Interesting Facts

21st October 1966 at 09:15 - 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales. At the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster, the NCB was found responsible for the disaster, due to "ignorance, ineptitude and a failure of communication". No NCB employee was fired, demoted or even disciplined.

28th June 1922 - 18 year old Ralph Samuelson slapped a pair of sticks on his feet, grabbed hold of a rope behind a boat, and became the world's first waterskier. (His brother Ben operated the powerboat that pulled Ralph along. He broke the original skis in one landing, but his slightly-modified second pair still can be seen at the Water Ski Hall of Fame museum in Winter Haven, Florida.) 1960 - 45 men were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in Monmouthshire, Wales. 2004 - The United States handed power back to the Iraqi people at a low-key ceremony in Baghdad.

According to research carried out by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and water filter company Brita UK, Brits are needlessly buying bottled water in restaurants and pubs because they feel too awkward to ask for free tap water. (Many people are unaware of the fact that, in England, Scotland and Wales, licensed premises such as bars, restaurants and theatres are required by law to provide free drinking water on request (although they can charge for the use of a glass). Of course there is nothing worse than an awkward Brit, and I fully understand our reluctance to dare to ask for something for nothing.)

3rd March 1284 - The Statute of Rhuddlan was signed and Wales became a territory under the English crown. 1991 - A home video captured three Los Angeles police officers beating motorist Rodney King. (Four LAPD officers were later tried in a state court for the beating but were acquitted. The announcement of the acquittals sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.)

12th January 1895 - The National Trust was founded in England. Within days it was given its first place - five acres of cliff top at Dinas Oleu in Wales.

At least £122 billion worth of property in England and Wales is owned by companies registered offshore. (The problem is that some of the world's most notorious criminals are buying Britain's luxury homes to launder crooked cash, and at the same time pushing up the price of property. Especially in the area of London. It all came to light in July 2015, when it emerged that the ownership of 221b Baker Street, home to the fictional super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes, was linked to a brutal former secret police chief accused of murder and money-laundering. What would Mrs Hudson say?) British Houses Source

According to a survey by retail giant Debenhams, where men live can determine what kind of pants they prefer. (Men in Scotland are big on Y-fronts, men in London and up north opt for snug trunks, and men in the Midlands and Wales are more keen on baggy boxers. I always thought men in Scotland preferred going commando.)

90 is the new 70 (For women). According to experts women can now expect to live 4 scores years and 10, instead of the biblical 3 score years and 10. (The latest official life expectancy projections for England and Wales now show that in a growing number of areas it is already the norm for people to live until they are almost 90, and that trend is set to grow, and although women still outlive men overall, it seems men are catching up; in the last 4 years the life expectancy gap between men and women has narrowed by 10 per cent. So, it's good news all round. As long as you've got your health.)

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the level of recorded crime in England and Wales has fallen to a 34-year low. (The figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated there were 7.3 million crimes in the year 2013/14, 14% fewer than during the previous year and the lowest since 1981. Does this mean there's less crime, or people just aren't bothering to report it, because they never get solved? (See previous fact))

According to data from 28 police forces in England and Wales, 50% of crimes reported to police are unsolved. (The shocking figures also show that nearly three quarters of cases of theft, criminal damage and arson cases this year were classed as "investigation complete, no suspect identified". This doesn't surprise me in the least.  When we lived in Bristol, we were burgled 4 times, and no one was ever caught, even though the thieves left a knife covered in oily marks that were obviously finger prints.  After that we bought a burglar alarm.)

28th March - Homosexual couples will be allowed to marry in England and Wales since the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Since 2005, homosexual couples have been permitted to enter into "civil partnerships", from today they will be able to use something a bit more romantic - "marriage".

Statistically speaking more British people die during the first full week than any other time of a year. (According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, deaths by day during December and January in England and Wales peak during the first full week of the year, and the risk is even higher if you are unlucky enough to be admitted to hospital during that time. The nice thing is, if you're reading this, you survived! Well done.)

According to research from Cancer Research and the Imperial College London, an estimated 463 children, some as young as 11, start smoking every day in England, 50 in Scotland, 30 in Wales and 19 in Northern Ireland. (That means around 600 children in the UK begin smoking every day. Between 2010 and 2011 there were 50,000 more child smokers than the previous the year, making a total of 207,000. It's so sad, because no matter what I say, it won't change.  Kids think it makes them look adult, but it just makes them smell bad.)

An advert filmed to promote a Welsh University was filmed in England. (The ad was supposed to show the actor Ioan Gruffudd, walking across the Brecon Beacons, but the location had to be changed to the Mendip Hills because of - rain.

According to a series of reports on adolescent health behaviour, published in the Lancet, British teenagers are among the worst in the world when it comes to drinking. (One in five adolescents was found to binge drink on a weekly basis in the same high-income countries. England ranked fourth out of 40 high-income countries for the number of 13-year-olds who had been drunk. Wales came fifth and Scotland was eighth. Having lived in Scotland at the age of 21, I'm amazed they were only eighth.)

A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather.  In England and Wales, heatwave conditions are reached when the maximum daytime temperature and minimum night-time temperature rise above the threshold for a particular region. (The length of time spent above the threshold determines the level. Level 1: Normal summer conditions. Level 2: 60% or higher risk that the temperature will be above the threshold levels for two days and the intervening night. Level 3: Temperature above the threshold for the preceding day and night, with a 90% or higher chance that it will stay above the threshold in the following day. Level 4: Anything above the other three levels. Each of the first three levels is associated with a particular state of readiness and response by the social and health services, and Level 4 is associated with more widespread response. The UK is currently set at Level 3.) http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/heat-health/

Have you ever wondered who owns what in the UK?  Well, the Crown Estate owns quite a bit.  It is a property business valued at more than £8 billion. (The property it manages is owned by the Crown, but is not the private property of the monarch, and it's huge. So what "property" is this? Well it includes virtually the entire seabed of the UK, out to about 12 nautical miles, as well as around half of the foreshore of the UK. The rural estate comprises agricultural, mineral and forestry estates in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as residential and commercial property. The Crown Estate's urban portfolio comprises a wide and varied mix of properties including Regent Street in London. The Windsor Estate covers approximately 6,400 hectares and includes Windsor Great Park, the Home Park of Windsor Castle, forests, residential and commercial properties, golf courses, a racecourse and farms. If you want to see what is owned where, look at the Estates Map .) ...

The British Government spends £18bn more on Wales every year than it gets back in tax. (This works out at £6,008 per head of the Welsh population.) Source

According to research from Cardiff University in Wales, chewing gum is good for the brain. (Chewing boosts thinking and alertness and reaction times among chewers are up to 10 per cent faster. Volunteers carried out tasks while chewing and not chewing gum as their brains were scanned to see which areas were active. During the 30-minute tests participants pressed a button with their right or left thumb in response to the direction of an arrow on a screen. Men and women who were not chewing took 545 milliseconds to react, compared with 493 milliseconds among the chewers. The brain regions most active during chewing were those involved with movement and attention. The act of chewing leads to the production of higher levels of insulin, which stimulates areas of the brain. That's something to chew on, and it might explain why I used to chew my pen at school.  I was improving my ability to concentrate.) Source

The shortest cycle path in the UK is just 8 feet (2.5 metres) long. (That's about the length of two pedal cycles. You can see this wonder of the modern world on the Ridgeway in Plymouth.  Plymouth council insist that it is there to save cyclists’ lives. A spokesperson said: “The red area marks where the off-road pedestrian and cycle route ends and cyclists join traffic. “It is designed to alert motorists to cyclists joining the road, as well as give cyclists the space to do so safely.” And if you think this is a one-off, think again.  There's one in Wales - on a road in Cardiff, that is one inch longer. It makes me proud to be British.)