On This Day 2025
Hello, … Welcome to day 265 of the year.

Monday, September 22nd Daily Prep.

Known as Elephant Appreciation Day, First Day of Autumn, World Rhino Day and Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year). Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.

1934 – The worst pit disaster in Britain for 21 years at the time, killed more than 260 miners in an explosion and fire at the Gresford Mine, near Wrexham in Wales.

The worst pit disaster in Britain for 21 years at the time, killed more than 260 miners in an explosion and fire at the Gresford Mine, near Wrexham in Wales.
Today’s birthdays
1951 – David Coverdale (74), English singer, founder and lead singer of the hard rock band Whitesnake (“Here I Go Again”), born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire.
1953 – Richard Fairbrass (72), English singer, best known as lead singer of the pop group Right Said Fred (“I’m Too Sexy”), born in Kingston upon Thames, London.
1958 – Andrea Bocelli (67) Italian tenor who rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers’ section of the 44th Sanremo Music Festival, born in Lajatico, Italy.
1958 – Joan Jett (67), American singer, songwriter and guitarist (“I Love Rock ’n’ Roll”), born in Penn Wynne, Pennsylvania, United States.
1969 – Sue Perkins (56), English broadcaster, comedian, actress and writer (Light Lunch, The Great British Bake Off), born in East Dulwich, London.
1971 – Chesney Hawkes (54), English pop singer (“The One and Only”) and occasional actor, born in Windsor, Berkshire.
1982 – Billie Piper (43), English actress (Doctor Who, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) and former singer (“Because We Want To”, “Honey to the Bee”), born in Swindon, Wiltshire.
1987 – Tom Felton (38), English actor best known for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, born in Epsom, Surrey.
Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
The day today
1914 – Three British cruisers, Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy, were torpedoed and sunk by German U-boats, killing more than 1400 people.
1934 – The worst pit disaster in Britain for 21 years at the time, killed more than 260 miners in an explosion and fire at the Gresford Mine in Wales. The cause of the explosion was never conclusively identified, but an inquiry found that poor mine management and safety procedure failures were contributing factors.
1955 – Independent Television (ITV) began operating. Only six minutes of advertisements were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted. The first advertisement screened was for Gibbs SR toothpaste.
1967 – The liner Queen Mary began her 1000th and last Atlantic crossing. A New York docks strike meant that passengers had to carry their own luggage aboard.
1989 – American drama TV series “Baywatch” premiered in the USA (13 January 1990 in the UK), starring David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson.
1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch’s Official Monster Raving Loony Party honoured his memory with a two minute scream at a pub in Ashburton, Devon. The singer, born David Sutch was found dead on 16th June 1999 after apparently committing suicide.
2003 – The European Space Agency integrated its SMART-1 spacecraft with its dedicated launching rocket. SMART-1 was the first spacecraft in the ESA’s series of Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART). The primary purpose of the SMART missions is to test new technologies in space. SMART-1 launched days later, on September 27.
2013 – Sir Bradley Wiggins added the Tour of Britain title to his collection after sealing an emphatic victory in London. Wiggins, who won the Tour de France and Olympic time trial in 2012, had led since winning the third stage and began stage eight with a 26-second advantage.
2014 – Tesco suspended four senior executives and called in investigators following the discovery that its profits had been artificially inflated by £250m. More than £2bn was wiped off the value of Tesco’s shares.
Today in music
1964 – Herman’s Hermits were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Carole King & Gerry Goffin song ‘I’m Into Something Good’, the group’s only UK No.1.
1973 – The Rolling Stones scored their eighth UK No.1 album when ‘Goats Head Soup’ started a two-week run at the top of the charts. Also a US No.1.
1979 – Gary Numan had his second and final UK No.1 single with ‘Cars’. Also on this day Gary Numan went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘The Pleasure Principle.’
1990 – Nirvana played their biggest gig to date when they appeared at the Motor Sports International Garage in Seattle. Drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) who would audition for the band in a few days time was in the audience of 15,000 people.
1991 – Bryan Adams made chart history when ‘(Everything I Do), I Do It For You’, had its twelfth consecutive week as the UK No.1 single.
1999 – Diana Ross was arrested on Concorde after an incident at Heathrow Airport. The singer claimed that a female security guard had touched her breasts when being frisked; Ross retaliated by rubbing her hands down the security guard.
2011 – Research conducted by car maker SEAT found that Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was the song most likely to be found on British iPods, with more than 40% of owners having the hit on their players. The Beatles had four songs in the list, a feat also matched by Coldplay. Other favourites included U2, The Killers and Rihanna.
2018 – English musician and singer Chas Hodges died from pneumonia on aged 74. Hodges had worked with British producer Joe Meek as a session musician, backing Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. He later joined Heads Hands and Feet, (with guitarist Albert Lee). With Chas & Dave he scored the 1982 UK No.2 single ‘Ain’t No Pleasing You’. He also played piano for short-lived supergroup the Rockers, which featured Roy Wood, Phil Lynott and John Coghlan.
Today in history
1515 – Anne of Cleves, 4th wife of Henry VIII, was born.
1598 – The English playwright Ben Jonson, a contemporary of William Shakespeare, killed an actor in a duel and was put on trial for manslaughter. Jonson pleaded guilty but was released by benefit of clergy, a legal ploy through which he gained leniency by reciting a brief bible verse, forfeiting his ‘goods and chattels’ and being branded on his left thumb.
1735 – Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister to occupy 10 Downing Street.
1761 – The coronation of George III. In the later part of his life, George III suffered from mental illness. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, and George III’s eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father’s death in 1820.
1791 – Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist, was born. He was the inventor of the dynamo, the transformer and the electric motor. The Unit of capacitance – Farad – was named after him.
1896 – Queen Victoria surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history. The record stood until 9th September 2015 when Queen Elizabeth II became the longest serving monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.