Famous deaths
2018 – Chas Hodges (b. 1943), English musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist of the musical duo Chas & Dave.
On This Day 2025
Hello, … Welcome to day 355 of the year.

Sunday, December 21st Daily Prep.

Today is Winter Solstice, Crossword Puzzle Day and World Snowboard Day. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1988 – A Pan American jumbo jet bound for New York was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb and crashed onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground.
A Pan American jumbo jet bound for New York was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb and crashed onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground.
Today’s birthdays
1937 – Jane Fonda (88), American actress and film icon (Monster-in-Law, 9 to 5, On Golden Pond), born in New York, New York, United States.
1948 – Samuel L Jackson (77), American actor (Pulp Fiction, Shaft, The Negotiator, Coach Carter), born in Washington, D.C., United States.
1957 – Ray Romano (68), American stand-up comedian, actor and screenwriter (Everybody Loves Raymond, Ice Age – voice of Manny), born in Queens, New York, United States.
1966 – Kiefer Sutherland (59), English actor (The Lost Boys, Stand By Me, 24, Flatliners, Young Guns), born in St Mary’s Hospital, London.
1977 – Emmanuel Macron (48), French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017, born in Amiens, France.
1982 – Tom Payne (43), English actor (The Walking Dead, Waterloo Road, The Physician), born in Chelmsford, Essex.
Famous deaths
2015 – Jimmy Hill (b. 1928), English footballer and television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, pundit, analyst and assistant referee.

2021 – Sally Ann Howes (b. 1930), English actress best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The day today
1937 – The first full-length animated feature film, Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premieres.
1962 – President Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan agreed that the UK would buy nuclear missiles from the US to form a multilateral NATO nuclear force.
1988 – A Pan American jumbo jet bound for New York was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb and crashed onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. It remains the deadliest aviation incident ever to take place in the United Kingdom.
1988 – Antonov An-255 Mriya, the largest airplane in the world, flew for the first time. Initially designed by the Soviet Union to transport rockets and shuttles for their space program, this behemoth holds several world records for transporting the heaviest payloads. The Soviet Union made only one Antonov AN-255. After the Soviet Union no longer needed it, it was placed in storage for nearly a decade before being fixed up to fly as a commercial cargo plane in 2001.
1999 – Barcelona’s Brazilian midfielder Rivaldo is named best football player in Europe ahead of Manchester United midfielder David Beckham and Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko.
2005 – Elton John and his partner David Furnish registered their civil partnership at Windsor Town Hall on the first day civil partnerships could legally be performed in England.
2012 – The youngest female drivers faced ‘significant increases in their insurance costs’ after a ban on different car insurance prices for men and women. A European court ruling the previous year found that gender discrimination in insurance was against the law.
2013 – The death, aged 87, of former BBC sports broadcaster David Coleman. He first appeared on air for the BBC in 1954, covering 11 Olympic Games – from Rome in 1960 to Sydney 2000 and six football World Cups. Coleman presented some of the BBC’s leading sporting programmes, including Grandstand and Sportsnight and was the host of Question of Sport for 18 years.
2014 – A former senior military intelligence officer disclosed that a British soldier was investigated for touching a Taliban fighter on the nose with a sheet of paper during a routine interrogation as he had broken rules concerning the touching of detainees during questioning. The £31 million inquiry, chaired by Sir Thayne Forbes, a former High Court judge, listed several instances of what was judged to be ‘ill-treatment during questioning’.
2020 – The death (aged 103) of RAF ‘Spitfire woman’ Eleanor Wadsworth. She was the last surviving of about 165 women to have taken on the task of transporting aircraft to the frontlines during World War II. The women operated out of White Waltham in Berkshire and flew without instruments, flying instructions or radios.
Today in music
1974 – Mud were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Chinn & Chapman song ‘Lonely This Christmas’. The group’s second No.1 and third chart topper for Chinn & Chapman in 1974.
1988 – Former Cockney Rebel bass player Paul Jeffreys was one of the passengers killed by a terrorist bomb on Pan Am flight 103 which crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland.

1991 – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody – ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ by Queen started a five week run at No.1 in the UK, the 1975 word-wide hit had been re-released following the death of Freddie Mercury.

1996 – The charity record ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. With the consent of Bob Dylan musician Ted Christopher of Dunblane, Scotland wrote a new verse for the song in memory of the schoolchildren and teacher killed in the Dunblane massacre. The cover version of the song included brothers and sisters of the victims singing the chorus and Mark Knopfler on guitar.
2003 – Michael Andrews feat Gary Jules went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Tears For Fears song ‘Mad World.’ The song took just 90 minutes to record in 2001 and was featured in the film Donnie Darko.
2008 – The 2008 X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke started a three week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Hallelujah’. The song was written by Leonard Cohen, and his version charted at the same time, and Jeff Buckley’s cover reached No 2, just being held off by Alexandra. Three versions of the same song were in the chart at once, something not seen since the 1950s.
2010 – A concert by Kings of Leon was postponed after a fire broke out on two of their tour buses which were parked at The O2 arena in London. The blaze began on one coach before spreading to another tour bus in the loading bay of the venue in Greenwich.
2012 – ‘Gangnam Style’ by South Korean musician Psy became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views. By the end of 2012, the song had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries.
2014 – Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish formally converted their civil partnership to a marriage hosting a ceremony at their Windsor estate in Berkshire. David and Victoria Beckham, Ed Sheeran, Lulu and actor David Walliams were among the guests.
2019 – Mariah Carey topped the US Billboard Hot 100 with ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ for the first time, 25 years after its original release, thereby breaking several records, including the longest trip to number one. With estimated sales of over 16 million copies worldwide, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ is the best-selling holiday song by a female artist, and one of the best-selling physical singles in music history.
Today in history
1118 – The birth, in London’s Cheapside, of Thomas à Becket, Lord Chancellor of England, Archbishop of Canterbury and martyr.
1620 – The Pilgrim Fathers arrived at Plymouth Rock , Massachusetts aboard The Mayflower. Passengers & crew increased to 103 after 2 births on the voyage from Plymouth, England. They had originally set sail from Southampton on 5th August but were beset with problems.
1804 – The birth of Benjamin Disraeli, first Earl of Beaconsfield and British Prime Minister. He became the first Conservative Prime Minister in 1868, but was defeated at the next election. He was Prime Minister again in 1874 with a substantial majority.
1842 – Pentonville Prison, Islington, was opened. Pentonville became the model for British prisons. A further 54 were built to the same design over six years, and hundreds more were built throughout the British Empire.
1898 – French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium. In the course of their research, they also coined the word “radioactivity”. To prove their discoveries beyond any doubt, the Curies sought to isolate polonium and radium in pure form.