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.
On This Day 2025
Hello, … Welcome to day 273 of the year.

Tuesday, September 30th Daily Prep.

Known as International Podcast Day, National Chewing Gum Day, Thunderbirds Day and International Translation Day. Your star sign is Libra and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1840 – The foundation stone for Nelson’s Column (laid by Charles Davidson Scott) was laid in Trafalgar Square and completed in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Lord Nelson and his decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, where he lost his life.
The foundation stone for Nelson’s Column (laid by Charles Davidson Scott) was laid in Trafalgar Square and completed in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Lord Nelson and his decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, where he lost his life.
Today’s birthdays
1933 – Barbara Knox (92), English actress, best known for her long-running portrayal of Rita Tanner in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, born in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

1952 – Michael Van Wijk (73), Indian-born English bodybuilder and sportsperson best known for his role as Wolf on the endurance sports game show Gladiators, born in Mumbai, India.

1965 – Omid Djalili (60), British stand-up comedian, actor and TV presenter (Winning Combination) of Iranian heritage, born in Chelsea, London.
1976 – Georgie Bingham (50), British radio and television presenter, formerly a host of the Weekend Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT, born in London.
1980 – Martina Hingis (44), Swiss former professional tennis player and the first Swiss player to win a major title and to attain a world No. 1 ranking, born in Košice, Slovakia.
1984 – Keisha Buchanan (41), English singer and a founding member of the girl group Sugababes (“Push the Button”, “Overload”), born in Kingsbury, Northwest London.
1986 – Ben Lovett (38), British musician and member of the British folk rock band Mumford & Sons (“I Will Wait”, “Little Lion Man”), born in Cardiff, Wales.
1997 – Max Verstappen (28), Dutch racing driver and the 2021 and 2022 Formula One World Champion, born in Hasselt, Belgium.
Famous deaths
1955 – James Dean (b. 1931), American actor (Rebel Without a Cause). One of the most influential figures in Hollywood in the 1950s, despite a career that lasted only five years.
2018 – Geoffrey Hayes (b. 1942), English television presenter and actor. He presented Thames Television’s children’s show Rainbow from 1973 to 1992.
The day today
1936 – Pinewood Film Studios opened near Iver, in Buckinghamshire, to provide Britain with a film studio to compete with America’s Hollywood Studios in California.
1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlawed ‘the intentional bombings of civilian populations’.
1967 – The BBC Light Programme, Third Programme and Home Service were replaced with BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 Respectively. BBC Radio 1 was also launched, with Tony Blackburn, a former Radio Caroline DJ, presenting the first show.
1971 – The British Government named Oleg Lyalin as the Soviet defector who, the previous week had exposed dozens of Russians alleged to be spying in the UK.
1994 – NASA launched the Endeavour space shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was initially set for August 18 but had to be aborted 1.9 seconds after the shuttle’s three main engines ignited. The launch was pushed back to October but then brought forward again to the end of September after three main engines from another space shuttle were used to replace Endeavour’s main engines.
2004 – Japanese biologist Tsunemi Kubodera and his team captured the first-ever photographs of a live giant squid in its natural environment at a depth of nearly 3,000 feet.
2014 – In the first official study of money spent on ‘illegal’ activities it was found that Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said that spending on illegal drugs and prostitution was worth an estimated £12.3bn to the UK economy in 2013.
2024 – The closure of Britain’s last coal fuelled power station. Ratcliffe-on Soar, Nottinghamshire, began generating electricity in 1967, with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts, enough to power two million homes. The site, that once employed 3,000 people, will be transformed into a clean energy technology park, as confirmed by Uniper, the station’s owner. The closure brought to an end almost 150 years of coal-powered economic growth.
2024 – The last blast furnace at Port Talbot Tata Steel works closed, ending traditional primary steelmaking in South Wales and resulting in the loss of 2,800 jobs. A new, less carbon-intensive electric arc furnace (EAF), which melts scrap steel, is under construction and is expected to be operational by 2027 or 2028, allowing for a transition to greener steel production.
Today in music
1967 – The UK’s first National pop radio station, BBC Radio 1 was launched in the UK to take over from the very successful pirate radio stations, which had been forced off-air by the Government. Former pirate DJ Tony Blackburn, from Radio Caroline, was the first presenter on air, with The Move’s Flowers In The Rain the first record to be played.

1972 – David Cassidy was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘How Can I Be Sure.’ It was the star from the US TV series the Partridge Family’s first UK No.1. The song was originally recorded by The Young Rascals in 1967.

1978 – John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had their second UK No.1 from the film ‘Grease’ with “Summer Nights.” Seven weeks at No.1 it became the second best selling single of 1978, beaten by ‘Saturday Night Fever’.
1995 – Simply Red scored their first UK No.1 single when ‘Fairground’ started a four-week run at the top of the charts. It was their 15th UK Top 40 hit.
1999 – Chris de Burgh’s web site was closed down after countless obscene messages were posted on the guestbook. One message consisted entirely of two four-letter words repeated 3500 times.
2007 – Foo Fighters went to No.1 on the UK album chart with Echoes Silence Patience & Grace the bands sixth studio album and second UK No.1. The album was nominated for five Grammy Awards, winning Best Rock Album, and was also awarded the Brit Award of Best International Album.
2022 – Ed Sheeran was ordered to stand trial in the US over claims he copied his hit song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ from Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’. A judge denied Sheeran’s bid to dismiss the case, saying a jury should decide on the similarities between the songs.
2024 – Lauryn Hill was being sued for breach of contract and fraud by her fellow Fugees bandmate, Pras Michél. The lawsuit, filed in New York, claimed that Hill mismanaged the budget of the band’s 2023 comeback tour and it became “so bloated with unnecessary and, most likely fictitious, expenses, that it seemed designed to lose money.” The lawsuit also claimed that Hill turned down £3.8m to play at the Coachella festival without telling Michél about the offer because the Fugees would not have been top of the bill.
Today in history
1544 – King of England Henry VIII draws his armies out of France after capturing the town of Boulogne, and expanding English territory. However, the English were unable to maintain their hold on the area for long, and neither England nor France was able to engage in a full-scale war with each other for several years.
1630 – John Billington, one of the original pilgrims who sailed to the New World on the Mayflower, became the first man executed in the English colonies. He was hanged for having shot another man during a quarrel.
1772 – The death of James Brindley, British canal builder and one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century. The Trent and Mersey Canal was the first part of Brindley’s ambitious project to use canals to link the four great rivers of England: the Mersey, Trent, Severn and Thames (the “Grand Cross” scheme).
1840 – The foundation stone for Nelson’s Column (laid by Charles Davidson Scott) was laid in Trafalgar Square and completed in 1843. The column’s base is decorated with four bronze relief panels that depict some of Nelson’s battles. The metal for these panels came from French guns that were captured and melted down.
1888 – Jack the Ripper murdered two more women – Liz Stride, found behind 40 Berner Street, and Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square, both in London’s East End. Unlike murderers of lesser fame, there is no waxwork figure of Jack the Ripper at Madame Tussauds’ Chamber of Horrors, in accordance with their policy of not modelling persons whose likeness is unknown. He is instead depicted as a shadow.