Interesting Facts

18th September 1970 - Music Legend Jimi Hendrix died after collapsing at a party in London.

31st July 1498 - On his third voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus "discovered" the island of Trinidad. 1703 - Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel. He had ruthlessly satirised the High Church Tories in a pamphlet, but allegedly, instead of throwing rotten veg and fruit at him, the crowd threw flowers. 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invaded Upper Austria and Bohemia. 1790 – The first U.S. patent was issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process. 1792 - Director David Rittenhouse laid the cornerstone in Philadelphia for the U.S. Mint, the first building of the federal government. 1895 – The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) was founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana. 1913 – The Balkan States signed an armistice at Bucharest. 1919 – The German national assembly adopted the Weimar constitution. 1938 – Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with Greece an...

4th May 1493 – Pope Alexander VI divided the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation. (No one told the New World.) 1494 – Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica. 1675 – King Charles II of England ordered the construction of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. 1814 – Emperor Napoleon I of France arrived at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile. 1904 – Charles Stewart Rolls met Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. (The rest as they say is history.) 1912 – Italy occupied the Greek island of Rhodes. 1932 – Mobster Al Capone began serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion. 1945 – British forces liberated Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg. 1945 – The North Germany Army surrendered to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. 1949 – The entire Torino football team (except for one player who did not take the trip due to an injury) was killed in a plane crash at the Superga hill at the edg...

10th April 837 – Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU (5.1 million kilometres/3.2 million miles). 1512 – James V of Scotland was born. 1606 – The Virginia Company of London was established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, came into force in Great Britain. 1829 – William Booth, the English minister who founded The Salvation Army was born. 1858 – The original Big Ben, a 14.5 ton bell for the Palace of Westminster cracked during testing and was recast into the current 13.76 tonnes (30,300 lb) bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 1912 – RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage. 1925 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published. 1932 – Omar Sharif was born. 1953 – Warner Bros. premiered the first 3D film from a major American studio...

6th March 1988 – Three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers were murdered by the SAS on the territory of Gibraltar. 1987 – The British car ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsized just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, in about 90 seconds killing 193 people. 1974 -  The miners' strike came to an end following a pay increase of over 30%. 1970 - The British Government announced an indefinite ban on the importation of domestic pets to prevent rabies. 1964 – Nation of Islam's Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole) officially gave boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali. 1961 – George Formby, British comedian and singer, died. 1957 – Ghana became the first Sub-Saharan country to gain Independence from the British 1945 – Cologne (Köln) was captured by American Troops. 1899 – Bayer registered aspirin as a trademark. 1836 - Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio killing the last of 187 defenders who had held out...

The term flip-flop is an onomatopoeiac word based on the sound made by the sandals when walking in them. (Flip flops are no heel strap sandals, and although this style of sandal has been worn for centuries, the modern day flip flops have been worn in America and Britain since the 1970s. Sometimes the word is written flip-flops, and flipflops. They are called thongs in Australia, jandals (originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals") in New Zealand, slops in South Africa, and tsinelas in the Philippines.)

The next English £5, £10 and £20 banknotes will be printed on plastic. (The fiver will be issued first in September 2016, followed by the tenner, which will be issued in 2017, but the £20 note will have to wait until 2020. Their appearance will change too. Sir Winston Churchill will feature on the £5 banknote, replacing Elizabeth Fry, ​​Jane Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the £10 banknote, and artist J.M.W. Turner will feature on the £20 not, replacing economist Adam Smith. Nothing has been said about the £50 note, which features the engineers Matthew Boulton and James Watt. Historical characters have only appeared on bank notes since 1970.  Other people depicted on previous notes have been: Sir Edward Elgar (composer) Michael Faraday (scientist) Sir John Houblon (first Governor of the Bank of England) Sir Isaac Newton (scientist) Florence Nightingale (nursing) William Shakespeare (poet/playwright) George Stephenson (engineer) 1st Duke of Wellington (gener...

13th June 1249 – Alexander III was crowned King of Scotland. 1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns. 1625 – King Charles I married French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon. 1774 – Rhode Island became the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves. 1886 - Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Vancouver. 1912 - Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from an airplane. 1934 – Adolf Hitler and Benitto Mussolini met in Venice. Mussolini later described the German dictator as "a silly little monkey". 1970 – "The Long and Winding Road" became the Beatles' last Number 1 song. 1977 – James Earl Ray, the convicted murderer of Martin Luther King Jr. was recaptured after escaping from prison three days before. 1980 - The U.N. Security Council called for South Africa to free Nelson Mandela 1981 – At the Trooping of...

Over the last 50 years short-sightedness amongst children in the UK has doubled. ( In the 1960s just 10% of British 12 and 13-year-olds had myopia, today that is 23%. Experts are blaming this increase on our increasingly indoor lifestyles and use of computers.   And it's not just happening in the UK, in the US in the 1970s 25% of children were diagnosed myopic, by the year 2000 this had risen to over 40%.  In China The journal Nature reported that around 90% of China's teenage and young adult population are short-sighted, up from 10 to 20% of the total population 60 years ago. One Chinese city is so worried, they are experimenting with transparent classrooms to expose children to more sunlight. How about giving them more time and space to play outside?)

According to research carried out by scientists at WWF and the Zoological Society of London, the number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years. (Since 1970 animals have been decimated across the planet as humans kill them for food in unsustainable numbers, whilst at the same time polluting or destroying their habitats. I wonder what our children and grandchildren will have to say to us?) Source

The votes are in and Britain's favourite BBC children's character of all time is Shaun the Sheep. (Postman Pat came second and Sooty and Sweep third. The past winners were:- 1950s - Sooty and Sweep. 1960s - The Magic Roundabout 1970s - Paddington Bear (still my favourite, along with Winnie the Pooh) 1980s - Postman Pat (not forgetting his cat) 1990s - Bob the Builder (but he couldn't fix this vote) )

Since the 1970s, the number of strong hurricanes around the world has doubled. (Now that should make you think. Check your insurance policies - bet your not covered.)