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 290 of the year.

Friday, October 17th Daily Prep.

Known as National Pasta Day, Child Poverty Day, National Pay Back a Friend Day, World Trauma Day, Black Poetry Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
2000 – The Hatfield rail crash, killed four people and injured over 70 when a Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) express train derailed due to a fractured rail caused by rolling contact fatigue.
The Hatfield rail crash, killed four people and injured over 70 when a Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) express train derailed due to a fractured rail caused by rolling contact fatigue.
Today’s birthdays
1957 – Dolph Lundgren (68), Swedish actor (Expendables, Universal Soldier, The Punisher, Masters of the Universe), filmmaker and martial artist, born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1968 – David “Ziggy” Marley (57), Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae performer (The Melody Makers), philanthropist, and son of Bob Marley, born in Kingston, Jamaica.
1969 – Wyclef Jean (56), Haitian rapper and record producer (Fugees – “Killing Me Softly”, “Ready or Not”), born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti.
1972 – Eminem (53), American rapper, songwriter, and record producer (“The Real Slim Shady”, “Stan”, “Lose Yourself”), born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States.
1974 – Matthew Macfadyen (51), English actor (Mr. Darcy – Pride & Prejudice and as Tom Quinn in Spooks), born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
1979 – Kimi Räikkönen (46), Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 (2007 World Championship winner), born in Espoo, Finland.
Famous deaths
2024 – Liam Payne (b. 1993), English singer-songwriter with pop band One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful”).
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.
1978 – The number of seals due to be culled in the Orkneys and Western Islands has been dramatically reduced following public pressure. The Natural Environment Research Council which advised the government to carry out the cull said if no action were taken the number of seals would double, to 140,000, in ten years. Seals account for an annual loss of £12m to the fishing industry as a result of the amount of fish they consume.
1985 – The House of Lords, in the Gillick case, permitted doctors to prescribe oral contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent.
1990 – IMDB (Internet Movie Database) was founded. It was incorporated as a website in January 1996. It started as USENET software written by Col Needham in Bristol, England.
1996 – England international footballer Paul Gascoigne was accused of beating up his wife Sheryl at a hotel in Scotland.
2000 – The Hatfield rail crash, killed four people and injured over 70 when a Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) express train derailed due to a fractured rail caused by rolling contact fatigue, a defining moment that led to the bankruptcy and collapse of Railtrack, the private infrastructure operator.
2008 – Iran attempted to create the world’s largest sandwich at 1,500 meters long but failed due to a crowd eating it before it was measured. Over 1,000 people gathered to put the sandwich together in Tehran in hopes of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
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.
2005 – Freddie Mercury’s 1974 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow failed to sell in an eBay auction, having not met its reserve price. It had been listed by his sister, Kashmira Cooke, who had inherited the car from him. The auction had attracted nearly 200 bids and exceeded £60,000. The luxury vehicle had not appeared in public since 2002, when it had been used to transport the Bulsara family to the premiere of the Queen stage musical We Will Rock You.
2008 – Madonna and Guy Ritchie announced that their seven-year marriage was over because they had drifted apart. The press reported that without a pre-nuptial agreement, Ritchie could be looking at up to £50million of Madonna’s £300million fortune.
2019 – Lana Del Rey’s song “Video Games” was named song of the decade at the Q Awards in London.
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.
1814 – The London Beer Flood claimed the lives of at least 8 people in St Giles, London. A bizarre industrial accident resulted in the release of a beer tsunami onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road. More than 320,000 gallons of beer were released into the area when one of the iron rings around the tank snapped. About an hour later the whole tank ruptured, releasing the hot fermenting ale with such force that the back wall of the brewery collapsed. The force also blasted open several more vats, adding their contents to the flood which now burst forth onto the street.
1856 – Englishman Sir Henry Bessemer patented the Bessemer process, a revolutionary method for mass-producing high-quality steel by blowing air through molten pig iron to remove impurities. His invention, developed in response to a need for stronger materials for artillery shells, dramatically lowered steel production costs and enabled the widespread use of steel in the Victorian age, transforming industries like railways, shipbuilding, and construction.
1860 – The world’s first professional golf tournament was held, at Prestwick in Scotland. The tournament was created to find the “Champion Golfer of the Year” after the death of the best golfer at the time, Allan Robertson.