Today is Call a Friend Day, Holy Innocent’s Day and National Card Playing Day. Your star sign is Capricorn and your birthstone is Blue Topaz.
1915 – The British Cabinet decides to institute compulsory military service by calling up single men (18-41) first, with later legislation extending it to married men and women, evolving into a system that prioritised singles but eventually covered most fit adults for the war effort.
Today’s birthdays
1954 – Denzel Washington (71), American actor (The Equalizer, Man on Fire, Training Day, Crimson Tide), born in Mount Vernon, New York, United States.
1955 – Stephen Frost (70), English actor (The Young Ones) and comedian best known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, born in Cornwall.
1956 – Nigel Kennedy (69), English classical violinist and violist (classical, jazz and klezmer music genres), born in Brighton, Brighton and Hove.
1981 – Sienna Miller (44), British/American actress (American Sniper, Stardust, Layer Cake, Alfie) and model, born in New York, New York, United States.
1986 – Tom Huddlestone (39), English former professional footballer (Manchester United, Derby County) and current first team assistant coach at Birmingham City, born in Nottingham.
Famous deaths
2015 – Lemmy Kilmister (b. 1945), English musician, singer, songwriter and co-founder of rock band Motorhead (“Ace of Spades”).
The day today
1918 – Constance Markievicz, Irish Sinn Féin politician and suffragette, whilst detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the House of Commons.
1934 – The first Test Match for women’s cricket was between Australia and England and was held at Brisbane. England beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series, with the final match drawn.
1943 – The birth of Richard Whiteley. He was best known for his twenty three years as host of the game show Countdown. At the time of his death in 2005 Whiteley was believed to have clocked more hours on British television screens than anyone else alive.
1963 – ‘That Was The Week That Was’, television’s first satirical show, was broadcast for the last time. It was taken off air while still commanding huge audiences because 1964 was to be election year and it was felt that the show could influence voters.
1980 – A shake-up of broadcasting franchises paved the way for the launch of breakfast TV. The Independent Broadcasting Authority announced that the breakfast contract would go to TV-am and would launch in 1983.
1993 – Ballon d’Or: Juventus’ Italian striker Roberto Baggio is named Europe’s best football player ahead of Inter forward Dennis Bergkamp and Manchester United striker Eric Cantona.
2002 – LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman and the founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com.
2003 – The British Government announced plans to tighten airline security by allowing armed guards on some British flights to the USA.
2016 – Actress and singer Debbie Reynolds died a day after the sudden and unexpected death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher.
2021 – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope began the multi-day process of unfurling its sunshield. The James Webb Space Telescope, the most advanced infrared telescope ever launched into space, is so large that it had to be folded up like a transformer just to fit atop its launch vehicle. Three days after successfully launching into space, the telescope began the three-day deployment of its sunshield. This multi-layered shield is one of the most critical components of the telescope; for its infrared sensors to work at optimal levels, they need to be below -369.7 °F (-223.2 °C).
2021 – Test cricket debutant Scott Boland takes 6 for 7 as Australia retain the Ashes (3-0) with an innings & 14 run win against England in the 3rd Test in Melbourne.
Today in music
1961 – Danny Williams was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Moon River’, the Oscar-winning song was from the film Breakfast At Tiffany’s. The Tokens were at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight.’
1968 – The Beatles went to No.1 on the US album chart with The White Album the group’s 12th US No.1 album. A double album, its plain white sleeve has no graphics or text other than the band’s name embossed, which was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band’s earlier Sgt. Pepper’s. No singles were issued from the album in Britain and the United States, the songs ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Revolution’ originated from the same recording sessions and were issued on a single in August 1968.
1983 – Having made two successful dives below a friend’s yacht to find items he’d drunkenly thrown off his own boat three years before, The Beach Boys Dennis Wilson took one last dive into the Pacific and never returned from the boat moored in Marina Del Rey, California. With the help of President Reagan he was given a burial at sea, normally reserved for Naval personnel. Dennis was the only genuine surfer in The Beach Boys.
1998 – UK radio station BBC Radio 1 aired the 100 National Anthems, songs voted by listeners. At No.5 Radiohead, ‘Creep’, No.4 Underworld ‘Born Slippy’, No.3 The Verve ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’, No.2 Nirvana ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ No.1 Massive Attack ‘Unfinished Sympathy’.
2003 – 50 Cent’s debut album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ was named the biggest selling album in the US in 2003 with the album going platinum six times over. Outkast came second with Speakerboxxx / The Love Below and Linkin Parks Meteora was the third biggest seller. The Top 10 albums of 2003 in the USA accounted for around 30 million sales.
2005 – Pink Floyd were voted the greatest rock stars ever in a survey of 58,000 listeners from UK radio station Planet Rock. Led Zeppelin were voted into second place, 3rd was The Rolling Stones, 4th The Who, 5th, AC/DC, 6th, U2, 7th, Guns N’ Roses, 8th, Nirvana, 9th, Bon Jovi and in 10th place Jimi Hendrix. Listeners also named the 1970s as the golden age of rock, followed by the 1960’s.
2015 – Lemmy, lead vocalist and bassist with Motörhead died at his home in Los Angeles, California, four days after his 70th birthday following a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. Lemmy played in several rock groups in the 1960s, including the Rockin’ Vickers and worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and the Nice, before joining the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971, singing lead on their hit ‘Silver Machine’.
Today in history
1065 – Westminster Abbey was consecrated (having been made or declared sacred). Its founder Edward the Confessor could not attend due to illness. He died on 5th January l066 and was buried in a shrine before the High Altar in his new church.
1694 – Mary II, joint sovereign of England, Scotland and Ireland, died from smallpox, leaving William III to reign alone.
1734 – The death of Robert Roy MacGregor, usually known simply as Rob Roy, the famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century. He is buried in Balquhidder churchyard in Lochearnhead, Perthshire.
1879 – The Tay railway bridge collapsed whilst the Edinburgh to Dundee train was crossing. The original crossing was the longest railway bridge in the world but during the storm the wind was said to have blown the iron girders in the central section away ‘like matchwood. The engine and carriages plummeted into the icy river below killing 59 people. In 1979 British Rail commissioned a special train to take people across the new bridge at the exact time of the original accident… 19:15 GMT. On 28th December 2013 granite memorials to commemorate the disaster were unveiled on both sides of the river.
1887 – John Layton Jarvis becomes first British race horse trainer to be knighted for services to racing.
1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen, a German physicist, publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
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