Sunday, August 31st "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 243, known as Eat Outside Day, Ironman Wales, International Overdose Awareness Day, Social Justice Sunday, World Distnace Learning Day. Your star sign is Virgo and your birthstone is Peridot.
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in the Place de l’Alma underpass in Paris, France. Her death sparked an outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and the world.
Todays birthdays
1945 – Van Morrison (80), Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician (“Brown Eyed Girl”), born in Belfast Bloomfield, Northern Ireland.
1949 – Richard Gere (76), American actor (An Officer and a Gentleman, Primal Fear, Pretty Woman), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
1955 – Anthony Thistlethwaite (70), English-born Irish multi-instrumentalist and former member of The Waterboys (“The Whole of the Moon”) and a member of Irish band, The Saw Doctors (“Clare Island”) since 2010, born in Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
1957 – Glenn Tilbrook (68), English singer-songwriter, musician and the lead singer of the new wave band Squeeze (“Cool for Cats”), born in Woolwich, London.
1963 – Todd Carty (62), English actor (Eastenders, The Bill, Grange Hill, Paddington Green), born in Willesden, London.
1971 – Kirstie Allsopp (54), English television presenter, best known as co-presenter of Channel 4 property show Location, Location, Location, born in Hampstead, London.
1971 – Pádraig Harrington (54), Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions, born in Dublin, Ireland.
1976 – Lucy Speed (49), English actress (Eastenders, The Bill), born in Croydon, South London.
Famous deaths
2012 – Max Bygraves (b. 1922), English singer (“You’re a Pink Toothbrush”, “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”) and variety performer.
2013 – David Frost
(b. 1939), English television host, journalist, comedian and writer (That Was the Week That Was, Through the Keyhole).
The day today
1900 – Coca Cola first went on sale in Britain, fourteen years after it was first sold in the U.S.A. Charles Chandler, the eldest son of the founder came to Britain with a jug of cola syrup. It proved so popular that five more gallons were ordered immediately from America.
1906 – At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years, the legendary English cricketer W.G. Grace retired from first class cricket. He had scored a total of 54,896 runs (including 126 centuries), taken 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.
1939 – Nazi forces, posing as Poles, mounted a staged attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, in Poland, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.
1962 – Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger (Bernese Alps in Switzerland). The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever.
1968 – West Indian cricketer Gary Sobers becomes the first batsman to score six ‘sixes’ in one over while playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea.
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in the Place de l’Alma underpass in Paris, France. Tests conducted by French police indicated that the driver was intoxicated, may have been travelling at over 100 mph and likely caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers.
2013 – The death, at the age of 74, of veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost, after a heart attack while on board a cruise ship. His career spanned journalism, comedy writing and daytime television presenting, including The Frost Report.
2013 – BT turned off its dial-up internet (DUN) access service. The best dial-up modems despatched data along telephone lines at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second compared with most broadband technologies that work in the megabits per second range. In 2010, the last year for which figures were available, an Ofcom spokesman said that about 800,000 people in remote areas still used ‘dial-up’.
Today in music
1985 – UB40 with guest vocals from Chrissie Hynde had the UK No.1 single with their version of the Sonny Bono song ‘I Got You Babe’ a hit for Sonny & Cher in 1965.
1986 – After living together for 10 years Bob Geldof married TV presenter Paula Yates in Las Vegas with Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon as the best man. Yates died of a drug overdose on 17th September 2000.
1987 – Fleetwood Mac released ‘Little Lies’ from their fourteenth studio album Tango in the Night. The single reached No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No.5 in the UK.
1991 – Metallica started a four-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with, Metallica. The album featured ‘Enter Sandman’ ‘Sad But True’, ‘The Unforgiven’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters’ went on to sell over 10 million copies in the US alone.
1997 – Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their third album ‘Be Here Now.’ The album had sold over a million copies on the first day of release. At that point, Oasis were at the height of their fame, and ‘Be Here Now’ became the United Kingdom’s fastest selling album to date.
2003 – Elton John went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Are You Ready For Love.’ The song was recorded in 1977 and released in 1979, when it reached No.42.
2014 – Jimi Jamison, the lead singer for US rock band Survivor, who sang and co-wrote ‘I’m Always Here’ the theme tune for hit TV series Baywatch, died aged 63. The band are best known for their 1982 hit ‘The Eye of the Tiger’ which pre-dated Jamison joining the group.
2019 – Ellie Goulding married art dealer Caspar Jopling at York Minster Cathedral, England, in a wedding attended by Katy Perry and her boyfriend Orlando Bloom, Tracey Emin, Sienna Miller, James Blunt, Princess Eugenie, and Sarah, Duchess of York.
Today in history
1422 – King Henry V of England died of dysentery whilst in France. His son, Henry VI, became King of England at the age of 9 months.
1688 – The death of John Bunyan, English Christian writer and preacher, who is best known for his book The Pilgrim’s Progress.
1795 – War of the First Coalition: The British capture Trincomalee (present-day Sri Lanka) from the Dutch in order to keep it out of French hands.
1848 – Accurate and scientific ‘state of the weather’ reports were first published by Charles Dickens’s newspaper – The Daily News.
1888 – The body of Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck’s Row (now Durward Street), Whitechapel, London. The unidentified serial killer’s attacks involved females from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge. Despite a huge effort by the police, the Ripper was never caught, and his identity is still shrouded in mystery.