April 30th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 121, known as International Jazz Day, Mr Potato Head Day, Healthy Kids Day. If you were born on this day, you were likely conceived the week of August 7th in the previous year. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Diamond.
1948 – The launch of the Land Rover Defender. The first model was sold for £450 at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
Todays birthdays
1973 – Leigh Francis (51), English television presenter (Celebrity Juice), actor, writer, and comedian more commonly known as Keith Lemon, born in Beeston, Leeds.
1975 – Johnny Galecki (49), American actor (Roseanne) known for his role as Leonard Hofstadter in the comdey series, The Big Bang Theory, born in Bree, Belgium.
1981 – John O’Shea (43), Irish professional football coach and former player (Manchester United, Sunderland), born in Waterford, Ireland.
1982 – Kirsten Dunst (42), American actress (Spiderman, Bring It On, Hidden Figures, Jumanji), born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States.
1985 – Gal Gadot (39), Israeli actress (Wonder Woman, Justice League, Fast and Furious, Heart of Stone) and model, born in Petah Tikva, Israel.
Famous deaths
2015 – Ben E. King (b. 1938), American singer-songwriter and producer (Stand by Me”).
2019 – Peter Mayhew (b. 1944), English-American actor best known for his role as “Chewbacca” in the original Star Wars films.
The day today
1938 – The FA Cup was televised on British TV in its entirety, for the first time. The TV audience was estimated as 10,000. Preston played Huddersfield Town and Preston won in the last minute of extra time.
1944 – The first of 500,000 prefab homes went on show in London. They were designed for demobilised servicemen and bombed-out families and consisted of 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and toilet and kitchen on one floor. They covered an area of 616 sq ft and were built by the motor industry.
1974 – England’s football manager Sir Alf Ramsey, manager of the England team which won the World Cup in 1966 was sacked, after 11 years as manager.
1988 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opened World Expo ’88 in Brisbane, Australia. The fair was the largest event of the Bicentennial celebrations of the European settlement of Australia and attracted almost 16,000,000 visitors.
2020 – The 100th birthday of Captain Tom Moore. On 6th April he set out to raise £1000 for NHS Charities Together by walking 100 lengths of his 25 metre garden and ended up raising almost £30M in donations. It was the largest-ever amount raised by a JustGiving campaign. He later featured in a charity cover version of the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” with Michael Ball, with proceeds going to the same charity.
Today in music
1966 – The Rolling Stones fourth album ‘Aftermath’ went to No.1 on the UK chart, the group’s third UK No.1 album. The album is considered an artistic breakthrough for the band and is the first to consist entirely of Jagger–Richards compositions, while Brian Jones played a variety of instruments not usually associated with their music, including sitar, Appalachian dulcimer, marimbas and Japanese koto.
1968 – BBC TV launched The Cilla Black Show making Cilla the first British female performer to have her own TV show. The theme song, ‘Step Inside Love’, was written by Paul McCartney.
1983 – Spandau Ballet’s “True” began a four-week run at the top of the UK singles chart. The group’s only No.1 would later be sampled and used in a number of songs – most notably PM Dawn’s 1991 US No.1 hit ‘Set Adrift on Memory Bliss’.
1983 – Michael Jackson started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Beat It’, his fifth solo US No.1. The third single from the singer’s Thriller album featured Eddie Van Halen on the song’s distinctive overdriven guitar solo, but Halen was prevented by his record label from appearing in the music video.
1988 – S’Express were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Theme From S’Express’. One of the landmarks of early acid house and late 1980s sampling culture, the British track sampled Rose Royce, TZ’s ‘I Got the Hots for You’ and the count-in ‘Uno, dos, uno, dos, tres, quatro’ is from Debbie Harry’s 1985 single ‘Feel the Spin’.
Today in history
1492 – Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration. He is named admiral of the ocean sea, viceroy and governor of any territory he discovers.
1513 – Edmund de la Pole, Yorkist pretender to the English throne, was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.
1625 – The death of Sir Lawrence Tanfield at Burford in Oxfordshire. Tanfield was a prominent lawyer and politician and lord of Burford manor. Relationships with the locals were poor. There were accusations of Tanfield’s corruption and overbearingness and he stripped the vicarage of much of its endowment. Tanfield’s widow arranged for him to be buried in Burford church, under an elaborate tomb in the north chapel at dead of night, without the permission of the priests or town.
1789 – George Washington became the first President of the United States of America. The Washington Window at Selby Abbey in Yorkshire incorporates the Washington family coat of arms, three red stars above two red bands on a white shield, the model for the American Flag. It most probably represents some kind of benefaction made to the Abbey to commemorate John Wessington. He was Prior of Durham from 1416~1446 and the most distinguished collateral ancestor of George Washington.
1821 – The first iron steamship, Aaron Manby, named after the proprietor of the Staffordshire ironworks at which she had been made, was completed. She weighed 116 tons and after trials on the River Thames made her maiden voyage across the Channel.