September 15th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 259 of the year! Known as World Afro Day, Wife Appreciation Day, National Cheese Toast Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 23rd in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1916 – First use of tanks in warfare, “Little Willies” at Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme. A total of forty-nine tanks were set to be deployed at intervals along the British assaulting line.
Todays birthdays
1946 – Tommy Lee Jones (78), American actor (Men In Black, Double Jeopardy, The Fugitive) and film director, born in San Saba, Texas, United States.
1955 – Brendan O’Carroll (69), Irish actor, comedian, director, producer and writer (Agnes Brown – Mrs Browns Boys), born in Finglas, Dublin, Ireland.
1972 – Jimmy Carr (52), British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer (8 Out of 10 Cats, Big Fat Quiz of the Year), born in Isleworth, West London.
1977 – Tom Hardy (47), English actor, producer and screenwriter (Venom, Legend, Bronson, The Dark Knight Rises), born in Hammersmith, London.
1984 – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (40), He is the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, born in St Mary’s Hospital, London.
Famous deaths
2007 – Colin McRae (b. 1968), Scottish race car driver (1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion, and the first British driver to win the World Rally Championship Drivers’ title in 1995.)
The day today
1940 – The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as “Battle of Britain Day”.
1960 – London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.
1971 – Prince Charles joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, under the graduate entry scheme, as Acting Sub-Lieutenant. The Duke of Edinburgh, and his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, had both been at Dartmouth.
1997 – Google.com is registered as a domain name.
2014 – Phones 4u, which had more than over 600 stores throughout the United Kingdom, went into administration after EE, Vodafone, Orange & O2, the company’s final remaining suppliers, ended their contracts.
Today in music
1956 – Elvis Presley started a five-week run at No.1 on the US charts with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. The track went on to become Presley’s biggest selling single, with sales over six million by 1961. This “double-sided hit” which had ‘Hound Dog’ on the B side, became the most successful on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. One side reached No.1 on the chart, the other No.2. The two titles spent a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100 in 1956-1957.
1962 – The Four Seasons started a five week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Sherry’, it made No.8 in the UK. They became the first American group to have three No.1’s in succession.
1966 – The Small Faces were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘All Or Nothing’, their only No.1 hit. According to Kay Marriott, Steve Marriott’s mother, Steve wrote the song about his split with ex-fiancee Sue Oliver, though first wife Jenny Rylance states that Marriott told her he wrote the song for her as a result of her split with Rod Stewart.
1984 – Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’ became the longest running chart hit since Engelbert Humperdink’s ‘Release Me’, after spending 43 weeks on the UK singles chart.
1990 – George Michael scored his second UK No.1 solo album with his second release ‘Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1’. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide.
Today in history
1830 – George Stephenson’s Manchester and Liverpool railway opened. During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington.
1835 – Aboard the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin discovered the Galapagos Islands. The Beagle set off four years prior from Plymouth, England. The first European set foot on the Galapagos Islands, which marked the start of Darwin’s research into the theory of evolution.
1859 – The death of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was involved in dock design, railway engineering and marine engineering. He built the SS Great Western in 1837, SS Great Britain in 1843 & SS Great Eastern in 1858, each the largest in the world at launch date.
1871 – The first British-based international mail order business was begun by the Army and Navy Co-operative. They published their first catalogue in February 1872.
1890 – Agatha Christie, English detective novelist was born. Her most notable works being Murder on the Orient Express and The Mousetrap among others.