November 14th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 319 of the “leap” year! Known as World Diabetes Day, World Quality Day, National Seat Belt Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1973 – Bobby Moore made his 108th and final appearance for England against Italy which featured 108 caps, 90 of which were as captain, and most importantly included the game which saw England lift the world cup trophy in 1966.
Todays birthdays
1948 – HRH King Charles III (76), King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, born in Buckingham Palace, London.
1959 – Paul McGann (65), English actor (Luther, Hornblower, Queen of the Damned) and as the eighth incarnation of the Doctor, in the Doctor Who series, born in Kensington, Liverpool.
1967 – Letitia Dean (57), English actress best known for her role as Sharon Watts in Eastenders, born in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.
1975 – Faye Tozer (49), English singer and dancer best known as a member of British pop group Steps (“Last Thing on My Mind”, “One for Sorrow”), born in Northampton.
1975 – Travis Barker (49), American drummer (Blink-182 – “All the Small Things”) and husband to Kourtney Kardashian, born in Fontana, California, United States.
Famous deaths
2015 – Warren Mitchell (b. 1926), English actor and screenwriter best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett (Till Death Us Do Part, In Sickness and in Health).
2020 – Des O’Connor (b. 1932), English comedian, singer and television presenter (Today with Des and Mel, Take Your Pick!, Countdown).
The day today
1911 – George V and Queen Mary landed at Gibraltar, the first time a reigning British monarch had visited a British Commonwealth country.
1922 – BBC radio was first broadcast from Alexandra Palace. The first programme was broadcast at 6 pm from 2LO London (later the BBC). A news bulletin, repeated again at 9 pm, and a weather report were the entire programme.
1940 – 449 German Luftwaffe bombers dropped 503 tons of bombs and 881 incendiaries onto the City of Coventry, killing over 500 civilians and destroying the medieval cathedral. A new cathedral was built adjacent to the old, and the bombed cathedral was left as a memorial.
1973 – Bobby Moore made his 108th and final appearance for England against Italy which featured 108 caps, 90 of which were as captain, and most importantly included the game which saw England lift the world cup trophy in 1966.
2014 – The 3,000th edition of the BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, which was first broadcast on 29th January 1942. The guest for the 3,000th show was 95 year old Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, the Navy Fleet Air Arm’s most decorated pilot and the record holder for the most flight deck landings.
Today in music
1969 – ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. The single became the longest running One Hit Wonder in the UK with eight week’s at the top of the charts. It was the first No.1 performed by cartoon characters.
1987 – T’Pau started a five week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘China In Your Hand’. The song’s title according to singer Carol Decker is the effect you get if you hold a china cup to a light, you can see your hand through it.
1992 – Bon Jovi went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Keep The Faith’ their fifth studio album and second UK No.1. The album produced six UK Top 20 hit singles, ‘Keep The Faith’, ‘Bed Of Roses’, ‘In These Arms’, ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’, ‘I Believe’ and ‘Dry County’.
1999 – Robbie Williams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘She’s The One / It’s Only Us’, his second UK No.1. ‘She’s The One’ was written by World Party leader Karl Wallinger.
2004 – U2 went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Vertigo’, the bands fifth UK No.1, taken from ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’.
Today in history
1666 – Samuel Pepys described in his diary of a blood transfusion between two dogs (performed by Thomas Croone, an anatomist and physician). This was just the second such attempt on record, and came just months after the discovery of blood circulation mechanisms through the heart.
1687 – The death of Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn, long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of two of his illegitimate children.
1770 – James Bruce, Scottish traveller and travel writer, discovered what he believed to be the source of the Blue Nile. Bruce admitted that the White Nile was the larger stream but that the Blue Nile was the Nile of the ancients and thus he was the discoverer of its source.
1864 – Franz Müller, a German tailor, who had murdered Thomas Briggs in the first murder committed on a British train (on 9th July) was publicly hanged at Newgate prison.
1886 – The speed limit for horseless carriages in Britain was raised from 4 mph (2 mph in towns) to 14 mph. It was marked by the first London to Brighton Car Run, which only became a regular and official event from 1927, when it was sponsored by the Daily Sketch.