November 20th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 325 of the “leap” year! Known as National Absurdity Day, Peanut Butter Fudge Day and Name Your PC Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Topaz.
1992 – A fire broke out in Windsor Castle. It destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms. The fire started in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel, where a faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar. Within minutes the blaze was unstoppable.
Todays birthdays
1942 – Norman Greenbaum (82), American singer-songwriter (“Spirit in the Sky”), one of the best-selling one hit-wonders of all time, born in Massachusetts, United States.
1957 – Jim Brown (67), British rock-reggae drummer and a founding member of UB40 (“Red Red Wine”), born in Birmingham, West Midlands.
1965 – Mike D (59), American rap vocalist (Beastie Boys – “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party”), born in New York, New York, United States.
1973 – Neil Hodgson (51), British former motorcycle racer, who won the 2000 British Superbike Championship, and the 2003 Superbike World Championship titles. He then went on to have a moderately successful four years in the American Superbike Championship, with a best 5th place championship finish, born in Burnley, Lancashire.
1981 – Kimberley Walsh (43), British pop singer (Girls Aloud – “Sound of the Underground”), born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
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
1947 – Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. The BBC made the first tele-recording of the event, which was broadcast in the US 32 hours later.
1970 – The ten-shilling note (50p) was officially withdrawn by the Bank of England. The note was issued by the Bank of England for the first time in 1928 and continued to be printed until 1969. The note ceased to be legal tender in 1970 and was removed in favour of the fifty pence coin.
1992 – A fire broke out in Windsor Castle. It destroyed 115 rooms, including nine State Rooms. The fire started in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel, where a faulty spotlight ignited a curtain next to the altar. Within minutes the blaze was unstoppable and had spread to St George’s Hall next door. The fire was first spotted around 11:30 in the morning and within three hours 225 firefighters from seven counties were battling the flames. At the peak of the operation they were using 36 pumps, discharging 1½ million gallons of water.
2007 – Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 went missing. The Child Benefit data on them included the name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people. Chancellor Alistair Darling said there was no evidence the data had gone to criminals – but urged people to monitor bank accounts “for unusual activity”.
2014 – Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine was stopped on his way to work at the BBC by a police officer holding a speed radar gun. The device showed that he had been cycling at 16mph through Hyde Park, where the limit is 5mph.
Today in music
1955 – The song that changed popular music history ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley & His Comets went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The song was used under the opening credits of the film Blackboard Jungle. The song entered the charts a further six times until 1974.
1966 – The Supremes were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘You Keep Me Hanging On’, the group’s seventh US No.1 spent two weeks at the top of the charts was also a No.8 hit in the UK.
1971 – Isaac Hayes started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Theme From Shaft’, it made No.4 in the UK. Hayes won a Grammy award for Best Original Film Score with ‘Theme From Shaft’.
2005 – Robbie Williams smashed a Guinness World Record by selling more than 1.6 million tickets for his 2006 World Tour in one day. The tickets, snapped up on the first day of sale, were valued at an estimated £80 million.
2015 – Justin Bieber topped the UK singles chart with ‘Sorry’ breaking a chart record for the most tracks inside the top 40. The chart featured eight songs from Bieber’s new album Purpose, the first time a living artist had so many simultaneous entries. His eight entries saw him break a record set by Elvis Presley in 1957, when he had seven songs in the top 40 singles chart.
Today in history
868 AD – St. Edmund, Saxon king of East Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings, who tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, then beheaded him. He gave his name to the town Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. It is believed to be within the town’s Abbey Gardens where some say St. Edmund could be buried.
1272 – Edward I was proclaimed King of England after the death of his father, Henry III. He reached a rather imposing six feet two inches in height, which was extremely rare for the time and earned him the nickname ‘Longshanks’, meaning long legs. He was also known as ‘Hammer of the Scots’ and marched his army north to rid himself of Robert the Bruce once and for all. He was also involved in the Ninth Crusade, the last major Crusade to the Holy Land.
1620 – The birth of Peregrine White a child of William and Susanna White, Mayflower passengers. He was the first English child born in the Plymouth Colony at Cape Cod Harbour.
1787 – Birth of Sir Samuel Cunard, a ship owner born in Nova Scotia who came to Britain in 1838 and, together with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line in 1839. Their first ship, the Britannia, set sail the following year taking 14 days and 8 hours to cross the Atlantic.
1815 – The Treaty of Paris was signed, following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 ended his rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile on the island of Elba.