Interesting Facts

23rd June 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England, which killed a six year old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged that it was the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale. 1983 - Pope John Paul II privately met banned union leader Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity, on a visit to Poland. 1984 - An auction of John Lennon's possessions raised $430,000, including $19,000 for a guitar used while Lennon was with the Beatles. 1985 – A terrorist bomb brought a Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board. 1988 – James Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that it was 99% probable that global warming had begun. 1991 – Moldova declared independence. 1992 - New York crime boss John Gotti (the Teflon Don) was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole. 1996 - The Nintendo 64 went on sale in Japan. 2004 - A U.S. lawyer...

10th January 1920 - The Treaty of Versailles came into effect, officially ending World War I. 1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis was released in Germany. 1954 - Thirty-five people died, after a BOAC Comet jet airliner crashed into the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Elba. 1957 - Harold Macmillan officially became prime minister following the sudden resignation of Sir Anthony Eden. 2016 - Starman David Bowie died. 

6th July 2016 The Chilcot report was published.

The odds of Leicester City winning the Premier League at the start of the 2015/16 football season were 5000:1. This means that gamblers thought the following things were more likely to happen:- 2,500:1 - David Moyes to be an X Factor judge 2,500:1 - Arsenal would sack Arsene Wenger and install Piers Morgan as boss 2,000:1 - Kim Kardashian will become US President by 2020 1,000:1 - Sir Alex Ferguson would win Strictly Come Dancing 1,000:1 - Hugh Hefner would admit he's a virgin 1,000:1 - Robbie Savage will be named the next James Bond 1,000:1 - Bono will become the next Pope 500:1 - Simon Cowell will become the next Prime Minister of the UK 500:1 - Andy Murray would name his first born Novak You might need to look up some of these names to see how unlikely they are, apart from Kim Kardasian: As Trump is a contender, I don't see why this couldn't happen.) Update -  The people of Leicester must be very, very happy today.

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...

Between the 8th and 14th January 2016, Justin Bieber became the first artist ever to hold the top 3 spots in the UK charts at the same time. (He took the number 1 spot with 'Love Yourself', at 2 it was 'Sorry' and 3 was 'What Do You Mean'. I'm sorry?  What do you mean he took all 3 spots? I guess that's what happens when you love yourself.)

Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada is considering flooding 11km of cycle paths to provide a route for residents to commute through the city on --- wait for it --- ice skates. (With winter temperatures of -12C (9.5F) the paths would soon freeze over and the Freezeway would be born. Organisers say they’ll give the project a try, as early as winter 2016.

Sky TV and BT Sport have paid £5.1 billion for the TV rights to the Premier League from 2016 to 2019. (Sky paid £4.2bn for five of the seven TV packages ( £11.07m per match), while rival BT paid £960m ( £7.6m per game) for the other two in a TV rights auction. Between 1992 and 1997 the whole lot cost £191 million. Does anyone else think this is obscene?)

According to Cisco, mobile devices will outnumber humans by the end of 2012. (By 2016 it predicts that there will be 10 billion mobile connected devices around the world. Today your pocket - tomorrow the world!)