Sunday, July 6th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 187, known as International Kissing Day, Take Your Webmaster To Lunch Day. Your star sign is Cancer and your birthstone is Ruby.
1988 – An explosion aboard the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha, off the coast of Aberdeen, resulted in the loss of 167 lives. It is the world’s deadliest ever oil rig accident.
Todays birthdays
1939 – Mary Peters (86), Northern Irish former athlete (1972 Olympic champion in the pentathlon) and BBC Sports Personality of the Year, born in Halewood, Merseyside.
1946 – Sylvester Stallone (79), American actor (Rocky, Rambo, The Expendables, Tango and Cash, Tulsa King), born in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, United States.
1952 – Dave Smith (73), English singer with soul group The Real Thing (“You to Me Are Everything”, “Can You Feel the Force?”), born in Liverpool.
1958 – Jennifer Saunders (67), English actress, comedian and screenwriter (Absolutely Fabulous, French & Saunders), born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire.
1975 – Curtis “50 cent” Jackson (50), American rapper (“In da Club”, “Just A Lil Bit”) and businessman, born in Queens, New York, United States.
1987 – Kate Nash (38), English singer and songwriter (“Foundations”, “Nicest Thing”), born in Harrow, Greater London.
Famous deaths
2016 – Caroline Aherne (b. 1963), English actress and comedian (The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, The Fast Show).
The day today
1907 – The opening of Brooklands, on a marshy piece of country estate in Weybridge, Surrey – the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit.
1952 – After nearly a century of service, trams made their final appearance in London.
1960 – The death of Aneurin Bevan, often known as Nye Bevan. He was a Welsh Labour Party politician and Minister for Health in the post-war Attlee ministry from 1945-51. Bevan spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, to provide medical care free at point-of-need to all Britons.
1978 – Three bags of horse manure were hurled from the public gallery in the House of Commons during a debate on Scottish Home Rule. Yana Mintoff, daughter of the Prime Minister of Malta, was later arrested and fined.
1988 – An explosion aboard the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha, off the coast of Aberdeen, resulted in the loss of 167 lives. It is the world’s deadliest ever oil rig accident.
2014 – From 4:30am cash could no longer be used on any of London’s 24,500 buses, in a move that Transport for London (TfL) said would save £24m a year. A prepaid or concessionary ticket, Oyster card or a contactless payment card would be needed to travel.
2014 – Permanent secretary Mark Sedwill, the most senior civil servant in the Home Office was to give evidence to MPs. The department admitted that more than 100 official files relating to allegations of historical child abuse by politicians between 1979 and 1999 were “presumed destroyed, missing or not found”. The files were in addition to a dossier alleging historical child abuse involving powerful and famous figures at Westminster in the 1980s that were “also missing.”
2016 – South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to 6 years in prison for murder.
Today in music
1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at The Woolton Church Parish Fete where The Quarry Men were appearing. As The Quarry Men were setting up for their evening performance, McCartney eager to impress Lennon picked up a guitar and played ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ (Eddie Cochran) and ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’ (Gene Vincent). Lennon was impressed, and even more so when McCartney showed Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they’d been paying someone else to do for them.
1968 – The Rolling Stones scored their fifth US No.1 single when ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ hit the top of the charts.
1972 – David Bowie appeared on the UK music show Top Of The Pops playing his new single ‘Starman’, his first hit since 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’ three years before. The single peaked at No.10 and stayed on the charts for 11 weeks.
1973 – Queen released their debut single ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ in the UK. The track didn’t make the charts.
1996 – Three Lions by comedians Baddiel and Skinner and The Lightning Seeds was at No.1 on the UK singles chart, (the official song of The England Football team).
2003 – Beyonce featuring Jay-Z started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Crazy In Love.’
2008 – Dizzee Rascal with Calvin Harris and Chrome started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Dance Wiv Me’.
2012 – Carol Hawkins, the former personal assistant of U2 bassist Adam Clayton was jailed for seven years for embezzling £2.2m of his money to fund a lavish lifestyle. She was convicted on 181 counts of theft from the bassist’s bank accounts over a four-year period.
Today in history
1189 – The death (aged 56) of Henry II, King of England. He was born in Normandy at Le Mans in 1133, was the first king of the House of Plantagenet and was made Duke of Normandy in 1150 by King Louis VII of France.
1483 – England’s King Richard III was crowned. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses.
1535 – Sir Thomas More was beheaded on London’s Tower Hill for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the church. He lifted his beard from the axe, on the basis that it had committed no offences against the king!
1553 – The death of Edward VI, the first Protestant king of England. He died at the tender age of 15, having been crowned king when he was just 9 years old. He was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. Edward named his cousin, Lady Jane Grey as his successor and she was queen for a mere nine days. The country, however, considered Mary the rightful ruler, and within a few days days she made a triumphal entry into London.
1685 – James II defeated the Duke of Monmouth, claimant to the throne, at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Westonzoyland in Somerset. Sedgemoor was the last major battle to be fought on English soil.
1699 – Pirate Captain Kidd was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts, US. Kidd was placed into a stone prison under harsh conditions before being taken to England a year later to be questioned by Parliament. He was found guilty of piracy and hanged on May 23, 1701.