September 8th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 252 of the year! Known as Grandparents Day, Star Trek Day, World Literacy Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of December 16th in the previous year. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Sapphire.
1981 – Comedy series ‘Only Fools and Horses’ starring David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst, debuts on British television. The first episode was called “Big Brother”.
Todays birthdays
1954 – Anne Diamond (70), British journalist, broadcaster and children’s health campaigner, born in Malvern, Worcestershire.
1971 – Martin Freeman (53), English actor (Hot Fuzz, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Miller’s Girl), born in Aldershot, Hampshire.
1975 – Richard Hughes (49), English musician best known as the drummer of British pop rock band Keane (“Everybody’s Changing”), born in Gravesend, Kent.
1979 – Pink (45) born Alecia Beth Moore Hart, American singer, songwriter (“Get the Party Started”, “So What”, “What About Us”), born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States.
1994 – Bruno Fernandes (30), Portuguese football player (Manchester United, Portugal), born in Maia, Portugal.
Famous deaths
2022 – It was announced at 6:30pm that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) had died at the age of 96. She was the longest serving monarch of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations. Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen died peacefully while at Balmoral Castle, surrounded by her family, after a period in which she had increasingly withdrawn from public life.
The day today
1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate became the first British soldier of the war to be executed for desertion. He was undefended and called no witnesses in his defence, as all his comrades had been shot and killed. Highgate claimed that he was a ‘straggler’ trying to find his way back to re-join his regiment after having been separated from his comrades. His execution was almost as hasty as his trial, as senior officers insisted that he be executed ‘At once, as publicly as possible’. Posthumous pardons for over 300 such soldiers were announced in August 2006, including Highgate.
1960 – Publishers Penguin Books were charged with public obscenity for publishing D.H. Lawrence’s controversial book – ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’.
2000 – Protests about high fuel costs that had been crippling France the previous week reached Britain, with actions across the country.
2007 – Portuguese police named both parents of missing schoolgirl Madeleine McCann (who disappeared on 3rd May) as formal suspects. Gerry McCann was officially given “arguido” status as was his wife Kate after they had been questioned separately for more than 24 hours.
2009 – Singer Peter Andre divorces glamour model Katie Price due to her unreasonable behaviour.
Today in music
1957 – Reet Petite’ by Jackie Wilson was released for the first time, it became a UK No. 1, 29 years later. During a 1975 benefit concert, Wilson collapsed on-stage from a heart attack and subsequently fell into a coma that persisted for nearly nine years until his death in 1984.
1984 – Stevie Wonder had his first UK No.1 with ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’. Taken from the film ‘The Woman In Red’, it was 18 years after Wonder’s chart debut in 1966. The song stayed at No.1 for six weeks.
2002 – Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson started his new job as an airline pilot. The heavy metal singer qualified as a £35,000 – a year first officer with Gatwick based airline Astraeus who took holidaymakers to Portugal and Egypt.
2003 – David Bowie performed the first interactive concert when his performance was beamed live into 21 cinemas from Warsaw to Edinburgh. Members of the audience talked to Bowie via microphones linked to ISDN lines and took requests for songs from fans.
2005 – A charity album featuring some of the biggest bands in the UK was thought to be the fastest ever produced. Coldplay, Radiohead, Kaiser Chiefs, Antony and the Johnsons, The Magic Numbers, The Coral, Bloc Party and Gorillaz were among those who recorded tracks for ‘Help: A Day in the Life.’ The whole 22-track album was made available for download from the War Child website the following day.
Today in history
1560 – Amy Robsart, wife of the Earl of Leicester, died from a fall. It was suspected that she was pushed, for soon after, the earl became an active suitor to Queen Elizabeth I.
1664 – The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British, who, in 1669, renamed it New York after the Duke of York.
1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell, Cambridgeshire, killed 78 people (51 of them children). The doors had been nailed shut to prevent further people getting in, a simple act which was key to the tragedy which resulted. On 8th September 2005, a plaque was unveiled at the site of the barn in memorial of the fire.
1760 – British troops under Jeffrey Amherst defeated the French in the Battle of Montreal. After the loss, the French surrendered their arms throughout Canada.
1888 – Annie Chapman was found disembowelled at 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, London, the second victim of ‘Jack the Ripper’.