Wednesday, April 9th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 99, known as Winston Churchill Day, National Gin and Tonic Day, Mature Womans Day, National Unicorn Day. Your star sign is Aries and your birthstone is Diamond.
1937 – The Mitsubishi Ki-15 Karigane (flown by Masaaki Iinuma and Kenji Tsukagoshi), nicknamed “Kamikaze”, landed at Croydon Airport in London, marking the first time a Japanese-built aircraft flew to Europe.
Todays birthdays
1937 – Valerie Singleton (88), English TV and radio presenter best known as a presenter of the popular children’s series Blue Peter from 1962 to 1972, born in Hertfordshire.
1941 – Hannah Gordon (84), Scottish actress (My Wife Next Door, Upstairs, Downstairs), born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1956 – Nigel Slater (69), English food writer, journalist ( the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement) and broadcaster, born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.
1975 – Robbie Fowler (50), English former football player (Liverpool) and coach (Saudi First Division League side Al-Qadsiah), born in Toxteth, Liverpool.
1978 – Rachel Stevens (47), English singer and member of pop group S Club 7 (“Don’t Stop Movin’”, “Bring It All Back”), born in Southgate, London.
1990 – Kristen Stewart (35) American actress (The Twilight Saga, Snow White and the Huntsman, Panic Room), born in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Famous deaths
2021 – Prince Philip (b. 1921), Duke of Edinburgh and the longest-reigning consort in British history.
2021 – Nikki Grahame (b. 1982), British reality TV icon (Big Brother 2006).
The day today
1937 – The Kamikaze arrived at Croydon Airport in London. It was the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe. The flight from Tokyo to London (via via Taipei to Hanoi and Vientiane in French Indochina, then via Calcutta and Karachi in British India and Basra and Baghdad in Iraq, and then Athens, Rome and Paris) took 51 hours and 19 minutes.
1960 – NASA publicly announced the names of the first 7 American astronauts. Gordon Cooper, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Alan Shepard were dubbed the Mercury Seven as they were selected for NASA’s Mercury space program. All seven astronauts flew on various missions throughout the 20th century.
1963 – President John F. Kennedy granted Winston Churchill the first-ever honorary US citizenship.
1969 – Brian Trubshaw, the first British pilot to fly Concorde, made his first flight in the British built prototype. The 22 minute flight left from a test runway at Filton near Bristol and landed at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
2002 – The Queen Mother’s funeral was held at Westminster Abbey. She passed away at 101 years old on March 30, 2002.
2003 – US forces pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad to symbolize the end of the Iraqi president’s brutal reign.
2005 – The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles were married, in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor.
2021 – The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, died at age 99.
Strangely enough, he died on the 99th day of the year, on the morning of the 9th day of the month.
Today in music
1973 – Newly signed to EMI Records, Queen played a showcase gig for their new record label at the The Marquee London. They released their debut single ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ three months later on 6 July 1973.
1974 – Terry Jacks was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Seasons In The Sun.’ Jacks became the first Canadian to score a No.1 since Paul Anka in 1957. The song (written in French by Belgian, Jacques Brel), had English lyrics by poet Rod McKuen.
1977 – ABBA went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Dancing Queen’, the group’s 7th US Top 40 hit and first No.1. The song was also a No.1 in the UK in 1976 and 12 other countries.
1988 – Billy Ocean started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’, a No.3 hit in the UK.
1994 – Take That scored their fourth UK No.1 single with the Gary Barlow penned single ‘Everything Changes’ the fifth single from the band’s second album Everything Changes.
2000 – Moby started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Play’. The album went on to spend 81 weeks on the chart.
2000 – Craig David went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Fill Me In’. At 18 years 11 months he became the youngest UK male solo artist to write and sing a UK No.1.
2013 – According to the Official Charts Company one billion songs had now been downloaded in the UK. Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ was the most downloaded single of all time in the UK, followed by tracks by Maroon 5 and Gotye. The Official Charts Company said on average more than three million tracks were now sold every week.
Today in history
1413 – Henry V was crowned King of England. He was the second English monarch from the House of Lancaster.
1483 – At the age of 12, Edward V acceded to the throne on the death of Edward IV and was later murdered in mysterious circumstances 75 days later on 25th June.
1585 – The expedition organised by Sir Walter Raleigh departed England for Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina) to establish a permanent English settlement in what later became the Virginia Colony.
1747 – The Scottish Jacobite Lord Lovat was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for high treason. He was the last man to be executed in this way in Britain, in a form of execution which had been reserved for the nobility.
1770 – The explorer Captain Cook arrived in Botany Bay, Australia, the first European to do so.