Saturday, April 12th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 102, known as Day of Silence, National Licorice Day, National Only Child Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
1989 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’ was performed for the 3,358th time at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, making it Britain’s longest running musical.
Todays birthdays
1946 – Ed O’Neill (79), American comedian and actor (Married with Children, Modern Family), born in Youngstown, Ohio, United States.
1947 – David Letterman (78), American comedian and talk show host, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.
1956 – Andy Garcia (69), American actor (The Godfather, The Untouchables, Mamma Mia!, Ocean’s Eleven), born in Havana, Cuba.
1962 – Carlos Sainz Sr. (63), Spanish rally driver (World Rally Championship drivers’ title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992), born in Madrid, Spain.
1967 – Sarah Cracknell (58), English singer-songwriter and lead singer of the electronic music band Saint Etienne (“He’s on the Phone”), born in Chelmsford, Essex.
1979 – Paul Nicholls (46), English actor (Law & Order: UK, Ackley Bridge), best known for his role as Joe Wicks in the BBC soap EastEnders, born in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
1980 – Bryan McFadden (45), Irish pop singer and former member of boy band Westlife (“Flying Without Wings”), born in Dublin, Ireland.
Famous deaths
2001 – Harry Secombe (b. 1921), Welsh actor (Oliver), comedian (The Goon Show), singer and television presenter (Highway).
The day today
1935 – The first flight of the Bristol Blenheim, a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. BAC went on to become a founding component of the nationalised British Aerospace, now BAE Systems.
1937 – British engineer, Frank Whittle, tested the first jet engine at the Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby. The first jet flight was achieved by the German Heinkel, but it was Whittle’s engine that was used as the prototype.
1941 – Bobby Moore, English footballer was born. He captained West Ham for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of world football, and was cited by Pelé as the greatest defender that he had ever played against. Bobby died on 24 February 1993 (aged 51).
1961 – The world’s first person visited space. Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut and, on this day, became the first person to ever go into space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.
1984 – Arthur Scargill, leader of the miners’ union the NUM, would not allow a national ballot to take place on whether to stop the miners’ strike.
1989 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’ was performed for the 3,358th time at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane, making it Britain’s longest running musical. Steven Wain who played one of the cats, was the only member of the original cast still in the show after eight years. Seats were booked to the end of 1999.
2013 – Five members of the same family, including a baby, were killed in a crash on the A18 near Grimsby. A nationwide survey conducted by the Road Safety Foundation in 2010 deemed the Grimsby section the UK’s highest-risk stretch of road for car drivers.
2020 – The death (aged 90) of the British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss. Described as ‘A mighty racer and a true gentleman’, Stirling Moss was widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, even though he never won the World Championship. He won 16 of the 66 Formula 1 races he competed in (between 1951 and 1961) and in 1955, at Aintree, he became the first British driver to win a home grand prix.
Today in music
1954 – American, Bill Haley recorded ‘Rock Around The Clock’. It was first record to sell a million copies in Britain.
1957 – The ‘King of Skiffle’ Lonnie Donegan was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Cumberland Gap.’ The Scottish musician was a former member of Chris Barber’s Jazz Band.
1997 – R Kelly started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his Grammy award winning song ‘I Believe I Can Fly.’ A No.2 hit in the US, the track was featured in the film ‘Space Jam’.
2005 – Mariah Carey released The Emancipation of Mimi, the album entered the US chart at number one, going six times platinum in less than a year, and subsequently became the most successful album of 2005.
2010 – The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Ramano published a story praising The Beatles and saying that it forgave John Lennon for his 1966 comment that the group was ‘bigger than Jesus.’ Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 – at the height of Beatlemania – that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll.
2014 – The Pulp hit ‘Common People’ was voted the top Britpop anthem by listeners of BBC Radio 6 Music in the UK, beating Oasis, Blur and Suede to take the title. More than 30,000 people voted, with The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ second and Oasis tracks ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and ‘Wonderwall’ in third and fourth.
2016 – A report showed that British artists including Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Adele had helped the music industry return to meaningful growth for the first time in almost 20 years. British artists accounted for five of the top 10 selling albums during 2015.
Today in history
1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day.
1567 – The Earl of Bothwell was found not guilty of the murder of Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Bothwell and Mary then married.
1633 – Cardinal Bellarmine condemned Galileo for stating that the earth revolved around the sun.
Galileo was later convicted of heresy for his belief that the sun was the center of the universe.
1709 – Richard Steele’s British literary and society journal “The Tatler” is first published establishing a new type of journalism featuring essays on contemporary manners.
1782 – Battle at Les Saintes: British fleet under Admiral George Rodney defeats the French fleet under Comte de Grasse off Dominica in the West Indies.
1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester caused it to collapse, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops marching over the bridge in step. Forty of the soldiers were thrown into the river. As a result of the incident the British Military issued an order that troops should ‘break step’ when crossing a bridge.