Welcome to day 262 of the year! Known as Read An Ebook Day and Talk Like A Pirate Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of December 27th 2022 and your star sign is “Virgo”.
1975 – The first episode of Fawlty Towers aired on 19 September 1975. Audiences were keen to see what John Cleese would do after Monty Python, but at first the situation comedy received some less than enthusiastic reviews.
Todays birthdays
1948 – Jeremy Irons (75), English actor (House of Gucci, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Man in the Iron Mask), born in Cowes, Isle of Wight.
1949 – Lesley Lawson “Twiggy” DBE (74), English model, actress, and cultural icon during the swinging ’60s, born in Neasden, London.
1952 – Nile Rodgers (71), American record producer, guitarist, composer and co-founder of “Chic” (Le Freak), born in New York, New York, United States.
1963 – Jarvis Cocker (60), English musician and founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, born in Sheffield.
1974 – Victoria Silvstedt (49), Swedish model, actress, singer, and television personality, born in Skelleftehamn, Sweden.
The day today
1945 – The Nazi propaganda broadcaster William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was sentenced to hang for treason.
1952 – The United States prevented the English born film legend Charlie Chaplin from returning to his Hollywood home until he was investigated by the Immigration Services.
1960 – The new traffic wardens issued the first 344 parking tickets in London. Britain’s first parking ticket was issued to Dr Thomas Creighton, who had parked his car outside a London hotel while treating a patient.
1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis’s farm in Glastonbury, starring T. Rex. The first festivals in the 1970s were influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement.
1997 – An Intercity 125 ploughed into a freight train in Southall, west London, killing six and injuring more than 150.
Today in music
1969 – Creedence Clearwater Revival scored their only UK No.1 single with ‘Bad Moon Rising’.
1990 – Kylie Minogue’s ‘Better The Devil You Know’ gave producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman their 100th UK chart entry.
1992 – The Shamen started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Ebeneezer Goode’. One of the most controversial UK chart toppers due to its perceived subliminal endorsement of recreational drug use. The song was initially banned by the BBC.
1998 – Robbie Williams scored his first solo UK No.1 single with ‘Millennium’, taken from his from his second album, I’ve Been Expecting You.
2005 – Research published by Guinness World Records showed that Status Quo have had more hit singles than any other band in UK chart history. The band had scored 61 chart successes, dating from ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’ in 1968 to ‘You’ll Come Around’ in 2004. Queen came second with 52 hits, with The Rolling Stones and UB40 with 51 hits each.
Today in history
1356 – English forces under Edward The Black Prince defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers and capture the French King during the Hundred Years’ War.
1796 – President George Washington provided a letter of address to say he would not run for president again after 20 years of service.
1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.
1839 – Birth of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer. A Quaker, he believed in taking care of the welfare of his workforce, and he created a model village for his employees at Bournville, Birmingham.
1940 – Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance.