On This Day 2025
Hello, … Welcome to day 264 of the year.

Sunday, September 21st Daily Prep.

Known as Wife Appreciation Day, Miniature Golf Day and World Alzheimer’s 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. The miners began returning to work in large numbers in February 1985.
Police and miners clashed at a pit in Maltby, South Yorkshire, in one of the biggest pickets since the miners’ strike began. The miners began returning to work in large numbers in February 1985.
Today’s birthdays
1947 – Stephen King (78), American sci-fi and horror author (Carrie, The Shining, Kujo, Misery), born in Portland, Maine, United States.
1950 – Bill Murray (75), American actor and comedian (Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Stripes, Groundhog Day), born in Evanston, Illinois, United States.
1958 – Simon Mayo (67), English radio presenter (BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022), born in London.
1959 – Corinne Drewery (66), English singer and songwriter best known for being the lead vocalist of the band Swing Out Sister (“Breakout”), born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire.
1961 – Serena Scott Thomas (64), English actress (The World Is Not Enough, Diana: Her True Story) and documentary producer, born in Nether Compton, Dorset.
1972 – Liam Gallagher (53), English singer, songwriter and co-founder of the rock band Oasis (“Don’t Look Back in Anger”), born in Burnage, Manchester.
1981 – Nicole Richie (44), American television personality (The Simple Life), fashion designer, actress and daughter of Lionel Richie, born in Berkeley, California, United States.
1990 – Rob Cross (35), 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).
Famous deaths
1998 – Florence Griffith Joyner (b. 1959), American track and field athlete during the 80’s and the fastest woman ever recorded. Commonly known as Flo-Jo.
The day today
1915 – Sir Cecil Herbert Edward Chubb became the last private owner of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England when he purchased the monument at auction for £6,600. A few years later, in 1918, he donated it to the British nation in recognition of its importance to the public, an act which earned him a knighthood.
1937 – English author J. R. R. Tolkien released his critically acclaimed book “The Hobbit.”
1949 – The Republic of Ireland beat England 2-0 at Goodison Park – England’s first home defeat by a foreign football team.
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.
1964 – Malta became independent from Britain. The island became a republic in 1974, but retained membership of the Commonwealth.
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.
2003 – After 14 years in space, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft was intentionally destroyed in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The Galileo spacecraft was a space probe designed to study Jupiter and its moons. Launched on October 18, 1989, it became the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet. Galileo’s mission was initially planned to last eight years but managed to keep functioning until it all but ran out of fuel. It was only due to this that it was crashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere, as it would not be able to be controlled anymore without fuel.
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
1970 – Freda Payne was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Band Of Gold’, the singers only UK No.1 which spent six weeks at the top of the chart.
1974 – Carl Douglas was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Kung Fu Fighting.’ The song was recorded in 10 minutes and had started out as a B-side. It went on to sell over 10 million and became one of the Best Selling Singles of all time.
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.
2009 – Muse topped the UK album chart with their fifth studio album, The Resistance. The album was a success internationally, reaching No. 1 in 19 countries and debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US.
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.
1866 – H G Wells, English writer, was born. His books included The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds.