October 17th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 291 of the “leap” year! Known as National Pasta Day, Child Poverty Day, National Pay Back a Friend Day, World Trauma Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1860 – The world’s first Open Golf Championship was held at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland. Until his death in 1859, Allan Robertson was regarded as the top golfer in the world.
Todays birthdays
1957 – Dolph Lundgren (67), Swedish actor (Expendables, Universal Soldier), filmmaker and martial artist, born in Spånga, Sweden.
1968 – David “Ziggy” Marley (56), Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae performer (The Melody Makers), philanthropist, and son of Bob Marley, born in Kingston, Jamaica.
1969 – Wyclef Jean (55), Haitian rapper and record producer (Fugees – “Killing Me Softly”, “Ready or Not”), born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.
1972 – Eminem (52), American rapper, songwriter, and record producer (“The Real Slim Shady”, “Stan”, “Lose Yourself”), born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States.
1974 – Matthew Macfadyen (50), English actor (Mr. Darcy – Pride & Prejudice and as Tom Quinn in Spooks), born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Famous deaths
2020 – Robbie Coltrane (b. 1950), Scottish actor, comedian and writer (Harry Potter film series, Nuns on the Run, GoldenEye).
The day today
1931 – Infamous gangster, Al Capone, was convicted of income tax evasion. He subsequently served time at Alcatraz prison.
1956 – Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in Cumbria – Britain’s first large scale atomic energy station. The station was closed on 31 March 2003, the first reactor having been in use for nearly 47 years. Decommissioning started in 2005. The cooling towers were demolished by controlled implosions on 29 September 2007.
1973 – The start of a major world oil crisis when oil producing Arab states increased prices by 70 per cent and cut production in protest at US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
1985 – The House of Lords, in the Gillick case, permitted doctors to prescribe oral contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent.
2012 – Colin Farmer, aged 61 and a blind stroke victim said that he thought he was going to die when he was shot in the back in Chorley town centre with a 50,000-volt Taser stun gun fired by a police officer who mistook his white stick for a Samurai sword.
Today in music
1962 – In between their lunchtime and night shows at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, The Beatles travelled to Granada TV Centre in Manchester to make their television debut. They appeared live on the local magazine program People and Places performing two songs ‘Some Other Guy’ and ‘Love Me Do’.
1964 – Manfred Mann started a two week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’, possibly the first No.1 with a Nonsense Song Title. Also a No.1 in the US, the song was first released by the US group The Exciters.
1970 – The Jackson Five started a five-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I’ll Be There’. The group’s fourth No.1 of 1970, it made No.4 in the UK. Motown records claimed the group had sold over 10 million records during this year.
1987 – The Bee Gees became the only group to have a UK No.1 single in each of the three decades, (60s, 70s & 80s), when ‘You Win Again’ went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The brothers fifth and last No.1.
1992 – Tasmin Archers debut single ‘Sleeping Satellite’ was at No.1 in the UK, the English singer, songwriters only No.1. Archer wrote the song in the late 1980s about the moon landings in 1969, but it was only when Archer got a record deal that the song saw the light of day.
Today in history
1091 – A tornado struck London. It was Britain’s earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city of London was badly damaged. Other churches in the area were demolished, as were over 600, mostly wooden, houses.
1346 – At the Battle of Neville’s Cross, near Durham, the Scots were routed and King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
1651 – Defeated by Oliver Cromwell at Worcester, Charles II of England fled to France.
1855 – A steel-making process was patented, by Englishman Sir Harry Bessemer. The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial method for mass-producing steel.
1860 – The world’s first professional golf tournament was held, at Prestwick in Scotland.