October 15th "2023" daily prep

Welcome to day 288 of the year! Known as Global Handwashing Day, National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day as well as Grouch Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of January 22nd 2023. Your star sign is “Libra”.
1956 – The last RAF Lancaster bomber was retired from service. Built by Armstrong Whitworth, Lancasters served in the RAF from February 1946 until December 1953 and were officially withdrawn in a ceremony at St. Mawgan, Cornwall.
Todays birthdays
1948 – Chris de Burgh (75), British-Irish singer-songwriter (The Lady in Red, A Spaceman Came Travelling) and instrumentalist, born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina.
1959 – Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson (64), Duchess of York, British author (Budgie the Little Helicopter), and television personality, born in The London Welbeck Hospital, London.
1969 – Dominic West (54), English actor (300, Tomb Raider, The Crown), director and musician, born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
1971 – Andy Cole (52), English former professional footballer (Newcastle United, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers), born in Nottingham.
1989 – Anthony Joshua (34), British professional boxer and is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, born in Watford.
The day today
1941 – Hitler declared that all of Germany’s Jews must be relocated, and Polish Jews found outside of their ghettos would be shot on sight. Additionally, anyone who helped Jewish people would be killed too.
1953 – The British nuclear test Totem 1 was detonated at Emu Field in South Australia. The main purpose of the trial was to determine the limit on the amount of plutonium-240 which could be present in a bomb and thus aid the British government’s weapons programme.

1973 – Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is found guilty of trafficking cannabis by a court in Nice. He is given a one-year suspended sentence and a 5,000 franc fine. He was also banned from entering France for two years.

1997 – Following a new land speed record by Andy Green in Thrust SSC the previous month, Thrust SSC became the first land vehicle to exceed the speed of sound when it achieved 763 mph (Mach 1.020) at Black Rock Desert, Nevada. The record still stands.
2017 – The round £1 coin, introduced in 1983, went out of circulation at midnight. Its replacement was 12 sided and had additional security features.
Today in music
1966 – The Four Tops started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’. The group’s second US No.1 and their first No.1 in the UK, (and becoming Motown’s second UK chart-topper after The Supremes No. 1 hit ‘Baby Love’ in late 1964).
1988 – UB40 went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Neil Diamond song ‘Red Red Wine’, also a No.1 hit in the US, South Africa, Netherlands and Canada.
2000 – U2 went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Beautiful Day’, the group’s fourth UK No.1 single and taken from their album ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’.
2006 – The Sugababes were the most successful UK all-female act of the 21st century, according to new figures. Since their chart debut in 2000, they had scored 16 hits, beating the likes of Madonna and Britney Spears. The trio first made UK chart history in 2002 when, with ‘Freak Like Me’, made them the youngest female group to top the chart.
2021 – Elton John achieved his first UK No.1 single in sixteen years when his collaboration with Dua Lipa, ‘Cold Heart (Pnau remix)’, rose to the top of the UK Singles Chart during its fifth week in the top-ten.
Today in history
1666 – Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that Charles II had started wearing the first known waistcoat. The King was so overweight that he left the bottom button undone, a fashion custom followed to this day
1783 – Aviation pioneers, the Montgolfier brothers, made the first human ascent in a hot air balloon. Étienne Montgolfier piloted the tethered flight in the Réveillon workshop in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a suburb of Paris.
1881 – P.G. Wodehouse was born. He was famous for his Jeeves and Wooster novels.
1887 – Preston North End beat Hyde 26-0 in an FA Cup tie, the highest goal score ever by an English club in a major competition, with James Ross the first player to score seven goals in a 1st Division match.
1888 – A ‘From Hell’ letter was sent to George Lusk, then head of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, claiming to be from the serial killer Jack the Ripper. It was delivered with a small box containing half of what doctors later determined was a human kidney, preserved in ethanol. One of his victim’s kidneys had been removed by the killer, which gave the letter some authenticity. The letter ended with the words – ‘Catch me when you can Mister Lusk.’, but the Ripper was never caught.
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