April 22nd "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 113, known as Earth Day, April Showers Day, National Jelly Bean Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of July 30th in the previous year. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Diamond.
1969 – British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston sailed into Falmouth Harbour, completing the first non-stop solo voyage around the world.
Todays birthdays
1936 – Jack Nicholson (87), American retired actor (Batman, The Shining, A Few Good Men), born in Neptune City, New Jersey, United States.
1950 – Peter Frampton (74), English guitarist, singer and songwriter (“Show Me the Way”), born in Bromley, Greater London.
1969 – Dion Dublin (55), English former professional footballer (Manchester United, Coventry City), television presenter (Homes Under the Hammer) and pundit, born in Leicester.
1986 – Amber Heard (38), American actress (London Fields, Aquaman, Justice League, Drive Angry), born in Austin, Texas, United States.
1990 – Eve Muirhead (34), Scottish former curler and skip of the British Olympic Curling team (Olympic bronze 2014, Olympic champions 2022), born in Perth, Scotland.
Famous deaths
2023 – Len Goodman (b. 1944), English ballroom dancer and television personality (Strictly Come Dancing).
The day today
1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
1945 – World War II – After learning that Soviet forces had taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admitted defeat in his underground bunker and stated that suicide was his only recourse.
1969 – British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston sailed into Falmouth Harbour, completing the first non-stop solo voyage around the world. He was at sea for 312 days. His yacht was named Suhaili which means “good wind”.
1996 – Diana, Princess of Wales personally attended a five-hour heart transplant operation on a young boy at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex.
2000 – The Big Number Change took place. It was an update of telephone dialling codes in Britain in response to the rapid growth of telecommunications and the impending exhaustion of numbers.
Today in music
1965 – The Beatles were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Ticket To Ride.’ Taken from the film Help! it was the group’s seventh UK No.1.
1972 – Deep Purple scored their second UK No.1 album with Machine Head. The album which features ‘Smoke on the Water’ and ‘Highway Star’, is often cited as a major influence in the early development of the heavy metal music genre and commercially, it was Deep Purple’s most successful album.
1989 – Madonna started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Like A Prayer’, the singers seventh US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK.
2001 – Destiny’s Child went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Survivor.’ Their second chart topper, they were the first US female band to have more than one UK No.1. The song won the trio a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Group.
2007 – Beyoncé & Shakira were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Beautiful Liar’. The track won the Most Earth-Shattering Collaboration award at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards and the song won an Ivor Novello Award for Best-Selling British Song.
Today in history
1662 – King Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Society of London, which became an important centre of scientific activity in England.
1778 – James Hargreaves, the English inventor of the spinning jenny died. After he had begun to sell the machines to help support his large family. Hand spinners, fearing unemployment, broke into his house and destroyed a number of jennies, causing Hargreaves to move from Blackburn to Nottingham in 1768.
1834 – The South Atlantic island of St Helena was declared a British crown colony.
1838 – The British steamer Sirius became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean from England to New York. The voyage took 18 days and 10 hours.
1915 – The second battle of Ypres started when German troops released clouds of deadly chlorine gas on British troops. It was the first major gas attack of World War I.