September 10th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 254 of the year! Known as World Suicide Prevention Day, White Balloon Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 18th in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
2012 – After a 4-hour, 54 minute long final, Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic to claim his first ever major title, making him the first British man to win a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry in 1936.
Todays birthdays
1957 – Carol Decker (67), English musician and lead singer of T’Pau (“China in Your Hand”, “Heart and Soul”), born in Liverpool.
1958 – Siobhan Fahey (66), Irish singer and founding member of Bananarama 1981–1988 (Venus), then Shakespears Sister 1988–1996 (Stay), born in Dublin, Ireland.
1960 – Colin Firth (64), English actor (Bridget Jones Diary, The King’s Speech, Kingsman: Secret Service), born in Grayshott, Hampshire.
1968 – Guy Ritchie (56), English film director, producer and screenwriter (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The Gentlemen), born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
1995 – Jack Grealish (29), English professional footballer (Manchester City and England National Team), born in Birmingham.
Famous deaths
2014 – Richard Kiel (b. 1939), American actor known for portraying Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
2020 – Diana Rigg (b. 1938), British actress known for her roles as Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968) and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
The day today
1933 – English tennis player Fred Perry became the first Briton to win the US Open men’s singles championship since Laurence “Laurie” Doherty in 1903.
1967 – Almost 100 per cent of the voters of Gibraltar rejected Spanish rule in favour of retaining British sovereignty.
1993 – The pilot episode of the science-fiction series “The X-Files” aired on FOX in the US & Canada and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on September 19, 1994.
1998 – English football club Manchester United became the first club in the world to have its own TV channel – MUTV.
2005 – Glamour model Katie Price marries singer Peter Andre. On the same day, television presenter Kate Garraway marries former political lobbyist Derek Draper.
Today in music
1988 – Phil Collins was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love.’ Taken from his film Buster the song had been a No.2 hit for The Mindbenders in 1966.
1991 – Nirvana’s single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was released in the US. The unexpected success of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in late 1991 propelled Nevermind to the top of the charts at the start of 1992, an event often marked as the point where alternative rock entered the mainstream.
2006 – Scissor Sisters were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’, the American’s band first UK No.1. The song was co-written with Elton John, who also played piano on the song.
2007 – Girls Aloud broke the record for most consecutive top 10 hits in the U.K. singles chart by a female act. Their latest single ‘Sexy! No No No’ entered the chart at number five giving them a run of 16 top 10 hits.
2021 – ABBA returned to the top-ten of the UK Singles Chart for the first time in almost forty years when ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ debuted at No.9, becoming their 20th top-ten single. The group’s last single to reach the top-ten of the UK charts was ‘One of Us’, which peaked at No.3 in December 1981.
Today in history
1224 – The Franciscans, founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi, first arrived in England. They were originally called Grey Friars because of their grey ‘habits’.
1515 – Thomas Wolsey was invested as a Cardinal. When Wolsey failure to secure Henry VIII’s annulment to Catherine of Aragon it caused his downfall and arrest and he was stripped of his government office and property, including Hampton Court.
1547 – The Duke of Somerset led the English to victory over the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, Musselburgh. It was the last full scale military ‘pitched battle’ confrontation between England and Scotland and is seen as the first modern battle in the British Isles.
1891 – Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-E, the most popular song in Victorian England in the 1890s was written by former Canadian bandsman Henry J Sayers. Sayers later admitted to copying an Austrian song after hearing the tune being played in a brothel.
1897 – George Smith, a London cab driver, became the first person to be convicted for drunken driving. He was fined £1.