Interesting Facts

16th August 1819 – Seventeen people die and over 600 were injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England, which was held to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. This became known as The Peterloo Massacre. 1902 – Georgette Heyer, English author was born. 1906 – An estimated 8.2 MW earthquake hit Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people. 1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tohoku University) becomes the first university in Japan to admit female students. 1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata began, in which more than 4,000 people were murdered over the next 72 hours. 1960 – Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom. 1974 – Punk Rock pioneers The Ramones played their first show in a local New York club called CBGB. 1977 - Elvis Presley died. 2012 – South African police fatally shot 34 miners and wounded 78 more during an industrial dispute near Rustenburg.

7th June 1546 - England signed the Peace of Andres with Scotland and Ireland. 1557 - England declared war on France. 1862 - The United States and Britain agreed to suppress the slave trade. 1965 - Sony Corp introduced its home video tape recorder, priced at $995. 1975 - Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder for sale to the public 2012 - Remains of the Curtain Theatre, where some of Shakespeare's plays were first performed, were found under a pub in London.

Visitors have been banned from eating picnics, or packed lunches at Southwold Pier. (One elderly couple were told they had to pack their Victoria sponge cake back into their Tupperware, and that seating was reserved for people purchasing food from on-site shops and restaurants. In 2012 Southwold was labelled 'the snobbiest place in Britain' after residents objected to a Costa Coffee shop opening up in the high street. It sounds as if they are living up to that reputation.)

Bees contribute more to the British economy than the Royal family. (According to research carried out at the University of Reading, the overall value of the contribution of our busy bees is £651 million a year, which is £150 million more than the Royal Family brings in through tourism. In fact 85 per cent of the UK’s apple crop and 45 per cent of our strawberry crop relies on bees to grow. These two crops alone brought in £200 million to Britain in 2012. Unfortunately honeybee colonies have slumped in the UK from 250,000 in the 1950s to fewer than 100,000 today. In Germany everyone seems to have their own beehive.)

Michael Gove, beloved by teachers everywhere, has issued civil servants working under him in his new role as head of the Department of Justice, with detailed guidance on his idea of what constitutes good grammar. (The guidelines, entitled Ministerial Correspondence Preferences, tell officials to write “make sure” instead of “ensure” and to avoid using the word “impact” as a verb. He is also unhappy with the use of contractions, such as “doesn’t”, and the deployment of “yet” and “however” at the beginning of sentences. It also suggests that “the phrases best-placed and high-quality are joined with a dash, very few others are” and discourages unnecessary capitalisation and repetition. This is two years after he circulated “10 golden rules” to officials in the Department for Education, but it isn't the first time government officials have done this kind of thing: In 2012 the then environment secretary Owen Paterson issued a 10-point list which included a ban on his department’s ...

Here's a scary statistic: According to crime figures, there has been a 60% rise in the number of children in the UK being investigated by police for violent crimes against their parents. (The number of suspects aged 17 or under in the Metropolitan Police area rose to 1,437 in 2014 from 895 in 2012. The youngest was just seven. I'm not sure what you can do if your own child attacks you. There's even a helpline, Parentline Plus, for parents who face this kind of abuse. Scary!)

According to a study in the Journal of Marketing Research the actual taste of inexpensive wine improves, if the label looks expensive. (In one experiment a group tasted the same wine from different bottles, and the more the tasters liked the label, the more they liked the wine. Another survey back in 2012 , found that consumers believed heavier bottles were more expensive and contained higher-quality wine. It seems we really do taste with our eyes, and it means we have a tendency to enjoy wine (as well as other products) more when we think they’re expensive.  Seemingly a carefully crafted label can make us think that something is more expensive than it actually is, so much so that people enjoy identical products such as wine or chocolate more if they think they have a higher price tag. Of course that doesn't explain the Primark effect.)

Since 2012 all large shops and supermarkets in England had to hide tobacco products from public view, and now all shops will have to do so from 6th April. (The original ban only applied to shops of more than 280 sq m (3,014 sq ft), and small outlets were exempt until 2015, but that is about to end as the ban comes into force across the UK.  The ban will stop cigarettes being visible at the point of sale in any small shops and other premises selling tobacco such as cafes, pubs and clubs. It seems to be working too, with smoking rates for England at their lowest ever levels: the latest figures show only 8% of 15 year olds are now regular smokers, compared with 22% in 2003. Interestingly on a recent trip to France, every other shop seemed to sell e-cigarettes.)

According to figures released by Alcohol Concern, around 10 million NHS admissions in England between 2012 and 2013 were related to alcohol. (They have produced an " alcohol harm map " to highlight the problem of alcohol misuse, which is estimated to cost society around £21 billion.)

According to the Economist the mysteriously popular music video “ Gangnam Style ” is  the most watched music clip of all time. ( PSY, the South Korean pop star who released the song in July 2012,  recently surpassed two billion views on YouTube.   At 4:12 minutes long, that equates to more than 140 million man-hours, or a cumulative 16,000 years of human life spent watching a strange Korean man prancing around.  The Economist worked out what else could have been achieved in this time:- It took 50 million man-hours to complete the “supercarrier”  USS Gerald Ford, so  3 such ships could have been constructed. We could have built more than 4 Great Pyramids of Giza. Created another Wikipedia. Built 6 Burj Khalifas (the world’s tallest building in Dubai). Maybe it's best not to add up how much time we spend on the net.) Thanks to  +april sis .

Well rip off Britain gets even worse on the disclosure that people in the UK spent around £56 million calling government helplines. (According to investigations by the Public Accounts Committee, people in the UK are being charged premium rate to access certain government departments.  They also take too long to answer. Most departments have no targets, despite an industry standard that calls be answered within 20 seconds, but of course there's no real incentive to answer quickly, as the longer they can keep you on hold, the more money they make. Of the 208 million calls made in 2012/13, some 63% were made to higher rate numbers at an estimated total cost of £56 million.  These included calls to the Department for Work and Pensions, the inquiries and complaints line of the Student Loans Company, and sickeningly to helplines for victim support and the Bereavement Service. It's like something out of Despicable Me.)

Male students at Oxford University can wear skirts when taking their exams. (In the past only ceremonial clothing "specific to gender" was allowed, the outfits were known as known as subfusc, where male students were required to wear a dark suit and socks, black shoes, a white bow tie and a plain white shirt and collar under their black gowns, and female students had to wear a dark skirt or trousers, a white blouse, black stockings and shoes and a black ribbon tied in a bow at the neck. Since 2012 the regulations have been amended to remove any reference to gender, so male students are free to sit their exams in said skirts and stockings and women have the option of wearing the suits and bow ties. Guess what I sat my exams in?  Yup - jeans and a t-shirt.)

Between 2010 and 2012, the Metropolitan Police made over 110,000 calls to the Speaking Clock. (This might sound funny, but it cost more than £35,000! So, if you want to know the time, please don't ask a policeman.  It costs too much!)

Fizzy drinks are on average, 5,000 times more acidic than water, which has a neutral pH level. (This is having a disastrous affect on people's teeth. A normal sized can of pop contains approximately nine teaspoons of sugar, and regular consumption of these sugary drinks increases the risk of tooth decay by over 200%. According to dentists, who are at the front line of the battle against tooth decay, if you drink a lot of canned or bottled fizzy pop, you might as well stick your teeth in an acid bath. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 1969 Australians used to drink about 47 litres per person in a year, in 2012 it was estimated to be over 100 litres, and rising. That's almost 300 cans a year! Australian peridontist, Dr Amis Lidums, said "Teeth initially become quite sensitive and they'll start to become shorter as the protective enamel over the surface of the teeth disappears." Almost 60 per cent of children aged five to sixteen consume ...

According to The Telegraph, the Nepalese government charged 337 climbers £2.2 million in 2012 for permits to climb Mount Everest. (Climbing the highest mountain in the world is more of a jaunt nowadays. The base camp has wifi internet so that expedition members can telephone their families on Skype. Not exactly what I would have expected if I were ever daft enough to want to climb a mountain. Before you know it, they'll have built a cafe.) Source

The Queen has received a £5m pay rise from the British taxpayer. (Under a new payment system, called the sovereign grant, which replaces the old funding system of the civil list and grants-in-aid, the Queen now receives 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate. Between 2011 and 2012 the Crown Estate made a profit of £240.2m. Just remember - We're all in this together.)

Art Garfunkel is a long distance walker. (Seemingly the famous singer of Simon and Garfunkel fame has undertaken several long walks in his lifetime: In the early 1980s, he walked across Japan in a matter of weeks. From 1984 to 1996, Garfunkel walked across America, taking 40 excursions to complete the route from New York City to the Pacific coast of Washington. In May 1998, Garfunkel began an incremented walk across Europe. In late August 2012, during the 26th leg of his Eurowalk, Art reached Thessaloniki, Greece. He will be continuing his walk towards Istanbul.)

Swimmer Michael Phelps is now the Olympic games's most successful ever athlete. (Having won yet another gold in the men's 200m freestyle relay at the Olympics in London 2012, the US swimmer from Baltimore, America, is now the proud owner of 15 gold, two silver and two bronze medals, and he still has three races to come! The bookies are giving odds-on for him to finish his Olympic career with 22 medals, and if I gambled I would take that bet.)

Today was the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London, and it didn't rain! PS - If you missed it be sure to check out the highlights on YouTube, some of it was a hoot. My favourite bits were:  The representation of the Industrial Revolution. The Queen being picked up by James Bond at Buck Palace and parachuting into the games. Mr Bean playing with the London Symphony Orchestra. Dozens of Mary Poppins floating out of the sky.

London has hosted the Olympic Games 3 times. (Once in 1908, again in 1948 and now 2012.)