April 26th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 117, known as National Pretzel Day, Help a Horse Day, No Makeup Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of August 3rd in the previous year. 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
1960 – Roger Taylor (64), 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 (61), Chinese-born martial artist and actor (The Expendables, Cradle 2 the Grave, Lethal Weapon 4), born in Beijing, China.
1980 – Jordana Brewster (44), American actress (The Faculty) best known for her role as Mia Toretto in the Fast and Furious franchise, born in Panama City, Panama.
1980 – Channing Tatum (44), American actor (Coach Carter, 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike, White House Down), born in Cullman, Alabama, United States.
1981 – Ms Dynamite (43), British singer and rapper, (“Dy-Na-Mi-Tee”) and winner of two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards, born in Archway, London.
Famous deaths
1976 – Sid James (b. 1913), South African-English actor best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series.
1999 – Jill Dando (b. 1961), English journalist and television personality.
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.
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.
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.
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 United States.
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’
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 (exact date of birth is unknown but thought to be around 23rd April 1564).
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.