Saturday, September 13th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 256, Known as National Peanut Day, Roald Dahl Day, Supernatural Day, Bald Is Beautiful Day, International Chocolate Day. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1969 – The animated mystery-comedy “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” and produced by Hanna-Barbera, first aired. The Scooby-Doo Show ran from 1976 to 1978, concluding on December 23, 1978, with eight episodes that were produced for that series.
Todays birthdays
1944 – Peter Cetera (81), American rock bassist, lead singer, and songwriter “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, “If You Leave Me Now”, “Glory of Love”), born in Chicago, Illinois.
1958 – Robert Christopher Nankeville (67), known professionally as Bobby Davro, English actor and comedian since 1981 and throughout the 90’s, born in Ashford, Surrey.
1971 – Stella McCartney (54), English fashion designer and daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney, born in King’s College Hospital, London.
1971 – Goran Ivanisevic (54), Croatian former professional tennis player (world No. 2) and current coach, born in Split, Croatia.
1983 – James Bourne (42), English singer, songwriter and the co-founder of pop-punk band Busted (“Year 3000”, “What I Go to School For”), born in Rochford, Essex.
1993 – Niall Horan (31), Irish singer and former member of One Direction (“What Makes You Beautiful”), born in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland.
Famous deaths
1996 – Tupac Shakur (b. 1971), American rapper, producer, and actor (“California Love”, “Changes”).
The day today
1916 – The birth, in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents) of the author Roald Dahl. Some of Roald Dahl’s notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, George’s Marvellous Medicine and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant).
1940 – Buckingham Palace was hit by German bombs for the first time. This was not a deliberate target by the Luftwaffe, but rather a consequence of the broad, sweeping attacks carried out across London. The bombing occurred during the late morning, with five bombs dropped on the palace.
1955 – Velcro was patented by Swiss Engineer George de Mestral. He named his invention after the French words “velour” and “crochet,” which means “velvet hook.”
1959 – The Soviet Union’s Luna 2 space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the moon’s surface. The entire purpose of the Luna 2 mission was to crash a probe into the moon’s surface – something neither the US nor the USSR had achieved.
1970 – In Colombia, enroute to the World Cup finals in Mexico, the captain of the England football team, Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a diamond bracelet from a shop. After being kept under house arrest, he was released and all charges were dropped.
1985 – Super Mario Bros is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games. Super Mario Bros is one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 58 million copies sold across all platforms.
1989 – “Uncle Sam” became the official nickname of the United States. Congress designated the personification of the United States of America as “Uncle Sam,” and this day became known as “Uncle Sam Day.” September 13 was the birthday of Samuel Wilson, a descendant of one of the oldest families of Boston, and is thought to have been where the nickname came from.
2006 – The shirt worn by George Best when he scored six goals in Manchester Utd’s 8-2 FA Cup victory at Northampton in February 1970 sells at auction for £24,000.
2012 – Jo Shuter, head teacher since 2001 of Quintin Kynaston School in St John’s Wood, north-west London was suspended after an investigation into its finances. (Shuter resigned on August 28th when it was announced that she had spent £30,000 of public money on luxury hotels, flowers and her 50th birthday party.) She had earlier had been credited with turning around a school’s fortunes, was named head teacher of the year at the 2007 Teaching Awards and was awarded a CBE in June 2010.
Today in music
1960 – A campaign was started in the UK to ban the American hit ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ by Ray Peterson. The song was being denounced in the press as likely to inspire a teen-age “glorious death cult.” The story told of a lovesick youngster who drives in a stock car race to win the hand of his sweetheart. He crashes and just before dying, groans out the words of the title.
1986 – The Communards were at No.1 on the UK with the singles chart with ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, which had been a hit for Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in 1975 and later a hit for Thelma Houston.
1991 – Geffen Records threw a party to launch Nirvana’s single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. The band ended up being thrown out of their own party after starting a food fight.
1996 – American rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur died after being shot six days earlier when he was driving through Las Vegas. 13 bullets were fired into his BMW. The incident was blamed on East and West Coast Gang wars. Shakur was a convicted sex offender, guilty of sexual abuse. After serving eleven months of his sentence he was released from prison on an appeal financed by Marion “Suge” Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records.
1997 – The Verve scored their first and only UK No.1 single with ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, taken from their third album, Urban Hymns. The track became the band’s most successful single in the United Kingdom.
2005 – The Sex Pistols were among new names added to a celebrity Walk of Fame in Covent Garden London. Other musical celebrities to immortalised on the Avenue of the Stars include Bob Geldof, Tom Jones, Gracie Fields and Bob Hope.
2009 – Vera Lynn went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn’. At the age of 92 it made her the oldest living artist to achieve this feat with an album. The previous oldest living artist to top the charts was Bob Dylan, who at 67 saw his album ‘Together Through Life’ become number one in the UK earlier that year.
2010 – George Michael was sent to jail for eight weeks after being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs and possessing cannabis in Hampstead, north London last July.
Today in history
122 AD – Construction of Hadrian’s Wall began. The 73 mile long wall stretches from Wallsend on the River Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway (Cumbria) and took 6 years to complete.
1501 – Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. The work was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the Cathedral of Florence Michelangelo was only 26 at the time of the commission.
1759 – British troops, under the command of General Wolfe, secured Canada for the British Empire after defeating the French at the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and the French commander were killed during the battle.
1806 – The English statesman Charles James Fox was taken ill and died at his home in London, just as he was about to introduce a bill abolishing slavery.
1845 – Chemist Michael Faraday discovered the Faraday Effect. The Faraday effect is when there is a reaction between both a magnetic field and light when inside a medium.
1902 – The first conviction in Britain using finger-prints as evidence was in the case against Harry Jackson by the Metropolitan Police at the Old Bailey. He had left his thumbprint in wet paint on a window sill and was tracked down through it. He was sentenced to seven years.