Todays birthdays

1957 – Steve Davis (68), English retired professional snooker player nicknamed “The Nugget”, born in Plumstead, London.

1959 – Mark Williams (66), English actor (Father Brown, Harry Potter) and comedian (The Fast Show), born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

1969 – Stephen Cradock (56), English guitarist, most notable for playing in the rock group Ocean Colour Scene (“The Day We Caught the Train”), born in Solihull, West Midlands.

1973 – Howie D (52), American singer and member of the pop group Back Street Boys (“Quit playing Games With My Heart”), born in Orlando, Florida, United States.

1975 – Sheree Murphy (50), English actress (Tricia Dingle – Emmerdale; Eva Strong – Hollyoaks), born in Stoke Newington, London.

1978 – James Corden (47), English actor (Gavin and Stacey, Fat Friends), comedian and former TV host (The Late Late Show, Carpool Karaoke), born in Hillingdon, West London.

1995 – Dua Lipa (30), English singer and songwriter (“Levitating”, “One Kiss”, “New Rules”), born in London.

The day today

1957 – The birth of Steve Davis, professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years.

1985 – Following an aborted take-off, a Boeing 737 burst into flames on the runway at Manchester Airport, killing 55 people.

1989 – British Telecom launched the world’s first mobile phones. They had a very limited operating range that restricted their use to 100 yards from a public base station.

1989 – The rings of Neptune were discovered. NASA’s spacecraft Voyager 2 was approaching Neptune when images revealed a faint ring circling the planet.

2004 – Two gunmen stole Edvard Munch’s paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna” from Much Museum in Oslo, Norway. The two pieces were safely recovered in August 2006.

2008 – Paedophile and former pop singer Gary Glitter was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register after arriving back in the UK. He had spent 27 months in a Vietnam jail for abusing two girls.

2012 – Tony Nicklinson, a man with locked-in syndrome who lost his High Court case on 12th August to allow doctors to end his life, died after refusing food following the Court’s judgement.

2014 – ‘Upton Chippie’ in Gainsborough, which uses a coal-fired range and a 66 year old batter recipe, was listed alongside the finest restaurants in Britain in the Good Food Guide. Its first owner, Kathleen Longden, ran the shop for 55 years, before being succeeded by family members.

2015 – A vintage Hawker Hunter jet aircraft crashed during a display at the Shoreham Airshow, West Sussex killing 11 people and injuring 16 others.

2019 – Russia launched a robot called FEDOR to the International Space Station to work as a remote operator and carry out various tasks autonomously. FEDOR is a Russian-given male name and an acronym for “Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research.”

1963 – Billy J Kramer And The Dakotas were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Bad To Me.’ A song John Lennon wrote for them while on holiday in Spain with Brian Epstein.

1967 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared on the UK BBC TV Simon Dee show. Kiki Dee and Cat Stevens were also guests on the show.

1968 – Ringo Starr quit The Beatles during The White Album sessions when the constant bickering and tension became too much for him. The news of Ringo’s departure was kept secret, and he rejoined the sessions on September 3rd.

1970 – Bread went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Make It With You’, the group’s only No.1 hit, which was a No.5 in the UK. Many artists have covered the song including: The Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Dusty Springfield, Andy Williams, and Marc Cohn.

1987 – Madonna went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Who’s That Girl’, her sixth US No.1 and also a No.1 in the UK. The track was from the soundtrack album of the motion picture of same name.

1999 – Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell scored her first UK No.1 solo single with ‘Mi Chico Latino’ the second single from her debut solo album Schizophonic.

2014 – John Lennon’s killer, 59-year-old Mark David Chapman, was denied parole by New York State officials for the eighth time. In handing down their decision, the parole board said, “Your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society and would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.”

Today in history

565 AD – St. Columba reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness. It was the first reported sighting of the monster. The loch is Scotland’s second largest loch by surface area after Loch Lomond, but, due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume.

1138 – The English defeated the Scots at Cowton Moor. Banners of various saints were carried into battle, which led to its being called the Battle of the Standard.

1485 – Richard III of England was defeated and killed at The Battle of Bosworth Field in the last of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. He was the last English king to die in battle. He was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015 after his body was discovered under what had become a car park.

1642 – The English Civil War began, between the supporters of Charles I (Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads), when the king called the English Parliament traitors and raised his standard at Nottingham.

1780 – James Cook’s ship HMS Resolution returned to England; Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage.

1849 – Austria launched pilotless balloons against the city of Venice, which became the first air raid in history.