November 8th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 313 of the “leap” year! Known as National Cappuccino Day, World Radiography Day, World Pianist Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1987 – An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people.
Todays birthdays
1946 – Roy Wood (78), English musician, singer and songwriter with Wizzard (“See My Baby Jive”) and The Electric Light Orchestra (“Look at Me Now”), born in Birmingham.
1957 – Pearl Thompson (66), British rock guitarist (The Cure – “Friday I’m In Love”), born in Wimbledon, London.
1966 – Gordon Ramsay (58), British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter (Hells Kitchen, Next Level Chef) and writer, born in Johnstone, Scotland.
1983 – Kat Shoob (41), celebrity DJ , television and radio presenter (Magic Radio UK since 1 March 2020) who currently co-presents the Vodafone Big Top 40 with Marvin Humes every Sunday, born in Rochford, Essex.
1985 – Jack Osbourne (39), English media personality (The Osbournes) and son of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, born in St John’s Wood, 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
1920 – Rupert Bear made his first appearance in the Daily Express. Rupert Bear Annuals have been produced since 1936 and are still in production today. The Rupert Annual is still one of the top three Annual titles sold worldwide.
1957 – A report into a fire at Windscale nuclear power plant in Cumbria blamed the accident on human error, poor management and faulty instruments. The fire caused an unspecified amount of radioactive iodine vapour – iodine 131 – to escape into the atmosphere.
1967 – BBC Radio Leicester (the first of the new breed of BBC Local Radio stations) began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from a transmitter located on Gorse Hill above the city centre.
2011 – Asteroid 2005 YU55 came dangerously close to hitting the Earth. It whizzed past at a distance of about 201,700 miles (324,600 km), closer than the moon’s orbit. It was the closest a space object has come to us since 1976.
2018 – A camp fire in California became that state’s deadliest blaze after it killed 88 people and caused 52,000 people to be evacuated.
Today in music
1952 – The first ever UK pop chart was published by the New Musical Express after staff asked 53 record shops to divulge their sales returns. ‘Here In My Heart’ by Al Martino was the first No.1. The song stayed at No.1 for nine weeks.
1986 – Berlin started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Take My Breath Away’. The song which was featured in the film Top Gun, was written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1986.
1998 – Robbie Williams scored his second UK No.1 album with ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’. The album, which featured his UK No.1 hit ‘Millennium’, went on to become the UK’s best selling album for that year with sales now over 2.5m.
2001 – Winners at the MTV Europe Awards included Robbie Williams who won Best male and Best song for ‘Rock DJ’, Craig David won Best R&B act and Best UK & Ireland act, Dido won Best new act and Anastacia won Best pop act. Gorillaz won Best song for ‘Clint Eastwood’ and Best Dance act and Eminem won the Best Hip Hop award.
2009 – Former Smiths frontman Morrissey stopped a concert halfway through his second song after being hit by a beer bottle. The 50-year-old singer who was hit in the eye by a plastic bottle of beer, said goodnight to the 8,000 strong crowd in Liverpool, England before walking off.
Today in history
1602 – The Bodleian Library, situated at The University of Oxford (one of the oldest libraries in Europe), opened its doors to the public. The Bodleian Library is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library.
1605 – Robert Catesby, the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, was killed by gunshot, along with other conspirators at Holbeche House, on the border of Staffordshire. He was buried close by but the bodies of Catesby and fellow conspirator Percy were exhumed and decapitated and Catesby’s head was placed on the side of the Parliament House.
1656 – The birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer and mathematician best known for the comet named after him and for his work predicting its orbit. He also produced the first meteorological chart.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invaded England with an army of 5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden (16th April 1746).
1802 – The birth of Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works at the time of Big Ben’s installation in the tower at the Houses of Parliament. The famous 13 ton bell is named after him.