September 23rd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 267 of the year! Known as Dear Diary Day, Elephant Appreciation Day, Hobbit Day, World Rhino Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Sapphire.
2019 – Travel company Thomas Cook (founded by Thomas Cook, a Baptist cabinet maker, on 5th July 1841) goes into liquidation, stranding 600,000 travellers worldwide with 150,000 of them being British.
Todays birthdays
1943 – Julio Iglesias (81), Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer, born in Madrid, Spain.
1949 – Bruce Springsteen (75), American singer-songwriter and rock musician, known as “The Boss” (“Dancing in the Dark”, “Born in the USA”), born in Long Branch, New Jersey.
1968 – Yvette Fielding (55), English television presenter, producer (Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters, Blue Peter), born in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
1972 – Karl Pilkington (52), English TV presenter, comedian, actor (An Idiot Abroad, The Moaning of Life, Derek), born in Manchester.
1981 – Natalie Horler (43), German born singer (Cascada – “Evacute The Dancefloor”, “Everytime We Touch “), born in Bonn, Germany.
Famous deaths
2004 – Brian Clough (b. 1935), English footballer (Sunderland, England) and manager (Derby County, Nottingham Forest).
The day today
1951 – Crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace for news of King George VI following an operation to remove part of his lung.
1955 – Quizmaster Michael Miles first invited contestants to ‘Open the box’ in the long running show Take Your Pick.
1974 – The BBC launched the world’s first teletext service, Ceefax. It ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST (11:32 PM BST) on the 23rd of October 2012, in line with the digital switchover being completed in Northern Ireland.
1986 – England and Yorkshire batsman Geoff Boycott was controversially sacked from Yorkshire Cricket Club after playing for the county side for 24 years.
2019 – Travel company Thomas Cook goes into liquidation, stranding 600,000 travellers worldwide with 150,000 of them being British.
Today in music
1965 – The Walker Brothers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Burt Bacharach song, “Make It Easy On Yourself”, the trio’s first of two UK No.1’s.
1978 – 10cc had their third and final UK No.1 single with ‘Dreadlock Holiday.’ The lyrics, about a white man lost in Jamaica, were based on a true event that happened to Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward and Eric Stewart from 10cc in Barbados.
1989 – Milli Vanilli started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Girl I’m Gonna Miss You’, the duo’s second US No.1 a No.2 hit in the UK. Also today the duo went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Girl You Know It’s True’.
1995 – Jamaican Ragga singer Shaggy scored his second No.1 UK single when ‘Boombastic’ went to the top of the charts for one week.
2001 – Kylie Minogue started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.’ The Australian singers 6th No.1 was written and produced by Cathy Dennis and former Mud guitarist Rob Davis, for which the pair won an Ivor Novello Award for the most performed song of the year.
Today in history
1388 – The first naval battle of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France took place On This Day. It was the first naval battle using artillery, as the English ship Christofer had three cannons and one hand gun.
1387 – One of the most extravagant of the early Medieval English feasts was recorded. It was held in honour of King Richard II and the Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt). The feast included 14 salted oxen, 2 fresh oxen, 120 sheep, 12 boar, 14 calves, 140 pigs, 144 poultry, 1200 pigeons, 144 partridge, 96 rabbits, 120 gallons of milk, 11,000 eggs ….. and much more!
1459 – In the first major ‘Wars of the Roses’ battle, the Yorkists, in spite of being heavily outnumbered by 2 to 1, defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Blore Heath, Staffordshire.
1641 – The Merchant Royal, a 17th century English merchant ship was lost at sea off Land’s End. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold (nearly one billion pounds in today’s money), 400 bars of Mexican silver and nearly 500,000 pieces of eight and other coins, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all times. The wreck remains undiscovered.
1779 – During the American Revolution, John Paul Jones on board the USS Bonhomme Richard beat British forces at the Battle of Flamborough Head (Yorkshire). It became one of the most celebrated naval actions of the American War of Independence.