Thursday, June 5th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 156, known as World Environment Day, Gingerbread Day, Sausage Roll Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Pearl (Alexandrite and Moonstone is also recognised).
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world. The event was captured on camera and broadcast worldwide, with the collapse even occurring during a live broadcast by ITV Calendar’s Richard Whiteley.
Todays birthdays
1952 – Michael “Nicko” McBrain (73), English musician, best known as the drummer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden (“Run to the Hills”) since 1982, born in Hackney, London.
1964 – Maggie Dunne (61), English singer with all-girl alternative rock band Fuzzbox (“International Rescue”), born in Solihull, West Midlands.
1968 – Mel Giedroyc (57), English actress, comedian and television presenter (Mel and Sue, The Great British Bake Off), born in Epsom, Surrey.
1971 – Mark Wahlberg (54), American actor (Ted, Shooter, Lone Survivor) and former member of New Kids On The Block, born in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
1976 – Ross Noble (49), English stand-up comedian and panelist (Have I Got News for You), born in Newcastle upon Tyne.
1987 – Charlie Clements (38), English actor known for the role of Bradley Branning in Eastenders, born in Sidcup, London Borough of Bexley.
1995 – Ross Wilson (30), British paralympic table tennis player, born in Minster on Sea, Isle of Sheppey, Kent.
Famous deaths
2016 – Muhammad Ali (b. 1942), American boxer nicknamed “the Greatest”, he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
The day today
1916 – World War I: British General Lord Kitchener drowned when HMS Hampshire hit a mine off the Orkney Islands during a storm and sank en route to Russia. There were no survivors.
1964 – Blue Streak became Britain’s first rocket, taking her into the space age. The 69 ft rocket was launched at Woomera, Australia and was a simplified civilian version that had been designed for research and satellite launching purposes. Blue Streak had originally been planned as Britain’s first nuclear weapon carrier but was scrapped due to costs.
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world. The event was captured on camera and broadcast worldwide, with the collapse even occurring during a live broadcast by ITV Calendar’s Richard Whiteley.
2007 – The new Olympics 2012 logo received a ‘mauling’ when it was unveiled to the public. The logo, which took a year to design was designed to ‘engage with young people and excite sponsors’ said the London 2012 chairman, Sebastian Coe.
2012 – The day was declared a Bank Holiday to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. It was the final day of 4 days of celebration to honour 60 years of the Queen as our monarch. It has been 115 years since the United Kingdom last celebrated a royal Diamond Jubilee (that was Queen Victoria’s) and it may be another century or more before there is another.
2014 – Property experts estimated there could be up to 1,000 JCBs buried underground in London, because it is cheaper to bury them than to lift them to street level following basement extensions. The total value of the JCBs buried underground is thought to be around £5 million.
Today in music
1961 – Roy Orbison went to No.1 on the US chart with ‘Running Scared’, it made No.9 in the UK. The B-side ‘Love Hurts’ also picked up significant airplay, making Orbison’s recording the first version to be a hit.
1964 – The Rolling Stones played their first-ever live date in the US when they appeared at the Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, California. The Stones were supporting their first album release The Rolling Stones, in North America.
1967 – In 1965, Rogers and Hammerstein’s soundtrack to the musical film, The Sound Of Music, landed at the top of the UK album chart, where it remained for an astonishing 70 weeks. It would be named the best-selling album of 1965, 1966, and 1968, and the second-best selling album of the 60s. In the US, the album also went to No.1, remaining in the Top Ten for 109 nine weeks and spending a mind-boggling 238 total weeks on the Billboard 200.
2003 – A Grandfather who set up his own pirate radio station in Wakefield, Yorkshire was under investigation by local broadcasting authorities. The man known as Ricky Rock had erected a 32ft transmitter in his garden and had been playing hits by The Beach Boys, The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Ricky said he set the station up because ‘talent-less boy bands and dance music’ featured on local stations did not cater to the tastes of his generation.
2016 – The four members of ABBA performed alongside one another for the first time since 1982 at a private gala to mark 50 years since songwriting duo Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the first time in Stockholm. The impromptu performance reportedly began when Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstadon recited their 1980 hit ‘Me and I’ as a tribute to Andersson and Ulvaeus, before the two others joined in and made the reunion official.
2019 – Forbes magazine announced that Rihanna was the richest female musician in the world. The singer had amassed a fortune of about £472 million, largely through her music and makeup business. Her Fenty Beauty line launched in 2017 reportedly made about £78 million in its first 40 days. Rihanna’s wealth put her ahead of Madonna, worth an estimated £448 million, Celine Dion (£350 million) and Beyoncé (£314 million).
Today in history
755 AD – English missionary Boniface, ‘the Apostle of Germany’, was murdered in Germany by unbelievers, along with 53 of his companions.
1661 – Isaac Newton was admitted as a student to Cambridge University’s Trinity College. Newton, who was older than most of the other students, originally entered the college with the aim of attaining a law degree. It was only in 1663 that he finally began to take an interest in science and math, the realms to which he ended up contributing most.
1718 – The birth in Otley, North Yorkshire, of Thomas Chippendale, cabinet-maker and furniture designer.
1829 – HMS Pickle, a schooner of 5 guns, was involved in the suppression of the slave trade, and achieved fame for capturing the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.
1876 – Americans were introduced to bananas. Bananas don’t naturally grow in the US, and on this day, they were presented at a food fair in Philadelphia. The bananas were an instant hit.