October 2nd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 276 of the year! Known as Guardian Angel Day, Walk to School Day, World Farm Animals Day, Name Your Car Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
1995 – British rock band Oasis released their second album, “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” The album sold a record 347,000 copies in its first week.
Todays birthdays
1948 – Trevor Brooking (76), former England international footballer and manager (West Ham United), born in Barking, East London.
1950 – Mike Rutherford (74), English guitarist, bassist, singer and co-founder of the rock band Genesis (“I Can’t Dance”, “Jesus He Knows Me”), born in Guildford, Surrey.
1951 – Sting (73), British singer-songwriter and bassist (The Police – “Every Breath You Take”; solo – “Fragile”) and actor (Dune), born in Wallsend, Northumberland.
1955 – Phil Oakey (69), English singer-songwriter and co-founder of the band The Human League (“Don’t You Want Me”, “Together in Electric Dreams”), born in Oadby, Leicestershire.
1971 – Tiffany (53), American pop singer (“I Think We’re Alone Now”), born in Norwalk, California, United States.
1974 – Simon Gregson (50), English actor best known for his role as Steve McDonald in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, born in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.
Famous deaths
2022 – Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (b. 1963), American rapper (“C U When U Get There”, “Gangsta’s Paradise”).
The day today
1925 – John Logie Baird (Scottish born engineer born at Helensburgh) performed the first test of a working television system. Although Baird’s electromechanical system was eventually displaced by purely electronic systems, his early successes earned him a prominent place in television’s invention.
1968 – A woman gave birth to six babies in what was hailed as the first recorded case of live sextuplets in Britain.
1991 – Ron Chassidy (who had been jailed for not paying his poll tax) was released after a ‘whip-round’ at his local pub so that he could play in a dominoes match!
1996 – Mandy Allwood lost the last five of the octuplets she had been expecting after a 19 week pregnancy. She had refused ‘selective reduction’ and her case provoked a media storm in Britain.
2012 – The decision to award the West Coast Main Line rail franchise to FirstGroup was scrapped because of ‘significant technical flaws’ in the way the risks for each bid were calculated. FirstGroup, which beat current operator Virgin Trains to win the 13-year deal, said it had submitted its bid correctly and was disappointed at the news.
Today in music
1983 – Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler was at No.1 on the US singles chart with the Jim Steinman written and produced track ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’. It made her the only Welsh artist to score a US No.1.
1995 – Oasis released their second album ‘(What’s The Story), Morning Glory’, which entered the UK chart at No.1. The album has gone on to sell over 18 million copies worldwide, and it won the award for the best British Album of the last 30 Years at the 2010 Brit Awards.
2002 – Robbie Williams signed the most lucrative British record deal in history when he signed with EMI records for £80m. Asked what he was going to do with money Robbie said, “I’m going to count it all.”
2006 – British singer, songwriter Katie Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records for playing the deepest underwater concert. This took palce 303 metres below sea level on the Norwegian Statoil’s Troll A platform in the North Sea. Melua and her band underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before the concert. Melua later described achieving the record as “the most surreal gig I have ever done”.
2009 – Mumford & Sons released their debut album ‘Sigh No More’ in the UK. It peaked at No. 2 on 20 February 2011, in its 72nd week on the chart following its Album of the Year win at the 2011 BRIT Awards. In early 2011, the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in the US. In the United States, it was the 3rd most digitally-downloaded album of 2011, selling 761,000 copies
Today in history
1263 – The battle of Largs: Scots defeat the Norwegians on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, returning the Western Isles to Scotland and ending 500 years of Viking invasions.
1452 – King Richard III was born. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth (Leicestershire) where there is a memorial to him. On 25th August 2012 archaeologists began a dig, searching under a car park in Leicester for his last resting place. On 12th September they said that the human remains found showed similarities to the king’s portrayal in records.
1528 – English Protestant author William Tyndale published “The Obedience of a Christian Man” in Antwerp, Belgium. The text is significant because it was the first document suggesting that the king of a country should be the head of that country’s church instead of the pope or other religious leader.
1780 – During the American Revolutionary War, John André, a British Army officer, was hanged as a spy by the Continental Army.
1836 – After a 5-year voyage around the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Charles Darwin returned to England. He traveled on the HMS Beagle, exploring lands far and wide, including The Galapagos Islands, where he studied the wildlife. The findings from this trip would lead him to the theory of evolution.