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 330 of the year.

Wednesday, November 26th Daily Prep.

Known as National Health Day, International Cake Day, National Jukebox Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Topaz.

1805 – Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford designed and completed The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The aqueduct allowed the Llangollen Canal to cross the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales.

Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford designed and completed The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
Today’s birthdays
1945 – John McVie (80), English bass guitarist best known as a member Fleetwood Mac (“Go Your Own Way”, “Dreams”, “Everywhere”) since 1967, born in Ealing, London.
1965 – Des Walker (59), English football coach and former player (Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, England 1988 – 1993), born in Hackney Central, London.
1975 – DJ Khaled (50), American DJ, record producer and rapper (“I’m the One”, “Higher”), born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
1981 – Natasha Bedingfield (44), English singer and songwriter (“Unwritten”, “These Words”), born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

1990 – Rita Ora (35), British singer-songwriter (“Hot Right Now”, “Let You Love Me”), born in Pristina, Kosovo.

1990 – Danny Welbeck (35), English professional footballer (Brighton & Hove Albion, England National Team), born in Manchester, Greater Manchester.
Famous deaths
1996 – Michael Bentine (b. 1922), British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons (Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers).
The day today
1922 – British archaeologists entered the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon were the first to set foot inside the tomb in more than three thousand years. The tomb itself was in immaculate condition; having been hidden away by sand, it had escaped plunder by thieves. Both Carter and Carnarvon died within seven months of opening the tomb, leading many to believe there was a dire curse unleashed upon them by King Tut.
1941 – A Japanese naval carrier force departed from Hittokapu Bay in the Kuril Islands and moved east toward Hawaii, with the intent of attacking Pearl Harbor. The fleet, known as the Striking Force, sailed in secrecy, maintaining radio silence to ensure the element of surprise for the attack on December 7, 1941.
1968 – Race Relations Act of 1968 made it illegal to refuse housing, employment, and public services based on a person’s color, race, or ethnic/national origin. This act expanded on the earlier Race Relations Act of 1965, which had only banned racial discrimination in public places.
1983 – The Brinks Mat security warehouse at London’s Heathrow Airport was robbed of £25 million worth of gold bars weighing three tons. The gang gained entry to the warehouse from an insider security guard called Anthony Black. The robbers expected to steal £3 million in cash, but when they arrived, they found the gold bullion, most of which was never recovered.
1988 – Mrs. Rita Lockett of Torquay, Devon, spent £10,000 to repeat her daughter’s wedding two months after the event, because she did not like the video. The couple went through the reception with all 200 wedding guests wearing the same outfits and having to listen to the same speeches, this time with a professional video crew on hand.
1992 – It was announced that as from 1993 the Queen would make arrangements to pay income tax, the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s. While monarchs such as Queen Victoria and Edward VII had paid income tax, the practice ceased during the reign of George V and was officially removed for George VI, the Queen’s father, during his reign in the late 1930s. The Queen informed the Prime Minister, John Major, earlier that she wanted to change her tax arrangements. In previous years, Britain’s monarch was not expected to pay income tax, as they serve a duty to the country; however, Queen Elizabeth II thought it was correct to do so.
1992 – British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys was awarded the honorary freedom of the City of Leicester following his development of DNA fingerprinting techniques at the University of Leicester. The techniques he developed are now used worldwide for forensic science, paternity, and immigration disputes.
2003 – The last Concorde to ever fly made a lap of honour over the English channel. Departing from Heathrow at 11:30 GMT, it made a last, brief, supersonic flight, carrying 100 BA staff, over the Bay of Biscay. It then flew a “lap of honour” above Bristol, passing over Portishead, Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Bristol Airport and Clifton Suspension Bridge, before landing at Filton, soon after 13:00 GMT.
2006 – The last international rugby match before demolition of Dublin’s famous Lansdowne Road Stadium is Ireland’s 61-17 win over the Pacific Islanders.
2011 – NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) probe which successfully carried the Curiosity rover to Mars. The mission’s primary goals were to determine if Mars ever had conditions to support microbial life, and it landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. Queen Elizabeth II became Britain’s first monarch to pay income tax.
2014 – The Save the Children charity was criticised for giving former Prime Minister Tony Blair an award for his anti-poverty work in Africa. Critics said that his role in the Iraq war should disqualify him from receiving the honour.
2016 – Punk memorabilia said to be worth £5m was set on fire in the middle of the River Thames in London. Joe Corre, son of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, burnt the items on the 40th anniversary of the release of Anarchy In The UK, saying that “punk was never meant to be nostalgic”.
2017 – British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finishes 2nd in season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit to claim his 4th F1 World Drivers Championship; wins the title by 46 points over Sebastian Vettel.
2018 – The world premiere for the DC superhero film Aquaman, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa, Willem Dafoe and Amber Heard, took place at the Cineworld in Leicester Square, London before its United States release in December 2018.
2023 – Dutch driver Max Verstappen wins his third consecutive world F1 drivers championship with his record 19th GP win of the season in Abu Dhabi; his Red Bull team retained the constructors title.
Today in music
1962 – The Beatles recorded their second single ‘Please Please Me’ in 18 takes and ‘Ask Me Why’ for the flip side at EMI studio’s London. When released in the US on the Vee-Jay label, the first pressings featured a typographical error: The band’s name was spelled “The Beattles”.
1973 – John Rostill former bassist with The Shadows died after being electrocuted at his home recording studio. A local newspaper ran the headline, ‘Pop musician dies, guitar apparent cause’. After the break up of The Shadows Rostill worked with Tom Jones and wrote songs covered by Elvis Presley and Olivia Newton-John.

1976 – The Sex Pistols released the single ‘Anarchy In The UK’. Originally issued in a plain black sleeve, the single was the only Sex Pistols recording released by EMI, and reached No.38 on the UK Singles Chart before EMI dropped the group on 6 January 1977.

1988 – Russian cosmonauts aboard Soyuz 7 took into space a cassette copy (minus the cassette box for weight reasons) of the latest Pink Floyd album Delicate Sound Of Thunder and played it in orbit, making Pink Floyd the first rock band to be played in space. David Gilmour and Nick Mason both attended the launch of the spacecraft.
1994 – Boyz II Men started their 14th and final week at No.1 on the singles chart with ‘I’ll Make Love To You’ giving them the longest run in chart history along with ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston.
2000 – Manchester club the Hacienda was auctioned off raising £18,000 for charity. Madonna made her UK TV debut at the club when C4 music show The Tube was broadcast live from the venue. Oasis, Happy Mondays, U2, New Order, Stone Roses, The Smiths and James all played at the club.
2008 – The parents of missing Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards were granted a court order to declare him legally presumed dead after nearly 14 years. The court order allowed them to sort out his affairs, though his family stated this was not the same as an acceptance that he was dead. The guitarist disappeared on February 1, 1995, and his car was later found abandoned near the Severn Bridge.
2021 – Adele was at No.1 on the UK chart with her fourth studio album 30. Her first studio album in six years following 25 (2015) the album was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and won the Brit Award for British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards 2022, making Adele the first solo artist in history to win the award three times, having won previously for 21 and 25. 30 reached No.1 in twenty-five countries.
Today in history
1645 – English Civil War – The third siege of Newark, which lasted from 26th November 1645 to 8th May 1646. Newark was important to both sides, as two important roads ran through the town – the Great North Way and Fosse Way.
1703 – Henry Winstanley, the engineer who built the first Eddystone lighthouse, was among those who died when it was destroyed in the Great Storm that claimed 9000 lives and lasted from the 25th to the 27th November.
1805 – The offficial opening of Thomas Telford’s Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.
1859 – The last weekly installment of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” is published in literary periodical “All the Year Round”.
1865 – Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” novel was published. It would become one of the most famous works of English language fiction. Originally, the entire first edition was printed in Oxford, but Carroll suppressed it due to a quality issue reported by the illustrator, John Tenniel. A new edition was then reset, and though dated 1866, it was published by Macmillan in November 1865, timed for the Christmas market.
1867 – Mrs. Lily Maxwell of Manchester became the first ever woman to vote in a British election, due to a mistake in the electoral register. She had to be escorted to the polling station by a bodyguard to protect her from those opposed to women’s suffrage.