Saturday, April 26th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 116, known as National Pretzel Day, Alien Day, Eeyore’s Birthday, National AI Day, Remember Your First Kiss Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Diamond.
1984 – The re-opening of the reconstructed Cavern Club in Liverpool located next to the original Club. In the early 1960s the Cavern Club became the most publicised pop music venue in the world.
Todays birthdays
1943 – Tony Murray (82), Irish musician and former backing vocalist and Bassist for the Troggs, born in Dublin, Ireland.
1960 – Roger Taylor (65), English musician, best known as the drummer of the band Duran Duran (“Hungry Like the Wolf”, “The Reflex”), born in Nechells, Birmingham.
1963 – Jet Li (62), Chinese-born Singaporean martial artist and actor (The Expendables, Cradle 2 the Grave, Lethal Weapon 4), born in Beijing, China.
1970 – Ruth-Ann Boyle (55), English singer and co-founder of Olive (“You’re Not Alone”), born in Sunderland, Tyne-and-Wear.
1980 – Channing Tatum (45), American actor (Coach Carter, 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike, White House Down), born in Cullman, Alabama, United States.
1981 – Ms Dynamite (43), English singer and rapper, (“Dy-Na-Mi-Tee”) and winner of two Brit Awards, a Mercury Prize and three MOBO Awards, born in Archway, London.
1982 – Jonathan Lee (43), English singer and youngest member of S Club 7 (“Bring it all Back”, “Don’t Stop Movin’”), born in Ipplepen, Devon.
Famous deaths
1976 – Sid James (b. 1913), South African born English actor (Bless This House) best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series.
1999 – Jill Dando (b. 1961), English journalist, television presenter and newsreader.
The day today
1923 – The marriage of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later ‘the Queen Mother’) to the Duke of York (later King George VI) at Westminster Abbey in London. It was the first royal wedding at the abbey since 1383. The newly formed British Broadcasting Company wanted to record and broadcast the event on radio, but the Abbey Chapter vetoed the idea.
1962 – The first British satellite, Ariel 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This marked the UK’s entry into the space program.
1975 – Labour Party members voted by almost 2-1 to leave the EEC, underlining the deep divisions over the issue of Europe. But on 6th June in the same year British voters backed the UK’s continued membership by a large majority in the country’s first nationwide referendum.
1984 – The re-opening of the reconstructed Cavern Club in Liverpool and is located next to the original Club. In the early 1960s the Cavern Club became the most publicised pop music venue in the world, with regular performances from the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer, Cilla Black and many more 60s groups and solo singers.
1989 – Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland held their first annual pig race watched by over 7,000 people. One punter won £200 on the favourite, Porky’s Revenge, and the bookies handed the remainder of their money to the charity People in Need.
2014 – The only surviving letter thought to have been written on the ill-fated Titanic, was sold at auction for £119,000.
2016 – The jury of 9 in the Hillsborough Inquest reached a decision on all 14 questions relating to the 15th April 1989 disaster during the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest FA Cup semi-final in which 96 people died. The crucial question number six related to ‘unlawful killing’. When asked “Are you satisfied, so that you are sure, that those who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed?” the foreman confirmed “Yes”. The verdict represented a vindication for the bereaved families who had fought for 27 years against South Yorkshire police claims that misbehaving supporters caused the disaster, as well as against the 1991 verdict of accidental death. The inquest started on 31st March 2014 and was the longest in British legal history.
Today in music
1966 – Dusty Springfield was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’, the singers only UK No.1. When recording the track, Springfield was not satisfied with her vocal until she had recorded forty-seven takes.
1972 – ‘School’s Out’, the title track of Alice Cooper’s fifth album, was released, which became his biggest international hit. It reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No.1 on the UK Singles Chart. Some radio stations banned the song from their airwaves, stating that the song gave the students an impression of rebelliousness against childhood education.
1980 – Blondie were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Call Me’, the group’s fourth UK No.1, featured in the Richard Gere movie ‘American Gigolo’, the track was also a No.1 in the US where it became the band’s biggest selling single.
1988 – Mick Jagger was cleared of pirating a song by an unknown reggae musician and recording it as ‘Just Another Night’. The judgement came after a two-day hearing in the US.
2001 – Destiny’s Child were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Survivor’, Janet Jackson was at No.1 on the US chart with ‘All For You’ and Shaggy and Ricardo RikRok Ducent had the Australian No.1 single with ‘It Wasn’t Me’.
2008 – Amy Winehouse spent the night in custody after being arrested on suspicion of assault. Police said Winehouse had been “in no fit state” to be questioned when she arrived at the London station and she was kept in the cells. The 24-year-old was to be questioned about an incident said to have occurred 3 days earlier after a 38-year-old man claimed he was assaulted.
2009 – Tinchy Stryder feat N-dubz started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Number 1’, the first time ever that a single called ‘Number 1’ has made it to the top of the UK charts.
Today in history
1607 – Captain John Smith landed at Cape Henry, in Virginia with the first group of colonists who established a permanent English settlement in America.
1514 – Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus made his first observation of Saturn. Copernicus later proposed that the sun is stationary and that the Earth and the planets move in circular orbits around it.
1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. His actual birth date is not officially known, but it would have been a few days earlier as traditionally baptisms were celebrated within three days of birth, and so his birthday is celebrated on 23 April, St George’s Day.
1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia.
1895 – The start of the trial of playwright Oscar Wide who was charged with homosexuality.