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 295 of the year.

Wednesday, October 22nd Daily Prep.

Known as International Stuttering Awareness Day, International Caps Lock Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1972 – Gordon Banks, England’s star goalkeeper, damaged his eyes in a car crash. Fragments of glass had perforated his right eye and damaged the retina, requiring 100 micro stitches to the eye and a further 200 to his face.
Gordon Banks, England’s star goalkeeper, damaged his eyes in a car crash. Fragments of glass had perforated his right eye and damaged the retina, requiring 100 micro stitches to the eye and a further 200 to his face.
Today’s birthdays
1938 – Derek Jacobi (87), English actor (Last Tango in Halifax, Cadfael, Gladiator, Gosford Park, The King’s Speech), born in Leytonstone, London.

1938 – Christopher Lloyd (87), American actor best known for his role as Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, born in Stamford, Connecticut, United States.

1949 – Arsène Wenger (76), French former football manager (Arsenal from 1996 to 2018) and current FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, born in Strasbourg, France.
1952 – Jeff Goldblum (73), American actor (Independance Day, Jurassic Park, The Fly), born in West Homestead, Pennsylvania, United States.

1968 – Shaggy (57), Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae rapper and songwriter (“It Wasn’t Me”, “Boombastic”, “Oh Carolina”), born in Kingston, Jamaica.

1972 – Saffron Burrows (53), British actress (Deep Blue Sea, Gangster No. 1, Enigma, Troy, Reign Over Me and The Bank Job), born in Saint Pancras, London.
1983 – Plan B (42), English rapper, singer and songwriter (“The Recluse”, “Darkest Place”), born in London.
Famous deaths
2020 – Frank Bough (b. 1933), English television presenter best known as the host of BBC sports and current affairs shows including Grandstand, Nationwide and Breakfast Time, which he launched alongside Selina Scott and Nick Ross.

2023 – Bobby Charlton (b. 1937), English footballer and manager (member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup).

The day today
1963 – A BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner flown by test pilot Mike Lithgow, crashed during stall testing with the loss of all on board. Lithgow became the holder of the World Absolute Air Speed Record in 1953 flying a Supermarine Swift.

1966 – A Russian KGB master spy, George Blake, escaped from Wormwood Scrubs in London where he was serving a 40 year sentence for spying against the British Government.

1972 – Gordon Banks, England’s star goalkeeper, damaged his eyes in a car crash. Fragments of glass had perforated his right eye and damaged the retina, requiring 100 micro stitches to the eye and a further 200 to his face. The injury forced him to retire from both club and international football the following year.
1975 – The ‘Guildford Four’ were sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of planting IRA bombs in pubs in Guildford and Woolwich. Fifteen years later they had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal, following an extensive inquiry into the original police investigation.
1983 – The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held its biggest ever protest against nuclear missiles in London, with an estimated one million people taking part.
1986 – The world’s youngest heart transplant patient, a two-and-a-half-month-old baby from north west London, was given the heart of a five-day-old Belgian boy by Professor Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex.

1989 – McLaren teammates Alain Prost & Ayrton Senna famously collide and skid into an escape road during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Senna was later disqualified from the race, which handed Prost the championship.

2001 – Towns and villages in Cambridgeshire and Essex were on flood alert as forecasters predicted more torrential downpours following what experts said were the worst floods in 20 years. The flooding was caused by the River Cam bursting its banks, cutting off villages south of the city, and significant damage occurred in Essex from the River Colne, particularly in parts of Halstead.
2009 – Microsoft released the Windows 7 operating system. It became very popular, with many users considering it one of the best versions of Windows.
2013 – The Marvel superhero movie “Thor: The Dark World” starring Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Idris Elba premiered in London, UK ahead of it’s release on October 30.
2019 – UK parliament approves Brexit deal to leave the EU but rejects legislation to fast-track it to meet October 31 deadline.
Today in music
1964 – Sandie Shaw had her first UK No.1 single with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song ‘(There’s) Always Some Thing There To Remind Me’. Originally recorded as a demo by Dionne Warwick in 1963.
1969 – Paul McCartney publicly denied rumors that he was dead. The most recent of many “clues” of this Death Hoax was the fact that he was the only barefoot Beatle on the newly released Abbey Road LP cover. The story was actually started as a prank by Fred La Bour, a sports and arts writer for the student paper, The Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan.
1988 – U2 scored their fourth UK No.1 album with the double set and film soundtrack ‘Rattle And Hum’, featuring their first UK No.1 single ‘Desire’.
1988 – Phil Collins started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with his version of ‘Groovy Kind Of Love’.
2000 – George Michael paid £1.45m for the Steinway piano on which John Lennon wrote ‘Imagine’. George said, “I know that when my fingers touch the keys of that Steinway, I will feel truly blessed. And parting with my money has never been much of a problem, just ask my accountant.” George outbid Robbie Williams and The Oasis brothers.
2005 – Waterloo by ABBA was voted the best song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Viewers in 31 countries across Europe voted during a special show in Copenhagen to celebrate the annual event’s 50th birthday.
2021 – Adele returned to the UK Singles Chart after a five-year absence when her single ‘Easy on Me’ entered the chart at No.1. Adele also set a new chart record with the single as ‘Easy On Me’ racked up 24 million streams in the UK in its first week of release, the most streams for a song in one week.
Today in history
1707 – Four British Royal Navy ships ran aground near the Isles of Scilly. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and more than 1,400 sailors drowned in one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of Britain. It was later determined that the main cause of the disaster was the navigators’ inability to accurately calculate their positions.
1877 – An explosion at the Blantyre mine in Scotland killed 207 miners the youngest aged 11. It remains Scotland’s worst mining accident.
1878 – The first floodlit rugby match took place, between Broughton and Swinton at Broughton’s Yew Street ground in Salford, Greater Manchester.
1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (lasting 131.5 hours before burning out).
1884 – The International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., designated the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, as the world’s prime meridian. This decision was made because Greenwich’s measurements were already used by the majority of the world’s seafarers and mapmakers, and the conference also recommended a new global time zone system based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).