November 2nd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 307 of the “leap” year! Known as World Ballet Day, Deviled Egg Day, Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
2012 – It was announced that more than 100 post boxes, painted gold to celebrate the success of Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes, would remain gold on a permanent basis.
Todays birthdays
1952 – Maxine Nightingale (72), British R&B and soul music singer (“Right Back Where We Started From”), born in Wembley, London.
1961 – k.d. lang (63), Canadian singer-songwriter (“Constant Craving”, “Miss Chatelaine”), born in Edmonton, Canada.
1966 – David Schwimmer (58), American actor, director and producer best known for his role as Ross Gellar in Friends, born in New York, New York, United States.
1972 – Samantha Womack nee Janus (51), English actress (Up ‘n’ Under, Kingsman: Secret Service) and model known for her role as Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders, born in Brighton.
1977 – Leon Taylor (47), former British competitive diver (Silver medal Athens Olympics), born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
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
1936 – The world’s first regular TV service was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation at Alexandra Palace at 3:00 p.m. It was defined as ‘high-definition’ (with 200 lines of resolution) and was renamed BBC1 in 1964. An estimated 100 TV owners tuned in.
1953 – The foundation of the Samaritans, (the world’s first crisis hotline organisation), by the Anglican priest Chad Varah, who was born in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire.
1960 – Penguin publishers were cleared of obscenity for printing the D.H. Lawrence novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. The first edition was printed privately in Florence in 1928 but the unexpurgated edition could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960. The book was notorious at the time for its story of the physical relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, with explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words.
1964 – The first episode of the television soap opera ‘Crossroads’ was broadcast on ITV.
1982 – The first edition of ‘Countdown’ the British TV game show involving word and number puzzles. It was hosted by Richard Whiteley and Carol Vorderman and was also the first programme to be aired on Channel 4.
Today in music
1963 – Gerry & the Pacemakers reached the number one spot with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
1969 – Sugar Sugar by The Archies was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. The single became the longest running One Hit Wonder in the UK with eight week’s at the top of the charts.
2002 – Armed police arrested an international gang who were planning to kidnap former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her two young children. The gang had planned to ransom Victoria for £5m.
2008 – X-Factor Finalists started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hero’, to raise money for Help for Heroes ‘ a charity that provides support for wounded servicemen and women, and the Poppy Appeal. The song was a Top 10 hit for Mariah Carey in 1993.
2015 – Adele went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Hello’, the lead track from her third album 25. ‘Hello’ became the first song to sell more than a million digital copies in a single week and the third highest weekly sales total since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.
Today in history
1470 – The birth of King Edward V of England, one of the two ‘princes in the Tower’. Along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, Edward ‘disappeared’ after being sent (allegedly for safety reasons) to the Tower of London. Responsibility for their deaths is widely attributed to his uncle, Richard III, but the actual events have remained controversial for centuries.
1636 – The birth of Edward Colston, Bristol-born merchant and Member of Parliament. Much of his wealth, although used often for philanthropic purposes, was acquired through the trade and exploitation of slaves. He endowed schools and almshouses and his name is commemorated in several Bristol landmarks, two schools and the Colston bun (a yeast dough flavoured with dried fruit and spices).
1871 – British police began their Rogues’ Gallery, taking photographs of all convicted prisoners.
1896 – The first motor insurance policies were issued in Britain, but they excluded damage caused by frightened horses.
1899 – Boer War: The start of the Siege of Ladysmith in Natal when Boers encircled British troops and civilians inside the town. The siege lasted for 118 days.