Sunday, April 13th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 103, known as National Scrabble Day, Plant Appreciation Day, National Silly Earring Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
1986 – The Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez saw Ayrton Senna win by a mere 0.014 seconds over Nigel Mansell, one of Formula One’s closest finishes.
Todays birthdays
1937 – Edward Fox (88), English actor (The Day of the Jackal, Lassie, A Bridge Too Far), born in Chelsea, London.
1943 – Philip Norman (82), English author, novelist best known for his biographies of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly and Elton John, born in London.
1950 – Ron Perlman (75), American actor (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy, Enemy at the Gates), born in Washington Heights, New York, United States.
1951 – Peter Davison (74), English actor (All Creatures Great and Small, Death in Paradise, The Larkins, Doctor Who), born in Streatham, London.
1963 – Garry Kasparov (62), Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985-93), born in Baku, Azerbaijan.
1975 – Lou Bega (50), German singer (“Mambo No. 5”, “Angelina”), born in Munich, Germany.
1978 – Carles Puyol (47), Spanish former professional footballer who played his entire career for Barcelona and the Spanish national team, born in Catalonia, Spain.
Famous deaths
2004 – Caron Keating (b. 1962), Northern Irish television host (Blue Peter, This Morning) and daughter of Gloria Hunniford.
The day today
1912 – The formation of the Royal Flying Corps (later incorporated into the RAF).
1936 – Luton Town footballer Joe Payne, aged 22, set a goal scoring record when he scored ten goals in one match against Bristol Rovers.
1953 – The director of the CIA launched Project MKUltra, the US’ top secret mind control program. The highly controversial and illegal program used various methods, including the forced exposure to certain substances to manipulate captives into giving up vital information against their will. The program was only halted in 1973, and the majority of files relating to it were destroyed.
1986 – The Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez saw Ayrton Senna win by a mere 0.014 seconds over Nigel Mansell, one of Formula One’s closest finishes. Mansell came desperately close to scoring Williams’ first win since team founder Frank Williams had been dreadfully injured in a road accident.
1992 – Neil Kinnock resigned as Labour Party leader. He blamed the Conservative backed press for his party’s defeat at the general election.
1994 – Star Trek actor George Takei had an asteroid named after him. The asteroid 7307 Takei was discovered on this day from Nachi-Katsuura Observatory in Japan.
2019 – The world’s largest plane, The Stratolaunch, had its first flight from the Mojave Desert in California. The airplane was built to launch rockets into orbit while high in the atmosphere. Its wingspan was longer than the length a football field.
2021 – Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria apologized for voicing Apu for 30 years. Azaria, a white man, felt he needed to apologize to “every single Indian person” for the harm he did in voicing the iconic Indian shopkeeper.
Today in music
1965 – The Beatles record the song ‘Help!’ during an evening recording session at Abbey Road in London.
1967 – Nancy and Frank Sinatra were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, making them the only father and daughter to have a UK No.1 single as a team. Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne then got to number 1 in 2003 with their song ‘Changes’.
1973 – David Bowie released his sixth studio album Aladdin Sane, the name of the album is a pun on ‘A Lad Insane”‘ Two hit singles included on the album preceded its release, ‘The Jean Genie’ and ‘Drive-In Saturday’.
2002 – Thieves broke in to a house in Bexhill, Sussex and stole a hi-fi system and several CD’s. They left albums by Madonna, Robbie Williams and Oasis but took the owners entire Showaddywaddy collection.
2003 – Madonna struck back at web sites who were offering illegal downloads of her new album, ‘American Life’ by flooding file-sharing networks with decoy files. When the files were opened they were greeted by the voice of Madonna asking, ‘What the f**k do you think you’re doing?’ The latest Madonna album has been kept under tight wraps to avoid piracy, with promotional copies being held back from journalists until just before the official release.
2009 – Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ was the most played song in public places in the past 75 years, according to a chart compiled for BBC Radio 2. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was at number two followed by ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ by the Everly Brothers. Wet Wet Wet’s 1994 hit, ‘Love Is All Around’, was at number four followed by Bryan Adams’s 1991 hit ‘(Everything I Do), I Do It For You.’
2010 – Brian May launched a major new campaign to try to prevent the return of legalised blood sports to the British Countryside. The ‘SAVE-ME’ campaign – named after May’s song, called on the British public to consider how their vote will affect the welfare of animals; and in particular fox-hunting, stag hunting and hare-coursing. The first ‘SAVE-ME campaign poster was unveiled by Brian at a prime advertising site on London’s West Cromwell Road.
Today in history
1570 – The birth of Guy Fawkes at High Petergate in York. His birthplace is now the Guy Fawkes Inn, a medieval inn that stands in the shadow of York Minster. He was also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries. Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot at the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
1668 – John Dryden was appointed as England’s first Poet Laureate by King Charles II. Dryden received £300 a year and a cask of Canary wine for being the kingdom’s official poet.
1732 – The birth of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guildford. As Lord North, he levied the tax on tea which angered the American colonists and ultimately provoked the so called ‘Boston Tea Party’ when demonstrators boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into the Boston Harbour.
1771 – Richard Trevithick, Cornish engineer was born. The son of a mining captain, he performed poorly in school, but went on to be an early pioneer in steam-powered rail. Trevithick built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive, called the ‘Coalbrookdale Locomotive’ in 1802. He also built road locomotives including ‘the Puffing Devil’. It was one of the world’s first steam powered road vehicles to carry passengers.
1829 – The British Parliament passed the Catholic Emancipation Act, lifting restrictions imposed on Catholics at the time of Henry VIII.
1892 – The birth of Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, considered by many to be the inventor of radar. The system provided the vital advance information that helped the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain.