Interesting Facts

3rd October 1990 - Germany officially reunified when the six re-established federal states (Bundesländer) of East Germany–Brandenburg, Berlin (formed by uniting the two halves of the formerly divided city), Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia–formally joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).

1968 – The Special Olympics was founded. 1969 - Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, orbited above. 1974 - Thousands of Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus. 1982 – The Provisional IRA detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers on ceremonial duty, wounding forty-seven bystanders, and leading to the deaths of seven horses. 1986 – In South Africa, police fired tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government's emergency decrees. 1989 – Burma's ruling junta put opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. 1990 - An IRA bomb blew a 10-foot hole in the London Stock Exchange. 1996 – In Spain, an ETA bomb at an airport killed 35. 1998 – Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups l...

30th June 1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History took place. 1908 – The Tunguska event occured in Siberia. 1936 - Gone with the Wind was published. 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, took place. 1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan, USA. (I wonder if it was a little red one.) 1960 – Congo gained independence from Belgium. 1963 – A car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, killed seven police and military officers near Palermo. 1969 – Nigeria banned Red Cross aid to Biafra, leaving over 4 million people to face starvation. 1971 - Three Russian cosmonauts were found dead in their Soyuz 11 space capsule after it made what looked like a perfect landing in Kazakhstan. 1985 - 39 Americans being held captive by the Shia Muslim Amal militia in Lebanon were released, after almost three weeks in ...

16th May 1770 – 14-year old Marie Antoinette married 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later became king of France. 1836 – Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia. 1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonized Joan of Arc as a saint. 1960 - The first working laser was demonstrated by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. (But we still don't have proper light sabers.) 1966 – The Communist Party of China issued the 'May 16 Notice', marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1975 – Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. 1990 – Jim Henson died.

11th February 1990 - Leading anti-apartheid campaigner, Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years incarceration.

12th November 1439 – Plymouth, England, became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament. 1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, was guillotined. 1893 – The treaty of the Durand Line delineating the border between present day Pakistan and Afghanistan was signed by Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat in British India. 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. 1918 – Austria became a republic. 1927 – Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union. 1933 – Hugh Gray took the first known photographs alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster. 1956 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia joined the United Nations. 1956 – 111 people, including 103 refugees, were killed by the Israeli army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, in the midst of the Suez Crisis. The United Nations were unable to determine the circumstances surrounding...

A study carried out by Theatre Projects Consultants shows that that the average size of cinema (movie) seats in the US has grown over the last 20 years. (Cinemas (movie theaters) have had to adjust the size of their seats for the ever expanding waistlines of their customers.  According to the report, the average cinema (movie theater) in 1990 had seats that were 20" wide and had 33" of separation between it and the seat in front of it. Nowadays the average seat is  23" wide and has 38" of space.   More leg room for me.)

A Star Wars toy cost £1.50 when it came out 35 years ago, and has sold at auction for £18,000. (Collector, Craig Stevens, from Croydon, bought the figure, which is of bounty hunter Boba Fett, still in its original packaging, for £50 in 1990. Before you go rummaging in your attic, the figure was in mint condition and in its original packaging.  In other words, no child had ever played with it.  Haven't these people seen Toy Story!) 

A.K. Verma, an Indian civil servant, joined the state-run Central Public Works Department (CPWD) as an assistant executive engineer in 1980:  A public sector job in India is usually seen as a job for life. (Why does that make him interesting? Well, 10 years later, he went on leave, and never went back to work. People leave work all the time, so it's still not that interesting, but he managed to bunk off work for 24 years, his job was only terminated in 2015. Unfortunately for him, his pay was stopped in the 1990s. I wonder what he is doing now.)

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) )

Once a word gets into the Scrabble Dictionary, it never drops out. Source - Wikipedia   (The only exception is for words mistakenly included. For example "pH", which in the 1990s was taken out when someone realised it was an abbreviation. According to the publisher, Collins "Scrabble players don't like to unlearn words."   I'm not sure if you can "unlearn" something. BTW - I'm sure one of the words in this picture should be "bitten".)

For over 36 hours in New York City, no-one was shot, stabbed, or otherwise killed. (In fact it seems that crime has been on the decline in New York City since the 1990s. On a sadder note, the crime freeze began after 22:25 on Sunday 25th November, when a man was shot in the head, and continued until another man was shot at 11:20 on Tuesday 27th November.)

According to the UK Payments Council, in the UK, cheques will be phased out by October 2018. (Personal cheque payments reached a peak of 2.4 billion in 1990.  They have fallen steadily since, and only 663 million were written in 2008. So, now they are looking for easy-to-use efficient alternatives that everyone understands.  Cash?)

According to figures presented at the 61st International Water Conference, between 1940 and 1990, world water usage increased four-fold. (This isn't sustainable. Even within the United States, water is being withdrawn faster from underground aquifers than it can be replenished. One aquifer near El Paso, Texas, which serves both the U.S. and Mexico, is expected to run dry by 2020.)