Welcome to day 311 of the year! Known as Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day, National Mud Cake Day and Hug A Bear Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of February 14th 2023. 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. The aircraft was powered by two 3,500 lb thrust Rolls Royce Derwent V turbojets.
Todays birthdays
1963 – John Barnes (60), former professional football player (Liverpool FC, Newcastle United) and manager (Tranmere Rovers), often considered one of the greatest English players of all time, born in Kingston, Jamaica.
1967 – David Guetta (56), French DJ and music producer (Titanium, When Love Takes Over). He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 14 billion streams, born in Paris, France.
1967 – Sharleen Spiteri (56), 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 (45), 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 (35), British rapper (“Written In The Stars”), born in Plumstead, London.
The day today
1967 – British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper beat challenger Billy Walker to become the only boxer to win three Lonsdale Belts outright.
1974 – Sandra Rivett, the English nanny to John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, is allegedly bludgeoned to death by Lord Lucan, who disappears, never to be conclusively seen again.
1996 – The closure of ‘Butlins – Barry Island’ in south Wales, Billy Butlin’s last-built and smallest holiday camp. At the time of its closure it was owned by Majestic Holidays and was sold for £2.25m to Vale of Glamorgan Council who demolished the camp and sold it to Bovis Homes for housing development.
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.
2016 – The death (aged 95) of the veteran broadcaster Sir Jimmy Young. He spent almost three decades at BBC Radio 2 and was one of the original Radio 1 DJs when the station launched in 1967.
Today in music
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.
2004 – Elton John turned the air blue live on BBC Radio 1 using the words; f****ing, w**k, and t**s. The singer was a guest on the Chris Moyles Radio 1 breakfast show.
Today in history
1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
1665 – The first edition of the London Gazette was printed. It is the world’s longest running journal and carried news of military appointments and engagements.
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.
1783 – John Austin 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.
Fact of the day
Lobster used to be considered the cockroach of the ocean. It may be found in the most luxurious menus now, but lobster was once eaten regularly by the homeless, slaves and prisoners. However, lobster started to be seen as a delicacy after World War II.