December 12th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 347 of the “leap” year! Known as Gingerbread House Day, Gingerbread Decorating Day, National Poinsettia Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1982 – 30,000 women formed a 9 mile human chain that encircled Greenham Common air base in Berkshire, in protest against the proposed siting of US Cruise missiles there.
Todays birthdays
1949 – Bill Nighy (75), English actor (Love Actually, Underworld, Shaun of the Dead, Valkyrie), born in Caterham, Surrey.
1961 – Daniel O’Donnell (63), Irish singer (“Pretty Little Girl From Omagh”), television presenter and philanthropist, born in Kincasslagh, Ireland.
1968 – Kate Humble (56), English television presenter and narrator, mainly working for the BBC (Kate Humble’s Coastal Britain, Wild Things), born in Wimbledon, London.
1970 – Jennifer Connelly (54), American actress (Labyrinth, Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, Alita: Battle Angel), born in Cairo, New York, United States.
1976 – Dan Hawkins (48), English guitarist and backing singer of the rock band the Darkness (“I Believe in a Thing Called Love”), founded and fronted by his older brother Justin Hawkins, born in Chertsey, Surrey.
Famous deaths
2017 – Keith Chegwin (b. 1957), British TV presenter also known by the nickname Cheggers (Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, It’s a Knockout, Cheggers Plays Pop).
The day today
1988 – Britain’s worst rail crash for 20 years killed 35 and injured 113 people when a packed express train ran into the back of a stationary commuter train near Clapham Junction. Also on this day… The first satellite pictures were beamed to London’s betting shops to allow them to watch the races live from many race courses.
1992 – Princess Anne remarried and became Mrs. Timothy Laurence after a small family wedding in Scotland. She was previously married to Mark Phillips (1973).
2001 – Roy Whiting was found guilty of the abduction and murder of eight year old Sarah Payne, and sentenced to life in prison. The high profile case led to ‘Sarah’s Law’, by allowing controlled access to the Sex Offenders’ Register, so that parents with young children could know if a child sex-offender was living in their area.
2012 – Ofcom announced that Internet shopping was more popular in the UK than in any other major country, with an annual average spend of £1,083 a year, compared with the second highest (Australia) at £842.
2013 – Doctors in Derby and Nottingham analysing the Ian Fleming novels showed that James Bond drank the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day. They said that he was not the man to trust to deactivate a nuclear bomb and that his love of the bottle would have left him impotent and at death’s door. Excluding the 36 days that Bond was in prison, hospital or rehab, the spy downed 1,150 units of alcohol in 88 days, four times the recommended maximum intake for men in the UK.
Today in music
1968 – The Beatles sixth album Rubber Soul started a 42-week run on the UK albums chart. It was the second Beatles LP to contain only original material. For the first time in their career, the band were able to record the album over a continuous period, uninterrupted by touring commitments.
1970 – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles started a run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Tears Of A Clown’. It was the group’s 26th Top 40 hit and first No.1, also No.1 in the US.
1981 – The Human League had their only UK No.1 single with ‘Don’t You Want Me.’ The Christmas hit of 81, the biggest seller of 1981 and Virgin Records first No.1 UK single. The group’s singer Phil Oakey disliked the song so much that it was relegated to the last track on their latest album Dare.
1992 – Whitney Houston started a twenty-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘The Bodyguard’. It has sold over 44 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, as well as one of the best selling albums of all time.
2008 – The town where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards grew up announced it was to name streets in a new estate after Rolling Stones hits. The 13 streets in Dartford, Kent, were to be given names such as Angie Mews, Babylon Close, Sympathy Street, Little Red Walk and Satisfaction Street. Leader of the council, Jeremy Kite, said he thought Ruby Tuesday Drive sounded a “fantastic” place to live, but police were concerned the street signs might be stolen by fans.
Today in history
1724 – The birth of Admiral Samuel Hood, first Viscount, British naval commander and a skilful tactician. He was known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars and he acted as a mentor to Horatio Nelson.
1866 – The Oaks explosion remains the worst mining disaster in England. A series of explosions caused by firedamp ripped through the underground workings at the Oaks Colliery at Hoyle Mill near Stairfoot in Barnsley killing 361 miners and rescuers. It was the worst mining disaster in the United Kingdom until the 1913 Senghenydd explosion in Wales.
1889 – Robert Browning, English poet, died. He was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. His grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson.
1896 – Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London. On the same day, in 1901, Marconi carried out the first transatlantic radio transmission from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St John’s, Newfoundland, a distance of 1800 miles.
1899 – The first case of the bubonic plague was announced in Honolulu when You Chong, a bookkeeper in Honolulu’s Chinatown, fell ill on December 9, 1899, and developed telltale buboes before dying three days later. Four neighbors succumbed quickly thereafter.