident was the single worst V-2 attack in terms of loss of civilian life in the UK during World War II. The rocket struck the store on New Cross Road at 12:26 p.m. on a busy Saturday when many people were Christmas shopping; the store was particularly crowded due to the rare availability of saucepans for sale. The explosion obliterated the store and severely damaged the neighbouring Royal Arsenal Co-op and other nearby buildings.

1952 – The play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, opened in London, at the Ambassador’s Theatre where it remained for 21 years. By Saturday 12th April 1958 it had become the longest running production of any kind in the history of British Theatre.

1953 – Hungary, led by their talented footballer Ferenc Pushkas, beat England 6-3 at Wembley to become the first foreign team to achieve an away win at Wembley.
1963 – President John F. Kennedy’s funeral was held in Washington, D.C. Officials from more than ninety countries attended the funeral. JFK was finally put to rest at 3:15 that afternoon in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
1975 – A loyalist gang nicknamed the “Shankill Butchers” undertakes its first “cut-throat killing”; the gang was named for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast
1981 – The inquiry into the 1981 Brixton riots, known as the Scarman Report, blamed serious social and economic problems affecting Britain’s inner cities, including “racial disadvantage,” for the disturbances. The report, published in November 1981, stated that complex “political, social and economic factors” had created a “disposition towards violent protest”.
2005 – Former football star George Best died in hospital at the age of 59 after suffering multiple organ failure. He was a talented and charismatic player and became one of the first celebrity footballers. Best’s subsequent extravagant lifestyle led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered from for the rest of his adult life. A common description of his place in football history is summed up by the quote ‘Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best.’
2012 – 34 year old former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton announced his retirement from boxing following his loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester. Quote by Hatton “A fighter knows and I know it isn’t there any more. I have got to be a man and say it is the end of Ricky Hatton.”
2013 – It was announced that Clare’s Law, which enables people to check the police record of their partners, would be expanded (in March 2014) to cover all of England and Wales. The policy is named after Clare Wood, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton at her Salford home in February 2009.
2018 – British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to claim his 5th Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 88 points over Sebastian Vettel and giving Mercedes it’s 5th straight Constructors title.
2018 – EU leaders approved a withdrawal agreement for the UK’s exit from the European Union after months of negotiations. The agreement set the terms for the UK’s departure, including financial settlements, citizens’ rights, and the Northern Ireland “backstop,” but it still required approval from the UK’s parliament. This approval came much later, with the UK officially leaving the EU on January 31, 2020.
2023 – David Tennant reprises his role as the Doctor in a three-episode special for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary, alongside Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.
Today in music
1958 – Lord Rockinghams XI were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hoot’s Mon’, (based on the traditional Scottish folk song ‘One Hundred Pipers’). Lord Rockingham’s XI were the house band on the UK Jack Good TV show ‘Oh Boy.’ The song also featured on the 1993 ad for Maynards Wine Gums (“Hoots mon, there’s juice loose aboot this hoose!” was a humorous take on the Scottish phrase “There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose”).
1965 – The Seekers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Carnival Is Over’, the group’s second No.1. Originally a Russian folk song from 1883 with lyrics written by Tom Springfield (the brother of Dusty Springfield). At its peak, the song was selling 93,000 copies per day and is No.30 of the biggest-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom.
1969 – John Lennon returned his MBE to The Queen on the grounds of the UK’s involvement in the Nigeria Biafra war, America in Vietnam, and against his latest single ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts. The Beatles received their MBEs in 1965. Lennon had been considering returning his for a few years before he did so in November 1969, feeling he had “sold out”.

1984 – The cream of the British pop world gathered at S.A.R.M. Studios, London to record the historic Do They Know It’s Christmas? The single, which was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, featured Paul Young, Bono, Boy George, Sting and George Michael. It went on to sell over three million copies in the UK, becoming the bestselling record ever, and raised over £8 million worldwide.

2001 – Robbie Williams started an eight-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Swing When You’re Winning’. The album spent 57 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, certified 7x Platinum, and became the 49th best-selling album of all-time in the UK.
2003 – Meat Loaf underwent heart surgery in a London hospital after being diagnosed with a condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. The 52-year-old singer had collapsed on November 17th as he performed at London’s Wembley Arena.
2005 – Madonna achieved her sixth number one on the UK album charts with ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’ her third consecutive US album chart topper. The album went to No.1 in 40 countries setting a new record. The Beatles previously held this record when The Beatles 1 went to No.1 in 36 countries in 2000.
2009 – Brian May joined Freddie Mercury’s 87-year-old mother Jer Bulsara in Feltham town centre, at a ceremony to unveil a plaque to the late singers memory. They were joined by over 2,000 fans from as far as Japan and Australia who descended on the Centre, in Feltham High Street in England. The plague reads: “Freddie Mercury – musician, singer and songwriter” along with the dates he lived in Feltham, between 1964 and 1968.
2022 – American singer and actress Irene Cara died from arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease age 63. She rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame and for recording the film’s title song ‘Fame’, which reached No. 1 in several countries.
Today in history
1120 – Henry I’s only legitimate son, William, was drowned when The White Ship (la Blanche-Nef) carrying him from Normandy to England sank off Barfleur. This set up a conflict, known as the Anarchy, for the English crown between Stephen and Henry’s daughter, Matilda.
1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reached its intensity which it maintained through to 27th November. Winds gusted up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died.
1823 – The first pleasure pier, The Chain Pier at Brighton, opened. It closed in 1896 and was destroyed in a storm in the same year.
1835 – Birth of Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born US industrialist and philanthropist who rose from telegraph boy to iron and steel multimillionaire. He devoted his vast wealth to libraries and universities including the Carnegie Hall in New York which opened in 1891.
1896 – William Marshall became the first person in Britain to receive a parking summons after leaving his car in Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London, but the case was dismissed.