Interesting Facts

20th August 1858 – Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory. 1882 – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow. 1940 – Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramon Mercader in Mexico. 1978 - A 29 year old airline stewardess, Irit Gidron, died during an attack on a bus carrying Israelis in central London. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) later said it had carried out the attack. 1986 – U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill gunned down 14 of his co-workers and then commited suicide in In Edmond, Oklahoma. 1988 – A cease-fire was agreed between Iran and Iraq, after almost eight years of war. 1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sank on the River Thames, in London, following a collision. 51 people were killed. 1991 – Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union.

30th July 762 – Baghdad was founded. 1866 – New Orleans's Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150. 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He was never seen or heard from again. 2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line. 2006 – The world's longest running music show, Top of the Pops, was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2006 – At least 28 civilians, including 16 children were killed by the Israeli Air Force in Lebanon. 2005 - Anthony Walker, a British student was murdered in a racially motivated crime. 2007 - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to ...

Lots of countries like the US, Sweden, France, Latvia, Bhutan, Jamaica, Mexico etc. have a national bird, but the UK doesn't. What about the chicken? (This might be about to change as a  famous ornithologist in the UK is asking the British public to vote for an official national  bird . There are 10 contenders:- The Mute Swan The Wren The Blue Tit The Puffin The Kingfisher The Red Kite The Barn Owl The Blackbird The Hen Harrier The Robin There are a couple of missing contenders - What about the sparrow, the pigeon, the chicken, or the seagull?)

Iraq, Rwanda and Mexico each have more female MPs than Britain. (There are currently 146 female MPs in parliament in Britain, but given that there are 650 seats, this is only 22.5%. In Iraq the percentage is 25.2%, in Mexico 36.8% and Rwanda has the highest percentage of women MPs in the world, at 56.3%. You can check your country here:- http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm )

Honduras has the world's highest murder rate. (The National Commission for Human Rights has calculated that there is a violent death every 74 minutes in this small nation of about eight million people, and in 2011 they recorded the highest murder rate in the world, with 86 people killed for every 100,000 inhabitants. In  Mexico the rate is 18, in the UK it is just over 1. What fuels the violence in Honduras, and in Mexico? Illegal drugs. So, if you take / deal / transport or make money from this stuff, you are part of the problem.)

According to research published in the journal Current Biology, a spider found in Central America and Mexico, Bagheera kiplingi , is vegetarian. (It feeds on the green tips of acacia plants.  Of all the known species of spider, around 40,000 of them, these are the only ones that are vegetarian, although some spiders will occasionally supplement their diet with a little nectar or pollen, and according to scientists this species has been caught munching on the occassional ant larvae - a bit like vegatarians who eat eggs I guess.) I just thought of a new line for that famous Cure song. Spiderman is having peas for dinner tonight.  

According to the mayor of Aguascalientes in Mexico, police in the city must keep family photos in their wallet as a preventative measure against corruption. (He hopes that the city's 1,600 policemen will feel "shame" when they abuse their power. Maybe when they open their wallet to put the money in it?)