Interesting Facts

22nd September 1977 - Steve Biko, the leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, died in police custody.

16th June 1487 – The Battle of Stoke Field was fought. The final battle of the Wars of the Roses. 1586 – Mary Queen of Scots recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir. 1779 – Spain declared war on Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar began. 1871 – The University Tests Act allowed students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology. 1883 – Panic broke out at The Victoria Hall theatre, killing 183 children. 1903 – The Ford Motor Company was incorporated. 1915 – The British Women's Institute was founded. 1963 – Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. 1972 – Red Army Faction member Ulrike Meinhof was captured by police in Langenhagen. 1976 – A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turned into days of rioting when police opened fire on the crowd and kiled 566 children. 1992 - Andrew Morton's explosive new book about Princess Dian...

21st March 1960 - More than 50 people were killed in the South African township of Sharpeville when police opened fire on a "peaceful" protest. The death toll rose to 69 and the number of injuries to 180.

17th March 1861 - Modern Italy became unified under the house of Savoy. 1992 - South African whites voted to end minority rule. 2.8 million whites who cast ballots, slightly more than 1.9 million (68.7 percent) voted to give Mr. de Klerk the mandate he had sought. In his own words "Today will be written up in our history as one of the most fundamental turning point days in the history of South Africa. Today we have closed the book on apartheid -- and that chapter is finally closed."

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.)

According to the South African government's Road Traffic Management Corporation, South Africa has one of the world’s highest road fatality rates in the world. (The risk of dying in a car accident in South Africa is 28 people per 100,000, compared to just 3.1 in the UK. Even worse is that almost half of RTAs (road traffic accidents) involve young pedestrians, with three children under the age of 15 dying on the roads every day.)

In Bahrain, South Africa and Cyprus, drivers are banned from smoking in cars if children are aboard. (In the UK it's against the law to smoke at work, but you can do what you want to your children's, still growing, lungs.)

JRR Tolkein, of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fame, was born in South Africa. (He was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province), in South Africa. When he was three, Tolkien went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa and the family stayed in England. And the rest, as they say, is literary history.)

Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, is to host the world’s first 1,000mph land speed record attempt in 2012. (Just one little hitch, the Bloodhound Project needs every inch of over an area of 250 million square feet cleared of stones – by hand. They're asking for volunteers - no pay, backbreaking work, but the chance to be in on something historic.)

Estate agent signs from Northern Ireland are being re-used as roofing tiles in South Africa. (The question is, "How do they get there?")