November 29th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 334 of the “leap” year! Known as Throw Out Your Leftovers Day, National Square Dance Day, Black Friday, National Day of Listening. Your star sign is Sagittarius and your birthstone is Topaz.
2015 – Great Britain won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 after Andy Murray beat Belgium’s David Goffin to clinch the decisive point in Ghent, Belgium.
Todays birthdays
1964 – Don Cheadle (60), American actor (Iron Man, Ocean’s Trilogy, House of Lies), born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States
1965 – Lauren Child (58), English children’s author and illustrator. She is best known for the Charlie and Lola picture book series, born in Berkshire.
1973 – Ryan Giggs (51), Welsh football coach and former player (Manchester United) regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, born in St David’s Hospital, Cardiff.
1979 – Simon Amstell (45), English comedian, writer and presenter (Never Mind the Buzzcocks), born in Gants Hill, Ilford, East London.
1982 – Lucas Black (42), American actor (Sean Boswell in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Special Agent Christopher LaSalle on NCIS: New Orleans, born in Alabama, United States.
Famous deaths
2001 – George Harrison (b. 1943), English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and music producer with The Beatles.
The day today
1907 – British nurse Florence Nightingale, aged 87, was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work tending the wounded during the Crimean War.
1940 – World War II: The city of Liverpool endured nearly eight hours of bombing, which left 166 people dead and 2,000 people homeless. At the time, Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the tragedy as “the single worst civilian incident of the war.”
1956 – Panic-buying breaks out at garages across the country as the government gives details of its petrol rationing plans. On the same day, Chris Brasher becomes the first Briton to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field since 1936 with the 3,000m Steeplechase at the Melbourne Olympics.
1962 – Britain and France announced a joint agreement to design and build Concorde, the world’s first supersonic airliner.
2015 – Great Britain won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936 after Andy Murray beat Belgium’s David Goffin to clinch the decisive point in Ghent.
Today in music
1963 – ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ by The Beatles was released in the UK. For the first time ever in the UK advanced orders passed the million mark before it was released.
1980 – ABBA scored their ninth and last UK No.1 single with ‘Super Trouper’, the group’s 25th Top 40 hit in the UK. The name “Super Trouper” referred to the gigantic spotlights used in stadium concerts.
1997 – ‘Perfect Day’ performed by various artists including Elton John, Bono, Tom Jones & David Bowie went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. Originally written and recorded in 1973 by Lou Reed, this new collaboration of 29 major artists was a fund raiser for the BBC Children In Need charity.
2005 – Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller dropped his £100m copyright case against the X Factor’s Simon Cowell after Fuller settled the case out of court in a deal which made him a joint partner in the X Factor show. Mr Fuller had claimed Mr Cowell’s ITV talent show X Factor copied his successful Pop Idol format, in a case taken to London’s High Court. As part of the settlement, Mr Cowell agreed to appear in at least five more series of American Idol.
2009 – Susan Boyle’s album became the best-selling debut in UK chart history when it went to No.1 on the UK chart. The 48 year-old runner-up in ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, sold 410,000 copies of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. Boyle also topped the US charts, setting a first-week sales record for a female debut album with 701,000 copies sold in its first week.
Today in history
1775 – Amateur British chemist Sir James Jay invented invisible ink. After experimenting and narrowing down his secret ingredients to just two fluids, Jay would send letters to his brother John in the US. James Jay even sent letters to Benjamin Franklin warning him of Britain’s plans for the forced submission of colonies.
1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, murdered 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance. The resulting court cases, brought by the ship-owners, sought compensation from the insurers for their lost cargo. The court established that the deliberate killing of slaves could, in some circumstances be legal. It was a landmark in the battle against the African slave trade of the eighteenth century, and inspired abolitionists such as Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, leading to the foundation of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrated his hand-cranked phonograph for the first time. He demonstrated it at the USA’s Scientific American office, the first of many demonstrations of the phonograph worldwide. Edison patented the phonograph on February 19, 1878, which was the start of audio recording and was very advanced for the time.”
1898 – The birth of Clive Staples Lewis, best known as C.S. Lewis. He wrote more than 30 books that have been translated into 30 different languages. His books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have also been featured on radio, television on stage and in the cinema.
1899 – FC Barcelona was founded by a group of English, German, Swiss, and Spanish soccer players. It started when Hans Gamper, a professional football player from Switzerland, posted an ad in a local Barcelona newspaper declaring his interest in starting a football club, asking anyone interested to simply show up. A total of eleven players turned up, and so the club’s history began.