Monday, April 7th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 97, known as National Beer Day, World Health Day, National No Housework Day, Metric System Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
1739 – English highwayman Dick Turpin was hanged in York for murdering an inn-keeper. Before becoming a highwayman, he had been a butcher’s apprentice. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin’s death.
Todays birthdays
1950 – Steve Ellis (74), English rock/pop singer with the band Love Affair (“Everlasting Love”), born in Edgware, Middlesex.
1954 – Jackie Chan (71), Hong Kong actor and stuntman known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style (Rush Hour, The Karate Kid, Shanghai Noon), born in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong.
1964 – Russell Crowe (61), New Zealand actor (Gladiator, American Gangster, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind), born in Wellington, New Zealand.
1972 – Tim Peake (53), English European Space Agency astronaut (Expedition 46, Soyuz TMA-19M, Expedition 47), Army Air Corps officer and author, born in Chichester, West Sussex.
1978 – Duncan James (47), English singer with boy band Blue “All Rise”, “Fly By”) and actor (Hollyoaks), born in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
1991 – Anne-Marie (34), English singer-songwriter (“Rockabye”, “2002”, “Psycho”), born in East Tilbury, Essex.
Famous deaths
2022 – June Brown (b. 1927), English actress best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap EastEnders from 1985 to 2020 (2,884 episodes).
The day today
1906 – Mount Vesuvius volcano erupted. Italian authorities were preparing to hold the 1908 Summer Olympics when Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, devastating the city of Naples and surrounding comunes.
1930 – The birth of German-born, British actor Andrew Sachs. He made his name for his portrayal of Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
1955 – Sir Winston Churchill resigned as British Prime Minister due to declining health and age, making way for his Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. Churchill died in 1965, and was honoured with a state funeral.
1958 – An Easter march to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston attracted 3,000 anti atomic bomb marchers and a further 12,000 members of the new CND movement (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).
1986 – Home computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair sold the entire computer product range, along with the “Sinclair” brand name, to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad for £5 million.
1997 – The 150th Grand National (cancelled on the 5th) due to bomb threats by the IRA, was held for the first time ever on a Monday, with the organisers offering free admission. Some 20,000 people had been left stranded over the weekend, as their cars and coaches were locked in the course. There was limited accommodation space in the city and surrounding areas, and those local residents not affected by the incident opened their doors and took in many of those stranded.
2014 – It was announced that the body of 25 year old Peaches Geldof had been discovered at her home. She was the second daughter of musician and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof and the television presenter Paula Yates (who died in September 2000, aged 41, of a heroin overdose). An inquest in July 2014 found that the cause of Peaches Geldof’s death was also a heroin overdose.
Today in music
1978 – The Police released ‘Roxanne’ as the first single from their debut album Outlandos d’Amour. The song was written from the point of view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute. The title came from the name of the character in the play Cyrano de Bergerac, which Sting saw on an old poster which was hanging in a hotel foyer in Paris, France where the group had been staying. The song failed to chart but when re-released in 1979, peaked at No.12 on the UK Singles Chart.
1985 – Wham! became the first western pop group to perform live in China, when they played at the workers gymnasium in Beijing.
1988 – During a European tour appearing at Wembley Stadium Alice Cooper accidentally hung himself in a rehearsal when a safety rope snapped; he dangled for several seconds before a roadie saved him. Cooper was attached to a harness that was attached to the rafters by a thick piano wire that kept the noose above his neck.
1994 – Courtney Love was arrested on drugs and theft charges after a reported overdose. At this time, Love was unaware that her husband Kurt Cobain was dead at their home, (his body wasn’t discovered until April 8, by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system at their house).
1998 – George Michael was arrested at The Will Rogers Memorial Park for committing a sex act in a public toilet. He was arrested by undercover Beverly Hills police officer Marcelo Rodriguez. Michael later said; ‘I was followed into the restroom and this cop – well, I didn’t know he was a cop at the time obviously started playing this game. I think it’s called – I’ll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I’m gonna nick you!’ The singer was later fined £500 after being convicted of a lewd act.
2002 – UK Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of ‘Unchained Melody.’ Making Gates the seventh act to have a Top 40 hit with the song. Jennifer Lopez was at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Ain’t It Funny.’ And Celine Dion had the UK & US No.1 album ‘A New Day Has Come.’
2003 – Avril Lavigne dominated Canada’s national music awards the Junos, winning four prizes including best single, album and new artist. Shania Twain who hosted the show won three awards. Best group went to Sum 41.
2022 – British rapper Dizzee Rascal was given a restraining order, curfew and ordered to wear an electronic tag for attacking his ex-fiancee during a row over child contact and finances. The grime artist had been found guilty of assaulting Cassandra Jones by pressing his forehead against hers and pushing her to the ground during a “chaotic” row at a residential property in Streatham, south London, on June 8 2021.
Today in history
1739 – English highwayman Dick Turpin was hanged in York for murdering an inn-keeper. Before becoming a highwayman, he had been a butcher’s apprentice. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin’s death.
1770 – William Wordsworth, English romantic poet and Poet Laureate (“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”), was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria. He died on 23rd April 1850 and was buried at St. Oswald’s church in Grasmere.
1827 – Chemist John Walker of Stockton on Tees sold the world’s first box of ‘friction matches’ that he had invented the previous year. He charged one shilling for a box of 50 matches. Each box was supplied with a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. He named the matches ‘Congreves’ in honour of the inventor and rocket pioneer, Sir William Congreve.
1853 – Queen Victoria became the first monarch to receive chloroform. It was administered to ease the birth of her eighth child, Prince Leopold.
1890 – The opening of the Lynton and Lynmouth funicular Cliff Railway. It is the the UK’s only fully water powered railway and is also the highest and the steepest totally water powered railway in the world. The cliff railway connects the twin towns of Lynton and Lynmouth in north Devon. The ingenious design of this funicular uses the weight of water fed from the West Lyn River to power the movement of the two carriages.