Monday, May 5th "2025" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 125, known as Early May Bank Holiday, International Midwives Day, Europe Day, World Hand Hygiene Day. Your star sign is Taurus and your birthstone is Emerald.
1980 – The SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy at Knightsbridge in London. Four gunmen were killed in the attack and all 19 hostages were rescued.
Todays birthdays
1943 – Michael Palin (82), English actor, comedian (Monty Python, A Fish Called Wanda), writer, and television presenter, born in Ranmoor, Sheffield.
1944 – John Rhys-Davies (81), Welsh actor best known for his role as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, born in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
1957 – Richard E Grant (68), English actor (Love Hurts, Gosford Park), born in Mbabane, Eswatini (previously called Swaziland).
1959 – Ian McCulloch (66), English singer-songwriter and member of rock band Echo & the Bunnymen (“The Killing Moon”, “The Cutter”), born in Liverpool.
1972 – James Cracknell (53), English athlete, rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), born in Sutton, London.
1981 – Craig David (44), English singer (“Re-Rewind”, “7 Days”, “Fill Me In”, “Rendezvous”), born in Southampton, Hampshire.
1983 – Henry Cavill (42), British actor (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), born in Saint Helier, Jersey.
1988 – Adele (37), English singer-songwriter (“Rolling in the Deep”, “Someone Like You”), born in Tottenham, London.
Famous deaths
1984 – Diana Dors (b. 1931), English actress (Lady Godiva Rides Again).
The day today
1921 – Perfume Chanel No.5 was released. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel released her first fragrance, which ended up also being the first modern perfume. Coco was also the first face of the advertisement for the perfume.
1930 – British aviator Amy Johnson took off from Croydon Airport in her Gypsy Moth plane ‘Jason’. She became the first woman to fly solo to Australia, arriving on 24th May.
1964 – The first meeting of a ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign led by Norah Buckland and her friend Mary Whitehouse. The organization was later given the name of The National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association.
1964 – The Council of Europe declared 5th May as Europe Day, an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe.
1980 – The SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy at Knightsbridge in London. Four gunmen were killed in the attack and all 19 hostages were rescued.
2011 – The death (in Perth, Western Australia) of Claude Stanley Choules, the last World War I combat veteran and the last military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. He was born in Pershore, Worcestershire and was the last veteran to have served in both world wars, and also the last seaman from the First World War.
2014 – A police officer who handcuffed himself to a man on suspicion of assault locked his keys in his patrol car and found that he had no way of taking the pair of them to the police station. Undeterred he sheepishly knocked on the suspect’s door and asked the boy’s mother if she would be willing to drive them to the station herself …..and she did.
Today in music
1966 – Manfred Mann were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Pretty Flamingo’. The recording features future Cream bassist Jack Bruce, who briefly joined the band in 1965. On their Top Of The Pops appearance, singer Paul Jones performed whilst standing on one leg.
1967 – The Kinks released ‘Waterloo Sunset’ as a single which went on to peak at No.2 on the UK chart. Songwriter and Kinks singer Ray Davies later stated that the song was originally entitled ‘Liverpool Sunset’, after his love for Liverpool and Merseybeat.
1973 – David Bowie scored his first UK No.1 album when ‘Aladdin Sane’ started a five-week run at the top, featuring the single ‘Drive In Saturday’. The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the name of the album is a pun on “A Lad Insane”.
1983 – The Stranglers ‘Golden Brown’ was named most performed work of 1982 at the 28th Ivor Novello Awards. The single had become a UK hit after the comparatively conservative BBC Radio Two made it ‘single of the week’, a surprising step considering the band were almost as notorious as Sex Pistols only a few short years before.
1984 – Duran Duran were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘The Reflex’, the group’s second and last No.1. The song which was taken from their third album Seven and the Ragged Tiger was also a US No.1.
2003 – UK Holiday camp operator Butlins introduced a new system of rhyming slang at bingo halls in an attempt to bring the game up-to-date. Pop stars Jennifer Lopez and Gareth Gates became new catchphrases for the callers, ‘Gareth Gates’ (8) and ‘J-Lo’s bum’ (71). Other additions include ‘stroppy teen’ (15) and ‘feng shui’ (53).
2016 – The Rolling Stones told Donald Trump to stop playing their songs during his presidential campaign. The band issued a statement saying that the US presidential candidate did not have permission to use the band’s music. Their 1969 hit ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ had been a particular favourite during his campaign.
Today in history
1215 – Rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John; part of a chain of events that led to the signing of the Magna Carta.
1760 – The first public hanging took place at Tyburn in London. Earl Ferrers was executed after being convicted of murdering his valet. He was the first to be hanged by the new ‘drop’ which had just been introduced in the place of the barbarous cart, ladder and medieval three-cornered gibbet.
1494 – On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown.
1821 – Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1870 – The British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind (which later became the Royal National Institute for Blind People) adopts Braille as best format for blind people.