September 21st "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 265 of the year! Known as Batman Day, Miniature Golf Day, National Gymnastics Day, World Gratitude Day. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1984 – Police and miners clashed at a pit in Maltby, South Yorkshire, in one of the biggest pickets since the miners’ strike began.
Todays birthdays
1947 – Stephen King (77), American sci-fi and horror author (Carrie, The Shining, Kujo, Misery), born in Portland, Maine, United States.
1950 – Bill Murray (74), American actor and comedian (Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Stripes, Groundhog Day), born in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
1972 – Liam Gallagher (52), English singer and songwriter (Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger”), born in Burnage, Manchester.
1981 – Nicole Richie (43), American television personality (The Simple Life), fashion designer, actress and daughter of Lionel Richie, born in Berkeley, California, United States.
1990 – Rob Cross (34), English darts player nicknamed “Voltage” (PDC World Champion 2018 following his victory over Phil Taylor), born in Pembury, Kent.
Famous deaths
2004 – Brian Clough (b. 1935), English footballer (Sunderland, England) and manager (Derby County, Nottingham Forest).
The day today
1915 – Stonehenge was sold at auction to Mr C H Chubb for £6,600 as a present for his wife. Mr Chubb presented it to the nation three years later in October handing it over to Sir Alfred Mond, the First Commissioner of Works. The deed of gift stipulated several conditions, including that an entrance fee not exceeding one shilling could be charged.
1955 – The Admiralty announced that Britain had formally claimed uninhabited Rockall, a rocky islet 300 miles west of Scotland, to stop the Soviets spying on missile tests.
1962 – Bamber Gascoigne’s University Challenge was screened for the first time.
1984 – Police and miners clash at a pit in South Yorkshire in one of the biggest mass pickets since the strike began. At least 6,000 miners tried to stop NUM members working for a construction company entering Maltby Colliery near Rotherham. They were met by a force of 700 police officers with 500 reinforcements waiting close by – all dressed in full riot gear.
2012 – 50 year old Jessica Harper, a former Lloyds Bank worker in charge of online security was jailed for five years for fraud. She submitted 93 false and doctored invoices to pay herself £2,463,750, giving large sums to friends and her three brothers to invest in property.
Today in music
1977 – Meat Loaf released his debut studio album Bat Out Of Hell. His first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, it is one of the best-selling albums of all time, having sold over 43 million copies worldwide.
1985 – Madonna scored her first UK No.1 album with ‘Like A Virgin’, ten months after its release. The album spent a total 152 weeks on the UK chart.
1991 – Status Quo put themselves in the Guinness Book Of Records by appearing at four venues in one day, Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, performing all four in a 12-hour period.
1996 – The Fugees scored their second UK No.1 single with ‘Ready Or Not’. The chorus in the song is based on ‘Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)’ by The Delfonics. The Fugees previous single ‘Killing Me Softly,’ was so successful that the track was ‘deleted’ and no longer supplied to retailers whilst the track was still in the Top 20 to make way for the next single ‘Ready or Not’.
2002 – Pink went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Just Like A Pill’, the American singers first UK No.1.
Today in history
1327 – Deposed King Edward II of England was murdered, with a red hot poker in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire by order of his wife, to ensure the succession of his son Edward III.
1411 – The birth of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and claimant to the English throne. Although he never became king he ultimately governed the country as Lord Protector during Henry VI’s madness. His conflicts with Henry’s court were a leading factor in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses.
1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army defeated the English at the Battle of Prestonpans, in Scotland.
1809 – British Secretary of War Lord Castlereagh and Foreign Secretary George Canning meet in a duel on Putney Heath, with Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh.
1832 – The death of Sir Walter Scott, Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet. His works include classics such as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. The Scott Monument in Edinburgh is the largest monument to a writer in the world.