February 24th

National Day

• World Bartender Day

Birthdays

• 1942 – Paul Jones, English singer and harmonicist with Manfred Mann (“Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, Pretty Flamingo”, born in Portsmouth.
• 1946 – John Stapleton, English journalist and broadcaster (GMTV, Watchdog), born in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
• 1964 – Andy Crane English television (CBBC, Motormouth) and radio presenter (BBC Radio Manchester), born in Morecambe, Lancashire.
• 1989 – Daniel Kaluuya, English actor (Get Out, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Sicario) prominent both on screen and stage, born in Camden Town, London.

On This Day

• 1923 – The Flying Scotsman began hauling scheduled services between London & Scotland. After major restoration at York’s National Railway Museum and Bolton she returned to mainline working in 2016. Test runs were carried out in January 2016 on the East Lancashire Railway.
• 1988 – The first baby born from an embryo frozen after the fertilization of a donated egg was delivered at Dulwich Hospital, south London, to Mrs. Ann Forrester, 37, by Caesarean section.
• 1989 – 150 million year old fossil egg found in Utah with a fossilized dinosaur embryo inside, the oldest dinosaur egg yet found in the Northern Hemisphere.

Music

• 1962 – The Beatles played a concert at the Birkenhead YMCA for a fee of £30. The audience didn’t enjoy the show and the Beatles were booed off stage. They left early for a second gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, and the rest, as they say, is history.
• 1968 – Fleetwood Mac released their debut studio album (also known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac), a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer which peaked at No.4 on the UK chart and stayed on the charts 37 weeks. This is the only album by the band not to feature keyboardist, vocalist Christine McVie in any capacity.
• 1997 – The Spice Girls won best single with ‘Wannabe’ at this year’s Brit Awards held in London. Other winners included, Best Group for Manic Street Preachers, Best Dance Act went to The Prodigy, George Michael won Best Male, Best Female went to Gabrielle, Best Newcomer was won by Kula Shaker, International Male was Beck, International Female Sheryl Crow and Best International Group was The Fugees.
• 2000 – Carlos Santana won eight awards at this years Grammy Awards for his Supernatural album. Before Supernatural, the guitarist had not had a Top 10 album since 1981. Sting won two awards, one for best pop album and another for best male pop vocalist. Sir Elton John won the legend award and Phil Collins the best soundtrack award for Tarzan.
• 2016 – Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan was ordered to give 6,000 euros to charity after head-butting an Irish police officer. The artist was arrested at Shannon Airport in November 2014 when she was taken off a flight from New York after an alleged air rage incident. Medical reports given to the court showed she had been suffering mania and was mentally ill when then incident happened.

History

• 616 AD – The death of Æthelberht, King of Kent from about 589 until his death. He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII announces the New Style calendar, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar.
• 1809 – London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving its owner, Irish writer and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, destitute.
• 1854 – A Penny Red (first issued in 1841 and succeeded the Penny Black) with perforations becomes the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.