Interesting Facts

26th July 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match took place near Guildford, England 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opened in south London. 1847 – Liberia declared independence. 1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hit Great Britain. 1945 – The Potsdam Declaration was signed in Potsdam, Germany. 1945 - Clement Attlee became Britain's new prime minister after Labour won a sweeping victory. (It's always a bit surprising to think of this when you consider how popular Churchill was during the war. Maybe people just wanted to look to the future and forget the past.) 1952 - Eva Peron died. 1963 - Thousands were killed during an earthquake in the Yugoslavian city of Skopje. 1989 – A federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm. He was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

19th February 1878 – Thomas Edison patented the phonograph. 1861 – Serfdom was abolished in Russia. 1674 – England and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transferred the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, whereupon it was renamed New York.

10th February 1763 - The Seven Years' War between Britain and Spain ended when The Treaty of Paris was signed. 2014 - Shirley Temple died.

1st July The nation remembers those who died and were injured at the Somme during the First World War. At 7:28 am The Lochnagar mine, which had been placed under the German lines, was detonated, creating the largest man-made mine crater created in the First World War. At 7:30am a whilstle was blown and hundreds of soldiers "went over the top" in what is now called Zero Hour, only to be mown down by machine gun fire.  No one seems to know how many German soldiers were killed in the explosion. By the end of the day thousands had died, and the Battle of the Somme continued for 141 days, at the end of which an estimated million soldiers were killed and wounded. The bodies of 72,000 men were never recovered. You can read more about the Lochnagar crater here .

According to Britain's MoD (Ministry of Defence) by 2024 armies will have been replaced by robots. (They are already commonly used in reconnaissance and bomb-disposal, but their use in combat (without any human control mechanism) raises tricky questions. The MoD argues that if a drone's control system takes appropriate account of the law on armed conflicts (basically military necessity, humanity, proportionality and the ability to distinguish between military targets and civilians), then an autonomous strike could meet legal norms.) What a shame they haven't read the 3 laws of robotics:- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Isaac Asimov

D-Day was the biggest seaborne invasion and the greatest military campaign the world has seen. From 6th June to 11th June (D + 5), 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.According to the D-Day museum in Portsmouth, the number of military personnel were:- Allied troops landed in Normandy 156,115 American (Omaha & Utah beaches + airborne) 73,000 British (Gold & Sword beaches + airborne) 61,715 Canadian (Juno Beach) 21,400 Airborne troops (included in figures above) 23,400 Aircraft supporting the landings 11,590 Sorties flown by allied aircraft 14,674 Aircraft lost 127 Naval vessels in Operation Neptune 6939 Naval combat ships 1213 Landing ships and landing craft 4126 Ancillary craft 736 Merchant vessels 864 Personnel in Operation Neptune 195,700 American 52,889 British 112,824 Other allied 4988 According to the D-Day museum website the following casualties were suffered:- Casualties on the British be...

CC3.0 http://rdtsod.deviantart.com/ A Belgian police officer, Jacques Joseph Hamoir, is believed to have been the model for Agatha Christie's famous Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot. (Researchers think that Agatha Christie met Hornais when she played the piano for him in her home town of Torquay. Hornais, a retired gendarme fled Belgium in the face of advancing German troops and made his way to England in 1914, as did the fictional Poirot.) Source Thanks to  +april sis .

Spain is seriously considering moving back a time zone, which would align it with the UK and Portugal. (Currently Spain's clocks run on CET (Central European Time), the same as Germany, France etc., but some people are arguing that Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (and its summer equivalent, BST) would suit Spain's daylight hours. According to said Ignacio Buqueras, president of the National Commission for the Rationalization of Spanish Time, Spain needs to create new habits to allow them to improve their productivity and at the same time allow them to ensure a work-life balance. Interestingly CET was only adopted by Spain, along with other European countries, during the Second World war when Nazi-occupied France switched to German time, Spain followed suit. However, while countries such as the UK and Portugal moved their clocks back again after the war, Spain's dictator Francisco Franco decided not to.  I think that's as good a reason to change as any.) Sources: ...

A speech drafted by British civil servants in 1983, was supposed to be read out in the event of nuclear war. (The Queen would have delivered the speech if Britain found itself on the verge of nuclear war.  So, we would have all felt much, much better as we evaporated in a cloud of nuclear dust. I'm very glad she never had to use it.)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has just gone on sale in the UK. It's going to be a huge hit - a trailer, posted on YouTube on 21 October, has already attracted more than four million hits. (For those of you who are blissfully ignorant of this series of RPG games which can be played against the computer or online against other human players. The series follows American paratroopers, British paratroopers and the Red army, and the player assumes the role of various characters It's successful, but controversial, In CoDMW2 the depiction of a massacre carried out in a Russian airport, caused anger in the international community In CoDMW3 they feature an attack on the London Underground and actually show a family of tourists being blown up, the response to which will create more free publicity for the series (I know - I'm guilty too) Infinity Ward's executive producer Mark Rubin response to the anger was: "Yeah, we get a lot of that and it's tough, but for...

There are currently 70 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy. (Of these only 40 are warships, and there are only 41 admirals (In 1805 there were 144 Admirals). That said, the 41 admirals will draw an estimated salary of £6.7 million. Which is probably why there are only 41 of them. Funnily enough, in 2011 the Queen conferred the title and office of Lord High Admiral to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, on the occasion of his 90th birthday (I wonder if she wrapped it). Nice to see they are leading the way on delayed retirement though.)

The USA is bringing in regulations that will categorise cyber-attacks as acts of war. (According to Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan, "A response to a cyber-incident or attack on the US would not necessarily be a cyber-response. All appropriate options would be on the table." I guess the Botmaster Underground had better watch out then. Next time it might not be the FBI knocking on the door.)

According to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Military Expenditure Database, combat planes account for one third of all global arms purchases. (The United States is the largest supplier and India, the United Arab Emirates and Israel the biggest buyers. Only 11 of the world's countries figure on the list produce these aircraft: the United States, Russia, China, France, Sweden, India and Japan on their own, and Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain as part of the Eurofighter consortium.)

The final day - or half-day - of World War I produced about 11,000 casualties. (If that doesn't illustrate the futility of war, I don't know what does.)

According to the Spiegel more than 2,000 tons of munitions from the two world wars are recovered in Germany each year. (Barely a week goes by without a city street or motorway being cordoned off or even evacuated in Germany due to a UXB being discovered. Between 1991 and 2007 10,733 tonnes of munitions were disposed of, at a cost of €259 million.)

The Christmas truce of 1914 really did take place, it is a term used to describe the brief unofficial cessation of hostilities that occurred between German and British troops stationed on the Western Front of World War I during Christmas 1914. The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, namely Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, cigars, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be broug...

The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes - 37 minutes, 23 seconds to be precise. (It's called the "War of the Cricket Match", and it all began when Admiral Sir Henry Rawson gathered his war ships off the coast of Zanzibar so that officers could disembark to watch a cricket match. Incensed at the concentration of warships in his harbour, the Sultan of Zanzibar declared war and sent his only warship into battle. The British responded by bombarding the Sultan’s castle, sinking the lone battleship, and sending the Sultan into exile. I have no idea who won the match though.)

During WWI, drinking water was often delivered to the front in old petrol canisters. (I'd always wondered where the idea for that Coca Cola taste came from.)

In the US, paper currency was created in 1862 to help pay for the Civil War. They were printed in $5, $10, and $20 denominations, redeemable in coins on demand. (All the notes were printed green, hence the nic name "greenbacks.")

Kleenex tissues were originally used as filters in gas masks during the First World War. (The product used was called “Cellucotton", which would later become Kleenex when they realised they had all this stuff left over. Marketed as "the new secret of keeping pretty skin as used by famous movie stars..." (and gas masks).)