October 25th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 299 of the “leap” year! Known as World Pasta Day, Global Champagne Day, Fine Art Appreciation Day, National Greasy Food Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1964 – The Beatles won five UK Ivor Novello Awards – 1963’s Most Broadcast Song, and Top-Selling Single ‘She Loves You’, Second Best-Selling Single ‘I Want to Hold your Hand’, Second Most Outstanding Song ‘All My Loving’, and the Most Outstanding Contribution to Music.
Todays birthdays
1962 – Nick Hancock (62), English actor and television presenter (They Think It’s All Over, Room 101), born in Stoke-on-Trent.
1957 – Robbie Macintosh (67), English rock session and touring guitarist (The Pretenders, 1982-87 – “Don’t Get Me Wrong”; “2000 Miles”; Paul McCartney, 1988-93), born in Surrey.
1958 – Phil Daniels (66), British stage and screen actor (Quadrophenia; EastEnders – “Kevin” and Time Gentlemen Please – “Terry”). He was also the voice on the song “Parklife” by Blur, born in Islington, London.
1981 – Shaun Wright-Phillips (43), English former professional footballer (Manchester City, Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers), born in Greenwich, London.
1984 – Katy Perry (40), American singer (“I Kissed A Girl”; “Teenage Dream”), dubbed the “Queen of Camp” by Vogue and Rolling Stone, born in Santa Barbara, California, United States.
Famous deaths
2023 – Bobby Charlton (b. 1937), English footballer and manager (member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup).
The day today
1951 – Margaret Roberts (later Thatcher), aged 26, of the Conservative Party, became the youngest candidate to stand at a general election. The Conservatives won a narrow overall majority but the future British Prime Minister failed to win the seat.
1995 – Fans gathered outside Buckingham Palace, to sing ‘Congratulations’ after singer Cliff Richard formally received his knighthood.
2013 – A dog walker found around sixty thousand pounds in banknotes (some charred after being burnt), floating in a Lincolnshire waterway (South Drove Drain in Spalding). Six months later police were still following up a number of lines of enquiry.
2017 – Scientists in India discovered a 152-million-year-old fossil of an extinct marine reptile called the ichthyosaur. The fossil was found inside rocks from the Mesozoic Era, which ran between 252 and 66 million years ago.
2020 – Lewis Hamilton won the Portuguese Grand Prix and broke Michael Schumacher’s record of the most F1 wins by achieving the 92nd win of his career.
Today in music
1969 – ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. It stayed at the top for eight weeks, and was also No.1 in the US, selling over six million copies worldwide. The Archies were a rock group based on comic book characters.
1975 – Art Garfunkel was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You.’ Written in 1934 for the film Dames the song was a No.2 hit for Ben Selvin in 1934 and most notably a hit for The Flamingos in 1959.
1986 – Bon Jovi went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Slippery When Wet’. Featuring two US No.1 singles, ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’ and ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies world wide.
1997 – The Spice Girls went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Spice Up Your Life’. Taken from their second album ‘Spiceworld’ the single set new record, making them the only act to have their first five singles reach No.1.
2012 – Forbes magazine reported that Michael Jackson topped their list of highest-earning dead musical celebrities by earning $145 million in the past year. Elvis Presley ranked No.2 with $55 million in earnings, and Bob Marley No.3 with $17 million.
Today in history
1400 – The death of Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet famous for the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
1415 – In the Hundred Year’s War, King Henry V’s Longbowmen defeated a numerically superior French Army at the Battle of Agincourt. His victory crippled France and started a new period in the war, during which Henry married the French king’s daughter and his son, Henry VI, was made heir to the throne of France.
1760 – King George II died. George III Hanover, his grandson, became king. In the later part of his life, George III suffered from recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness which may have been caused by a blood disease. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, and George III’s eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent.
1828 – St Katharine Docks opened in Central London, England, and it was one of the largest ports for trade in London in the 19th Century.
1854 – The birth of Jack Warner OBE, the English film and television actor who is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon in the BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, a part he played until the age of eighty.