Saturday, May 31st "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 151, known as Web Designer Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Parrot Day, National Smile Day. Your star sign is Gemini and your birthstone is Emerald.
1859 – The clock in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament was started, with the bell (Big Ben) sounding for the first time on 11th July. The clock tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in recognition of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Todays birthdays
1930 – Clint Eastwood (95), American actor (Dirty Harry, Gran Torino, Escape from Alcatraz) and film director (American Sniper), born in San Francisco, California, United States.
1939 – Terry Waite (86), English humanitarian and author (Taken on Trust), who was held captive in Lebanon from 1987 to 1991, born in Bollington, Cheshire.
1963 – Wendy Smith (62), English musician, singer and former member of Prefab Sprout (“The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” – Hot Dog, Jumping Frog), born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.
1976 – Colin Farrell (49), Irish actor (The Gentlemen, S.W.A.T., Phone Booth, Minority Report), born in Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland.
1983 – Reggie Yates (42), English television presenter, actor (Doctor Who) and radio DJ (BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 1Xtra), born in London.
Famous deaths
2009 – Danny La Rue (b. 1927), born Daniel Patrick Carroll, Irish drag queen performer and singer who did many celebrity impersonations such as Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Judy Garland, Margot Fonteyn, Marlene Dietrich and Margaret Thatcher.
The day today
1911 – The White Star liner Titanic was launched at Harland & Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, ‘Not even God himself could sink this ship.’ The Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton on April 10, 1912, with 2,240 passengers and crew on board.
1930 – Don Bradman became the first Australian to score 1,000 runs in England between the start of the cricket season and the end of May.
1962 – The State of Israel hanged German official Adolf Eichmann, who had escaped from a prison camp in 1946 and spent some 14 years in hiding, for his part in the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.
1985 – The Football Association, supported by Margaret Thatcher, banned English clubs from playing in Europe following the Heysel stadium tragedy which resulted in 39 deaths and some 600 injuries during a match between Liverpool FC and Juventus. The disaster was blamed on hooliganism, mistakes by officials, and structural issues with the stadium.
2004 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the 3rd film based on the books by J. K. Rowling, was released in UK cinemas.
2004 – British children’s cartoon “Peppa Pig” created by Astley Baker Davies premieres on Channel 5
2009 – Millvina Dean, the last known person to have survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died aged 97. She was nine weeks old at the time of the disaster.
Today in music
1980 – Lipps Inc went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Funkytown’. The disco hit was also a No.1 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Australia and The Netherlands. It reached No. 2 in the UK.
1980 – The Theme From M*A*S*H* (Suicide Is Painless), by Mash was at No.1 on the UK singles chart, 10 years after it was first recorded after being championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Noel Edmonds. Mike Altman the son of the original film’s director, Robert Altman, was 14 years old when he composed the song’s lyrics.
1986 – Peter Gabriel scored his second solo UK No.1 album with ‘So’ featuring the singles ‘Sledgehammer’ and a duet with Kate Bush ‘Don’t Give Up’. The song was inspired by the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange, showing poverty-stricken Americans in Dust Bowl conditions.
1997 – Eternal started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘I Wanna Be The Only One’ the girl soul trio’s first – and only UK chart-topper.
1998 – Geri Halliwell announced she had quit The Spice Girls saying “This is because of differences between us. I am sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best.” Despite days of scrutiny and speculation by the media, fans around the globe were left stunned by the news. The remaining four members commenced the North American leg of their Spiceworld Tour and released their final album, Forever, in 2000.
2005 – Former East 17 singer Brian Harvey was in a critical condition in a London hospital after he fell under the wheels of his Mercedes convertible. The accident happened outside his home in Walthamstow when Harvey was reversing from an access road into the street. The singer suffered a broken leg, pelvis and a crushed abdomen and ribs.
2014 – The video for Psy’s Gangnam Style reached two billion views on YouTube.
Today in history
1076 – Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria and the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls, was beheaded at St. Giles’s Hill, near Winchester after rebelling against William the Conqueror. He was the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I (William the Conqueror).
1578 – English explorer Martin Frobisher sailed from Harwich to Frobisher Bay in Canada. Over time he brought home 1500 tons of ‘gold ore’. After years of smelting, it was realized that the presumed gold was merely worthless iron pyrite (fool’s gold) that was later used to pave streets in London, leading to the myth that the streets of London were paved with gold.
1669 – English civil servant Samuel Pepys recorded his last diary entry. Due to poor eyesight, Pepys finally had to stop working on his famous diary. The diary covered about a decade of his life and is regarded as Britain’s most celebrated diary.
1678 – The Godiva Procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride by Lady Godiva (born 990 AD) was instituted as part of Coventry fair and was celebrated up to the 1960s. According to the popular story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Her husband agreed to repeal the taxes if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town, clothed only in her long hair. She agreed, conditionally that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, but one person, a tailor known ever afterwards as Peeping Tom, disobeyed the proclamation and was struck blind.
1859 – The clock in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament was started, with the bell (Big Ben) sounding for the first time on 11th July. The clock tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in recognition of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
1889 – A painting of a small dog listening to a phonograph was shown to the general manager of ‘The Gramophone Company’ in London by the painter, Francis Barraud. It was of his dog, Nipper. The phonograph was painted out and a gramophone substituted. It soon became the famous trademark for the company ‘His Master’s Voice’ (HMV).