August 4th "2024" Daily Prep

Welcome to day 217 of the year! Known as World Cookie Day, Cook Islands Constitution Day. If you were born today you were likely conceived the week of November 11th in the previous year. Your star sign is Leo and your birthstone is Peridot.
The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).
2012 – The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).
Todays birthdays
1947 – Paul Layton (77), English musician and rocker (The New Seekers – “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”), born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton (69), American film actor and director (Bad Santa, Tombstone, Armageddon), Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States.
1958 – Ian Broudie (66), English musician (The Lightning Seeds) and singer-songwriter (“Three Lions”, “Lucky You”, “The Life Of Riley”), born in Liverpool.
1968 – Lee Mack (56), English comedian, actor, podcaster and presenter (Not Going Out, Would I Lie To You), born in Southport, Merseyside.
1981 – Meghan Windsor (43), American former actress (Suits), Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, born in, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, United States.
Famous deaths
2015 – Cilla Black, born Priscilla Maria Veronica White (b. 1943), English singer (“Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “You’re My World”) and television presenter (Blind Date).
The day today
1954 – Britain’s first supersonic fighter plane, the English Electric Lightning P-1, made its maiden flight.
1987 – Moors murderer Ian Brady claimed that he was involved in another five killings.
1989 – ‘Licence to Kill’ went on general cinema release in the United Kingdom. It was the sixteenth entry in the James Bond film series by Eon Productions, and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel.
2000 – Celebrations took place all over the United Kingdom to mark the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was the first ever member of the Royal Family to reach her centenary.
2012 – The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).
Today in music
1962 – The Rolling Stones played the first of 22 weekly shows at Ealing Jazz Club in Ealing, London. They were known as The Rollin’ Stones during this period.
1966 – The Troggs were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘With A Girl Like You’, the group’s only UK No.1 single.
1975 – Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and his wife were both badly injured when the hire car he was driving spun off the road and crashed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant smashed both his ankle and his elbow, and was not fully fit for the best part of two years.
2000 – Craig David scored his second UK No.1 single with ‘7 Days’. At the age of 19, he became the youngest male artist to score two No.1’s since Donny Osmond in 1973.
2017 – ‘Despacito’ by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Justin Bieber became the most-watched YouTube video ever, passing the Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth collaboration ‘See You Again’ with nearly 3 billion views in just seven months.
Today in history
1265 – The Battle of Evesham (Worcestershire) took place, in which the army of Prince Edward, the future king Edward I of England, defeated the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. De Montfort and many of his allies were killed.
1693 – Dom Perignon’s invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
1704 – Gibraltar was captured for the British by Admiral Sir George Rooke.
1792 – The birth of Percy Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets. In September 1812 Shelley, pursued by debtors and authorities who wished to question the poet about his radical political activities fled to Tremadog and lived at at Tan-yr-allt, the former home of William Madocks, the designer and builder of most of Tremadog.
1870 – The British Red Cross Society was founded, by Lord Wantage.