November 7th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 312 of the “leap” year! Known as Hug a Bear Day, International Stout Day, National Cancer Awareness Day, Project Management Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1945 – Captain H J Wilson became the first man to exceed 600 miles per hour (970 km/h), flying a Gloster Meteor jet fighter at Herne Bay in Kent. The aircraft was powered by two 3,500 lb thrust Rolls Royce Derwent V turbojets.
Todays birthdays
1963 – John Barnes (61), former professional football player (Liverpool FC, Newcastle United, England) and manager (Tranmere Rovers), often considered one of the greatest English players of all time, born in Kingston, Jamaica.
1967 – David Guetta (57), French DJ and music producer (“Titanium”, “When Love Takes Over”, “I’m Good”), born in Paris, France.
1967 – Sharleen Spiteri (57), Scottish singer and guitarist, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Texas (“I Don’t Want a Lover”), born in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
1978 – Rio Ferdinand (46), former professional footballer (Manchester United, West Ham United) who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for TNT Sports. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was a member of three FIFA World Cup squads, born in King’s College Hospital, London.
1988 – Tinie Tempah (37), British rapper and singer (“Written In The Stars”, “Pass Out”), born in Plumstead, London.
Famous deaths
2004 – Fred Dibnah (b. 1938), English steeplejack and television personality.
2012 – Clive Dunn (b. 1920), English actor best known for his role as Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army.
The day today
1956 – An official ceasefire during the Suez Crisis following the British and French invasion of Egypt after President Nasser had announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
1964 – The country’s first drink-driving advertisement was shown on television, with the message “Drinking and driving are dangerous.”
1974 – Lord Lucan mysteriously disappeared following the murder of his children’s nanny and a serious assault on his wife.
1998 – Families of World War 1 soldiers executed for cowardice or desertion laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in the first ceremony of its kind to pay tribute to the 306 servicemen who died. Those soldiers now have a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
2014 – Alan Knight, a fraudster from Swansea, who pretended to be quadriplegic for two years in an attempt to evade punishment for conning an elderly and vulnerable neighbour was jailed for four and a half years.
Today in music
1951 – Frank Sinatra married his second wife actress Ava Gardner, the couple split up in 1953 and divorced in 1957. Sinatra was married three other times, to his first wife Nancy Barbato, to the actress Mia Farrow and finally to Barbara Marx, to whom he was married at his death.
1958 – Eddie Cochran made his UK chart debut with ‘Summertime Blues’. It reached No.18 in the UK & No.8 in the US. The song has been covered by many artists, including being a No.1 hit for country music artist, Alan Jackson, and a notable hit for the English rock band, The Who.
1969 – The Rolling Stones kicked off their 6th North American tour at Fort Collins state University, Colorado. Also on the bill was Ike and Tina Turner, Chuck Berry and B.B. King.
1987 – Tiffany became the youngest act to score a US No.1 since Michael Jackson (‘Ben’, in 1972) with ‘I Think we’re Alone Now’. The song written by Ritchie Cordell was initially a 1967 hit for Tommy James & the Shondells.
1999 – Geri Halliwell went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Lift Me Up’, beating former colleague Emma Bunton’s single which entered the chart at No.2. Sales of Geri’s single were helped by front-page press reports about her dating Chris Evans.
Today in history
1665 – The London Gazette published its first edition under the name The Oxford Gazette.
It is the longest-running and continuously published newspaper in the UK. King Charles II moved his court to Oxford to escape London’s plague in 1666 and established the government paper there. Once the epidemic subsided, he moved himself, his court, the paper, and the paper’s name to London.
1687 – The birth of William Stukeley, English clergyman, friend of Sir Isaac Newton and antiquarian who pioneered the archaeological investigation of the prehistoric monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury.
1775 – Lord Dunmore promised freedom to every slave who enlisted into the British Army.
1783 – John Austin (who was sentenced to death for the attempted murder of a labourer called John Spicer) became the last person to be publicly hanged on London’s Tyburn Gallows. The hanging took place in Tyburn Village, which had been the official site for hangings for nearly 600 years. Future hangings would occur outside Newgate at the “New Drop.”
1805 – The birth of Thomas Brassey, an English civil engineering contractor who was responsible for building much of the world’s railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built an incredible one in every twenty miles of railway in the world. He also built the structures associated with those railways, including docks, bridges, viaducts, stations, tunnels and drainage works.