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 285 of the year.

Sunday, October 12th Daily Prep.

Known as Harry Potter Book Day, National Chess Day, National Pulled Pork Day, World Arthritis Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1969 – The opening of Preston Bus Station, one of the largest in Western Europe. Threatened with demolition since the year 2000, campaigns and applications were made numerous times to save the building.
The opening of Preston Bus Station, one of the largest in Western Europe. Threatened with demolition since the year 2000, campaigns and applications were made numerous times to save the building.
Today’s birthdays
1944 – Angela Rippon (81), English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter (Rip-Off Britain, Come Dancing), born in Plymouth, Devon.
1953 – Les Dennis (72), English television presenter (Family Fortunes 1987 to 2002), actor and comedian, born in Garston, Liverpool.
1968 – Hugh Jackman (57), Australian stage and screen actor and singer (The Boy from Oz; X-Men – “Wolverine”; The Greatest Showman; Kate And Leopold), born in Sydney, Australia.
1974 – Stephen Lee (51), English former professional snooker player, born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
1983 – Katie Piper (42), English writer, activist, television presenter and model who, back in March 2008, was attacked with acid by her ex-boyfriend and an accomplice, born in Andover, Hampshire.
Famous deaths
2022 – Angela Lansbury (b. 1925), British-American actress (Bedknobs and Broomsticks) best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote.
The day today
1915 – Despite international protests, Edith Cavell, an English nurse in Belgium, was shot by a German firing squad, for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners.
1931 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, unveiled its iconic Christ The Redeemer statue. The statue, including the pedestal, is 124 ft (38 m) tall, and its arms are 91.8 ft (28 m) wide. It sits at the peak of Corcovado Mountain, which creates some jaw-dropping views.

1951 – The launch of Holme Moss Transmitting Station, one of the highest in the country, reaching 228m above ground and 524m above sea level. In 1951 it provided BBC television (the only TV programme at the time) but now transmits VHF, FM and DAB radio to Derbyshire, Manchester and West Yorkshire, with coverage of around 13.5 million people.

1969 – The opening of Preston Bus Station, one of the largest in Western Europe. Threatened with demolition since the year 2000, campaigns and applications were made numerous times to save the building. It featured on the 2012 World Monument Fund’s list of sites at risk. Nevertheless, on 7th December 2012, Preston City Council announced that the bus station would be demolished, but in 2013 it was saved when English Heritage granted it the status of a Grade II listed building.
1978 – British punk rocker Sid Vicious is arrested on suspicion of murder after his girlfriend’s body is found in their New York hotel room.

1979 – The world’s strongest storm ever was recorded. The so-called Typhoon Tip storm reached an unfathomable wind speed of 190 miles per hour across the Western Pacific. But what really made this the strongest storm on Earth was its Diameter of Circulation, which covered 1,380 miles, equivalent to the distance from New York City to Dallas!

1979 – The publication of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide comedy science fiction series by the English writer and dramatist Douglas Adams.

1982 – British armed forces held a victory parade in London following the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War.
1984 – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an assassination attempt when an IRA bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel, Brighton which was being used by delegates to the Conservative Party Conference. Five people were killed and 30 people injured, including the Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit and his wife Margaret, who was left permanently disabled.
2020 – Charity fundraiser Lloyd Scott completed his Three Peaks challenge climb (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) wearing a 59kg. (9st.) diving suit. A veteran of 30 years of fundraising and more than 50 events, Scott famously completed the London Marathon in 2002 in a deep-sea diving suit. His other challenges have seen him cycle across Australia on a penny farthing, complete an underwater marathon and walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats dressed as a T-Rex – all of which has helped him raise more than £5m for charitable causes.
Today in music
1974 – The Bay City Rollers went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their debut album ‘Rollin.’ The album included three British chart hits ‘Remember’, ‘Shang-a-Lang’, ‘Summerlove Sensation’) and the debut of ‘Saturday Night’, never a British hit yet a No.1 smash in America.
1985 – Jennifer Rush was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Power Of Love’. The song stayed at No.1 for five weeks and became the biggest selling single of the year and the biggest single ever for a woman in the UK. Celine Dion enjoyed a No.1 US hit with her version in 1993.
1987 – Australian rock band INXS released Kick which became the band’s most successful studio album. Kick has been certified six times platinum and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and reached No.1 in Australia. The album also spawned four US top 10 singles, ‘New Sensation’, ‘Never Tear Us Apart’, ‘Devil Inside’ and ‘Need You Tonight’, the last of which reached the top of the US Billboard singles charts. The album has now sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
1991 – Simply Reds fourth album ‘Stars’ went to No.1 on the UK chart for the first of five times, featuring the singles ‘Thrill Me’, ‘For Your Babies’ and the title track ‘Stars.’ The album became the biggest seller of 1991 and 1992 in the UK spending 134 week’s on the chart.
1997 – John Denver was killed when the handmade, experimental airplane he was flying ran out of fuel and crashed off the coast of Monterey Bay, California.
2008 – Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ the band’s seventh and final studio album.
2014 – British singer-songwriter George Ezra was at No.1 on the UK album chart with his debut studio album Wanted on Voyage which became the third best-selling album of 2014 in the UK. The album’s title is a reference to the sticker used on the suitcase of Paddington Bear, who was Ezra’s hero when he was a child.
Today in history
632 AD – The death, at the Battle of Hatfield Chase near Doncaster, of Edwin of Deira. He was the first Christian king of Northumbria and the most powerful English ruler of his day. His death and the defeat of his army led to the temporary collapse of Northumbria.
1537 – Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour was born. Jane died 13 days after giving birth to him.
1823 – Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling raincoats, now better known as – Macs. He was first employed as a clerk but before he was twenty resigned his clerkship to take up the manufacture of chemicals. The essence of his patent for waterproof fabrics was the cementing together of two pieces of natural India-rubber, the rubber being made soluble by the action of naphtha, a byproduct of tar. For his various chemical discoveries he was, in 1823, elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
1845 – The death of Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. She was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane. Since 2001, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
1859 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer, died. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer. Many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son. A replica of Robert Stephenson’s Rocket is on view at the York Railway Museum.