October 27th "2024" Daily Prep
Welcome to day 301 of the “leap” year! Known as National Black Cat Day, Cranky Co-Workers Day, National Mother-in-Law Day. Your star sign is Scorpio and your birthstone is Pink Tourmaline.
2016 – A letter John Lennon wrote to the Queen explaining why he was returning his MBE was found tucked in a record sleeve from a £10 car boot haul. It was later valued at £60,000.
Todays birthdays
1939 – John Cleese (85), English actor (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda), comedian and screenwriter, born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
1953 – Peter Firth (71), English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme Spooks; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme’s ten-series lifespan, born in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
1957 – Glenn Hoddle (67), English soccer midfielder (Tottenham, Swindon, Chelsea) and manager (England, Southampton, Tottenham, Wolverhampton), born in Hayes, London.
1958 – Simon Le Bon (66), English singer best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the band Duran Duran (“Hungry Like the Wolf”, “The Reflex”), born in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
1984 – Kelly Osbourne (40), English television personality, singer (“Changes”), fashion designer and the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, born in Westminster, London.
Famous deaths
2023 – Bobby Charlton (b. 1937), English footballer and manager (member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup).
The day today
1914 – World War I: The British super-dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious was sunk off Tory Island, north-west Ireland, by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin. The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Sir John Jellicoe, proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, to which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed, and for the rest of the war, Audacious’ name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities.
1967 – Britain passed the Abortion Act, allowing abortions to be performed legally for medical reasons.
1978 – Four people were killed and four others seriously wounded after a gunman (Barry Williams) went on a shooting spree on the Bustleholm estate, Wednesbury and later at a service station in Nuneaton.
1986 – The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as the Big Bang.
2016 – A letter John Lennon wrote to the Queen explaining why he was returning his MBE was found tucked in a record sleeve from a £10 car boot haul. It was later valued at £60,000. Lennon had returned the MBE in protest at Britain’s involvement in the Biafra civil war.
Today in music
1966 – The Four Tops were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” The group’s only UK No.1.
1977 – Baccara were at No.1 in the UK singles chart with “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie”. They were the first Spanish act to score a UK No.1, and first female duo to do so. “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” is also one of the thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.
1980 – Former T. Rex member Steve Took, choked to death on a cherry stone, after some magic mushrooms he had eaten, numbed all sensation in his throat, he was aged 31.
2006 – Amy Winehouse released her second and final studio album Back to Black. The album spawned five singles: “Rehab”, “You Know I’m No Good”, “Back to Black”, “Tears Dry on Their Own” and ‘”Love Is a Losing Game” and won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Back to Black sold 3.58 million copies in the UK alone, becoming the UK’s second best-selling album of the 21st century. Worldwide, the album has sold over 20 million copies.
2014 – The Pet Shop Boys’ “Always On My Mind” was voted the top cover version of all time in a BBC Music vote. The song, written by John Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, was first made famous by Brenda Lee and Elvis Presley in 1972. Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” came in second place, followed by The Stranglers’ version of Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By”. Jimi Hendrix’s take on Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along The Watchtower’ came fourth and Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” completed the top five.
Today in history
939 AD – Edmund I succeeded Athelstan as King of England. Edmund was murdered at a feast in his own hall in 946 at the age of 25. His younger half-brother, Eadred, succeeded him.
1644 – The Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War took place in Speen, adjoining Newbury in Berkshire. The combined armies of Parliament inflicted a tactical defeat on the Royalists, but failed to gain any strategic advantage.
1662 – Charles II of England sold the coastal town of Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France.
1728 – The birthday of Captain James Cook, English naval officer and one of the greatest navigators in history. His voyages in the Endeavour led to the European discovery of Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands. Thanks to Cook’s understanding of diet, no member of the crew ever died of scurvy, the great killer on other voyages. In his youth he was apprenticed to a ship owner in Whitby… NOTE: His birthday is 7 November 1728 but due to the new Gregorian calendar, the dates changed over from the Julian calendar.
1682 – Englishman William Penn founded Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a close companion of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers and was offered a charter for land in the New World as a way to escape persecution in London for his religious beliefs. He established Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities.