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 309 of the year.

Wednesday, November 5th Daily Prep.

Known as Bonfire Night, Guy Fawkes’ Night, World Tsunami Awareness Day, National Redhead Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1605 – Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up King James I and the British Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot. The plot is discovered, and Guy Fawkes is caught, tortured, and later executed along with seven others.
Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up King James I and the British Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot. The plot is discovered, and Guy Fawkes is caught, tortured, and later executed along with seven others.
Today’s birthdays
1941 – Art Garfunkel (84), American singer (“The Sound of Silence”, “Bridge over Troubled Water”, “Mrs. Robinson”), born in Forest Hills, New York, United States.

1947 – Peter Noone (78), English lead singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist with Herman’s Hermits (“I’m Into Something Good”), Davyhulme, Urmston, Greater Manchester.

1957 – Mike Score (68), English singer, co-founder and lead vocalist with A Flock of Seagulls (“I Ran”, “Space Age Love Song”), born in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire.
1959 – Bryan Adams (66), Canadian musician, singer, songwriter (“Please Forgive Me”, “Everything I Do”, “Summer Of ’69”), born in Kingston, Canada.
1970 – Tamzin Outhwaite (55), English actress best known for her role as Mel Owen in Eastenders and Sasha Miller in New Tricks, born in Ilford, East London.
1973 – Daniella Westbrook (52), English actress and television personality best known for portraying the role of Sam Mitchell in Eastenders, born in Walthamstow.
1975 – Lisa Scott-Lee (50), Welsh singer and member of the pop group Steps (“Last Thing on My Mind”, “Deeper Shade of Blue”), born in Denbighshire, Wales.
Famous deaths
2020 – Geoffrey Palmer (b. 1927), English actor (Butterflies, As Time Goes By, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin).
The day today
1932 – Gillespie Road London Underground station, which also served Arsenal Football Club’s Highbury ground, had its name changed to Arsenal after representations by the club.
1935 – Lester Piggott, champion jockey, was born. Aged 18, he rode his first Derby winner. Piggott had 4,493 career wins, including nine Epsom Derby victories and is one is one of the most well-known English flat racing jockeys of all time. In 1987 he was convicted of tax fraud, jailed for three years and was stripped of his OBE that had been awarded in 1975.
1967 – At least 40 people were killed and 80 hurt after a train derailed near Hither Green, south-east London. Survivors included Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees who died on 20th May 2012, at the age of 62, from liver and kidney failure.
1971 – Princess Anne was voted ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ by the British Sportswriters’ Association.
1989 – French McLaren driver Alain Prost withdraws early in a wet Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide but wins his 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 16 points over teammate Ayrton Senna
1991 – Millionaire publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell was found dead at sea, several hours after mysteriously disappearing from his yacht off the Canary Islands.
2006 – Following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by a coalition of countries including Britain and America, Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq was sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for his role in the massacre of 148 Shi’as in 1982. His execution was carried out on 30th December 2006.
2013 – The village of Wool, in the Purbeck district of Dorset, reported that at least 160 sheep had been stolen from nearby fields, sometime between 1st and 3rd November.
2018 – NASA’s Voyager 2 probe leaves the solar system, becoming the second human-made object to reach interstellar space.
2024 – Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, defeating Kamala Harris; he became the first convicted felon to be elected to the office and the second president to win a second nonconsecutive term.
Today in music
1966 – The Monkees were at the top of the Billboard singles chart with ‘Last Train To Clarksville’, the group’s first No. 1. Bobby Hart who co-wrote the song got the idea for the lyrics when he turned on the radio and heard the end of The Beatles’ ‘Paperback Writer’. He thought Paul McCartney was singing “Take the last train”, and decided to use the line when he found out McCartney was actually singing ‘Paperback Writer’.

1977 – The manager of the Virgin record store in Nottingham, England was arrested for displaying a large poster advertising the new Sex Pistols album, ‘Never Mind The Bollock’s, Here’s The Sex Pistols’. High street stores banned the album after police warned they could be fined under the 1898 indecent advertising act.

1983 – Billy Joel was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Uptown Girl’, which stayed at the top of the chars for five weeks. The song was initially written about his relationship with his then-girlfriend Elle Macpherson, but it ended up also becoming about his soon-to-be wife Christie Brinkley (both women being two of the most famous supermodels of the 1980s).
1988 – The Beach Boys went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Kokomo’, it peaked at No.25 in the UK. The track had been featured in the film Cocktail.
1988 – ‘The Locomotion’, became the first song to reach the US Top 5 in three different versions, when Kylie Minogue’s reached No.3 on the US chart. Written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King, the song is notable for appearing in the American Top 5 three times – each time in a different decade: for Little Eva in 1962 and for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974.
1994 – Sheryl Crow scored her first UK Top 10 single when ‘All I Wanna Do’ entered the charts at No.4. The US singer songwriter went on to become the first US female to score six UK hits off her debut album Tuesday Night Music Club.
2002 – The funeral took place of Jam Master Jay, (Jason Mizell) from Run-DMC who was murdered by an assassin’s single bullet on 30th October 2002. A $30,000 reward was offered in connection with the murder, to this day nobody has ever been convicted of the killing.
2012 – To mark the 60th anniversary of the UK singles chart the Official Charts Company published a chart which lists all the 123 songs that have sold more than a million copies since it began in 1952. Elton John was at No.1 with Candle In The Wind, No.2 was Band Aid with Do They Know It’s Christmas? followed by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody on 2.36million copies.
2021 – ABBA released their ninth and final studio album Voyage, their first album in 40 years. They decided to make it while preparing for their show Voyage, which features digital avatars (“Abba-tars”) of the band members. The album went to No. 1 in most European countries and also Australia.
2022 – Taylor Swift became the first artist to occupy the entire top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week with songs from her tenth studio album Midnights, with ‘Anti-Hero’ at No.1. ‘Anti-Hero’ and Midnights marked the fourth time Swift had a No.1 album and song simultaneously. She won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards (2024), making her the first artist to win the former category four times.
Today in history
1492 – Christopher Columbus first learns about growing and harvesting maize (corn) from Cuba’s indigenous population.
1500 – Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus observed a total lunar eclipse in Rome, Italy.
1605 – Guy Fawkes, born in York was arrested when around 30 barrels of gunpowder, camouflaged with coal, were discovered in the cellar under Parliament. Robert Catesby’s small band of Catholic zealots who planned to blow up James I and Parliament were only arrested after Fawkes revealed their names when tortured on the rack.
1630 – Spain and England sign The Treaty of Madrid, the peace treaty ending the Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630).
1854 – Nineteen Victoria Crosses were won in the defeat of the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman.