Fact a day - odd facts and trivia on general knowledge, people and places

Harry Potter
JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame earns £18,000 an hour! (Fact for 19 Oct 2008)

Waste paper
Every year the average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper. (fact for 12 Oct 2008)

Paper Serviette
The first paper serviette was introduced in 1887. (Fact for 11 Oct 2008)

Scrabble
The highest possible score on a first turn in Scrabble is given by the word "muzjiks,", meaning a Russian peasant giving 128 points. The world record for the highest score on a single turn was made in 2006 in the US, with "quixotry" and got 365 points for a carpenter named Michael Cresta.

Quixotry which means (from Merriam-Webster) "foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially: marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action." (Fact for 10 Oct 2008)

Cycling in London
In large part thanks to the previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, cycling in London has risen by 83 per cent since 2000. Amazingly, however, the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on the road in the UK capital has fallen by a third in the last decade. (Fact for 7 Oct 2008)

Spinning class
The current trend of Spinning classes are extremely good for burning calories at a rate - even new starters burn off 500 calories in a 30 minute session - that's the equivalent of a hamburger and french fries at your local burger bar. (Fact for 4 Oct 2008)

Bollywood
Mumbai is home to Bollywood, which is the world's most prolific film industry. Bollywood films usually last over 3 hours and are generally musical love stories.
One actress, Manorama, who is also known as Achi, has appeared in over 1,200 films since 1958. (Fact for 30 Sept 2008)

World Patents
The USA still has the largest number of patents registered each year but other nations are catching up. Japan is in second place and Korea is in third place according to official statistics for 2006, the latest available year. (Fact for 29 Sept 2008)

Monopoly
Monopoly has been around since 1909 and was bought by Parker Bothers in 1935. An estimated 500 million people have played Monopoly since 1935, and an estimated 200 million sets have been sold worldwide. Monopoly is licensed in 80 countries and published in 26 different languages. Here are just a few of the strange facts about Monopoly:

Astronauts play during space shuttle flights using a specially designed board
The longest game of monopoly ever played was 1,680 hours - that’s 70 days!
A monopoly game was played inside an elevator for 10 days and in a shark’s tank for 2 days!
Fidel Castro apparently ordered all monopoly sets in Cuba to be destroyed when he came to power. (Fact for 25 Sept 2008)

Munich beer festival
The world-renowned Munich beer festival (or Oktoberfest) first began on 12th October 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festival was such a success, including horse racing on the closing of the festival that it was repeated in future years.

Now 30% of the annual production of the six Munich breweries will be drunk during the two week festival - that's around 6 million mugs and to go with it there will be half a million chickens eaten (fact for 22 Sept 2008)

Probiotic drinks
The trend in probiotic drinks continues with 225 million drinks sold last year. Of these 60% were consumed before 10am and 37% were consumed by women over 45, only 20% were consumed by men over 45. (Fact for 18 Sept 2008)

Valuable Guitar
The world's most expensive guitar was a Fender Stratocaster, which was signed by a series of famous musicians including Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Brian May. The guitar sold for $2.7m (£1.57m) in November 2005 and raised money for the charity Reach out to Asia (fact for 16 Sept 2008)

Europe fertility rates
France has the highest fertility rate in Europe at present with the average number of children per woman being 2, according to official figures. The UK compares well with 1.9 but Italy only manages 1.3.

The average for the EU as a whole is 1.5 (fact for 15 Sept 2008)

Early toothpaste
The Romans used powdered mouse brains, oyster shell ash or the ash of dog’s teeth all mixed with honey as a way to keep their teeth clean. (Fact for 3 Sept 2008)

Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales, lived in England for most of his life and his parents were Roman.

He was taken to Ireland when he was kidnapped by Celtic pirates and was a slave in Ireland looking after sheep on the hillside. (Fact for 2 Sept 2008)

Steeple chasing
Steeple chasing began in 1750’s when two riders in Ireland decided to test their horses’ speed by racing across country between two churches - steeple to steeple. (Fact for 31 Aug 2008)

Beetles Memorabilia
John Lennon’s piano was sold at auction for a massive £1.45million. A certain George Michael bought it. (Fact for 28 Aug 2008)

ABBA
The Swedish band ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision song contest with Waterloo bringing them International fame and making them, at the time, Sweden’s biggest export - even bigger than Volvo! (Fact for 27 Aug 2008)

Paperclip
The paperclip became a symbol of national unity during the five year Nazi occupation of Norway, during World War II. It was worn with pride even though wearers risked being arrested, deported, or even executed by this simple show of loyalty. (Fact for 22 Aug 2008)

Latin
Latin has no native speakers and is considered extinct as a spoken language, this despite it being the basis of many modern languages. A version of Latin called Ecclesiastical Latin is however the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church and the national language of the Vatican. (Fact for 21 Aug 2008)

Raymond Blanc
At the age of 23 (1972) Raymond arrived in the UK to be a waiter in Oxfordshire, the chef of the restaurant became ill and Raymond stepped in to help out. Within two years the restaurant entered the Michelin guide. Raymond opened Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saison in 1984 which was awarded two Michelin stars in the same year - these stars are still retained today. (Fact for 20 Aug 2008)

Nursing Homes
Figures from 2004 show there were some 4,400 independent care homes registered to provide nursing. These homes provided around 164,000 places. Research suggests this will need to rise by 60% over the next 30 years to meet the anticipated demand. (Fact for 17 Aug 2008)

Language
Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken native language in the world with 885 million native speakers largely based in north and southwest China. The next most spoken language is English with 400 million native speakers. (Fact for 16 Aug 2008)

A film first
The first film to have a flushing toilet scene was the cult classic “Psycho” in 1960, prior to this it was deemed “not appropriate” (fact for 14 Aug 2008)

Camels Crossing Australia

In February 1861, Robert Burke and William Wills became the first settlers to cross Australia from South to North. Because they were to cross the deserts in the Red Centre they imported Camels from Afghanistan. (Fact for 12 Aug 2008)

School leavers

1 in 4 UK school leavers believes an ISA (individual Savings Account) is an MP3 player accessory or an energy drink according to research by RBS. (Fact for 11 Aug 2008)

Apples

4.4m apples are thrown away every day in the UK; this contributes to the c£3 billion wasted on food and veg, which is thrown away each year. (Fact for 10 Aug 2008)

First Television Advert
The first television advert in Britain was for Gibbs SR toothpaste in 1955. The advert was apparently very boring, even to the extent that one journalist, for The Times newspaper, said he’d already forgotten the brand name in the paper the next day! (Fact for 6 Aug 2008)

Red Arrows
The Royal Air Force acrobatic team, the Red Arrows, was originally formed in 1964 when a team of five planes performed and was called the “Yellowjacks”. The team increased to nine planes in 1968 and created their signature “Diamond Nine” formation.

Each pilot is only allowed to serve 3 years before moving on to other duties. (Fact for 4 Aug 2008)

Hamleys toy store
Hamleys was originally founded 248 years ago in 1760 by William Hamley and was called “Noah’s Ark”. The company took on its flagship store on Regent’s Street, London in 1881.

There are now 16 Hamleys outlets in the UK and in Denmark. (Fact for 1 Aug 2008)

Drum Solo
The number of drum kits sold per annum has doubled over the past decade. This is believed to be due to affluent middle-aged rockers wanting to let off steam after work. (Fact for 31 July 2008)

Barack Obahma
According to a recent Yahoo! poll 15 percent of Americans believe Barack Obahma is Muslim, he is in fact Christian.

Did you also know that he was a good basketball player in his time? (Fact for 30 July 2008)

Champagne Bubbles
Britain pops the cork on champagne bottles to the tune of 40 million times a year, which is pretty impressive, and something to celebrate particularly when you consider that is twice as many as the next biggest market - USA! In fact the only people to drink more champagne than the Brits are.. The French, but then they do make it! (Fact for 29 July 2008)

Pet Holiday
An up market hotel in Mexico has decided on a new way to differentiate itself from its competitors, it is putting on weddings for dogs!
The ceremony is held on the beach and there are options for extras such as a spa and custom designed features to help the happy couple avoid nerves on the big day. (Fact for 26 July 2008)

No excuses for being late
The world’s largest clock is being built in Mecca (Makkah) as part of the Makkah Clock Tower Royal Hotel opposite Mecca’s Grand Mosque. The clock face will be 40 metres across, which is almost six times that of Big Ben in London. It should be visible 17 km away at night and nearly 11 km during the day.
The Hotel is due to open its first phase in September this year. (Fact for 25 July 2008)

Radio Advertising
The first advertising sponsored radio programme, called “The Eveready Hour” was aired on 12 February 1924 in America. Whilst the first radio programmes to broadcast adverts in Britain were not heard until 1973 when the new radio station LBC opened in London. (Fact for 24 July 2008)

Largest Festival on Earth
The largest human gathering on Earth is held every 12 years in Northern India. India’s biggest festival, the Maha Kumbh Mela, lasts for one month and is held at the point the Yamuna and Ganges Rivers meet.

It was last held in 2001 when an estimated 70 million people attended to bathe in the waters. (Fact for 22 July 2008)

Anyone for Chess?
There are two claims to the world’s longest chess game:

Most moves - 269 moves - the game was between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic in Belgrade in 1989, the game ended in a draw after 20 hours and 15 minutes
Longest time - 24 hours and 30 minutes - the game between Yedael Stepak and Yaakov Mashian in Israel in 1980 did end with a winner - Yedael Stepak won in 193 moves. (Fact for 21 July 2008)

Postman Pat
Children’s animated character Postman Pat works in fictional village of Greendale, this was inspired by a place in Cumbria called Longsleddale. (Fact for 20 July 2008)

Agatha Christie
The only statue in the world of the prolific crime writer Agatha Christie is a bronze bust on the seafront at Torquay (her birthplace) opposite the grand pavilion. It is believed that the grand pavilion is where her first husband proposed to her.

The Guinness Book of Records lists Agatha Christie as the best-selling fiction author of all time estimating 2-billion of her books have been sold in 103 languages worldwide. Her first novel, published in 1920, was “The mysterious affair at styles” and she received £26 for it. (Fact for 17 July 2008)

Pensions
At the end of March 2008 Watson Wyatt (actuaries) estimate that the UK FTSE 100 companies had a combined pension surplus of £40bn, a year previously, in Feb 2007 they had a combined shortfall of £45bn.

Despite this and to support all those employees not in such a fortunate position, the UK government is proposing that from 2012 employers should automatically contribute 3% of salary to an employees pension.
(Fact for 9 July 2008)

The Star in the Car
A recent survey by Co-op insurance in the UK has concluded that car drivers with the star sign Aries are the most likely to have an accident and those who have a star sign of Sagittarius are the least likely. Car drivers with an Aries star sign account for 9% of all accidents.
Given this is only slightly higher than the statistical average you would expect its unlikely anyone is going to check your star sign before getting in the car with you! (Fact for 5 July 2008)

Swiss language
There are four official languages spoken in Switzerland; French, German, Italian and Romansh, a descendent of Latin from the Roman era. Of the 7.5m Swiss population only 0.5 percent now speak Romansh compared with 64 percent who speak German, however almost 10 percent do not count an official language as their main tongue.

English is an ever increasingly common language in Switzerland and in 2000 was formally recognised for the first time as the main second language taught in a school, ousting French. This was shortly followed in 2001 by the adoption of English as a formal government language for government publications joining German, French and Italian.

Scaremongering

Thanatos is a term widely used in psychoanalytic theory to represent the encouraging to destruction, or an apparent pleasure in seeing the worst outcome. It seems that much of the UK press knows this term all too well with headlines like 'House Market Throttled as Loans Fall 56%' - the article then explained that mortgage issues were down by 56%.

What the press is failing to explain in the headlines or the articles (in many cases) is that measures such as this only use part of the total loans i.e. new loans and do not account for all the mortgage market - and especially remortgages.

Belle Tout
The Belle Tout lighthouse at Beachy Head is over 150 years old and has a peculiar history, in the 19th Century a local rector hung a lantern to warn sailors after having dug a tunnel down to the beach to rescue them. The lighthouse was built in 1832 but was decommissioned 70 years later. It has also been moved - intact - the private owner carried out the epic shift 17meters inland in 1999.

Wedding Anniversary
The traditional 10th wedding anniversary gift is to be of tin or aluminium - difficult unless you fancy giving your beloved a tin of beans or maybe a share in a tin mine. Alternatively the modern gift for 10 years is diamonds!

Rum Production
The Caribbean is the centre of rum production with most islands having their own product. The oldest producer is the Mount Gay Distillery in Barbados dating back to 1703.

Aesop Fables
Aesop, who lived 2,500 years ago, never wrote down any of his fables and the ones we now know as Aesop's fables are ones that were recalled and written down generations later.

Space Shuttle
The NASA Space Shuttle's launch pad is moved into place by two transporters called Hans and Franz, which weigh 2,700 tons each. These transporters move the shuttle at a zippy 1-mile per hour

Channel Tunnel
To dig the channel tunnel 11 tunnel boring machines were used to extract 8 million cubic meters of chalk, clay and soil. At the end of the drill one of the boring machines was buried in the side of the tunnel.

The tunnel has over 100 miles of railway lines, 1200 telephones and 20,000 lighting fixtures over its length. The building of the channel tunnel involved 15,000 workers

Scooby Doo
The cartoon character Scooby Doo's name was inspired by Frank Sinatra's final phrase in Strangers in the Night, which contains the words dooby dooby doo! Scooby is a Great Dane with all of the opposite characteristics of a real Great Dane. Scooby's creator Iwao Takamoto, who died in early January 2007, also created Muttley and characters from The Jetsons and The Flintstones

Zodiac
The 12 signs of the Zodiac were originally conceived around 1,000 years BC when the Babylonians started mapping the stars, whose movements they believed influenced their future. This makes the Babylonians the earliest know astronomers and astrologers!

Olympics
The 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia are the only Olympiad where events of the same Games were held in different countries. This was a result of Australia's strict 6-month quarantine regulations for animals and the Equestrian events were held in Stockholm Sweden. Great Britain won 24 medals, of which 6 were gold.

Andorra
Andorra is a 191 square mile mountain redoubt, tax haven, and commercial oasis. Andorra was founded as an independent state in the 8th century. It became a democratic state when it drafted a constitution entitled the Carta Magna (very grand!) followed by elections in 1993.

Ethiopian Calendar
As we all celebrated the start of 2007 Ethiopians are approaching the second half of 1999 according to the Ethiopian Calendar. The Ethiopian calendar has 12 months each of 30 days plus 5 (or 6 days if it is a leap year) that create an extra month.

The Ethiopian Millennium started on 21st September 2007 in the Julian (western) calendar.

Scouts
There are 28 million scouts worldwide.

Birth rates
1091 Women in the UK who gave birth in 2005 were over the age of 45.

Temperature check
The outdoor temperature can be estimated to within several degrees by timing the chirps of a cricket. It works by counting the number of chirps in a 15-second period, and adding 37 to the total. The result will be very close to the actual Fahrenheit temperature.

By the way this only works in warm weather.

Damask
The fabric Damask was named after Damascus because the matt and satin designs are reminiscent of the shine of the damascened metal found in the city. The true Damask fabric is monochrome with a matt background and shiny pattern

Sliced Bread
The world's first loaf of sliced bread was created in 1930,it was called Wonder Bread. Sliced bread revolutionised sandwich making, so much so it created the famous phrase "the best thing since sliced bread"

Dinosaurs
The biggest dinosaur egg ever found was 30 cm long, which is 6 times larger than a chicken's egg!

Concorde
From 1976 to 2003, Concorde was the world's only supersonic airliner. It could fly at 2,173 km/h but could only carry 128 people.

Winter Olympics
The first ever Winter Olympic Games started on 25th January 1924 in Chamonix, France. The next Winter Olympics are in 2010 and will be hosted by Vancouver Canada

Population
There are 260 new babies born every minute across the world and for the first time since measures began city dwellers are about to exceed non-city dwellers.

Cave system
The Worlds longest known cave system is called Mammoth Cave and is in Kentucky in the USA. Explorers have so far mapped 570 kilometers of passages but there is more to be mapped!

Dr Who
Terry Nation, the writer who created the Daleks was a failed comedian. Apparently he only wrote the script to pay for his central heating!

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
NLP was started in California in the early 1970's at the University of Santa Cruz and is now used all over the world in both personal and business life. NLP is the study of structure and subjective experience that is a common sense system for enhancing personal development.

Lego
The name Lego comes from the Danish words "leg" and "godt", which translates as "play well". It was found later that the Latin translation is "I put together". It has been calculated that six 8-stud bricks of the same colour can be re-arranged in 102,981,500 different ways

Investors in People
The standard that provides a framework for improving business performance through good human resource practice has been going for 15 years this month. There are over 25,000 businesses that have achieved the high IIP standard.

Rail Network
The UK rail network handles 2.75 million passengers a day over 10,400 miles of track on 4000 trains. The longest rail tunnel is between England and Wales known as the "Severn Tunnel" which is over 4.3 miles long. 70% of journeys start or end in London

Squash
Squash was invented at Harrow school in 1830, as a result of a punctured Rackets ball which players found required more effort and skill to return.

Chocolate
The Aztec’s in Mexico discovered chocolate. Initially they valued it as a drink but in fact the Coco beans became so valuable that they were used as a currency

MARTINI
The traditional Martini was created in 1763 by the French Court Composer J P A Martini and in its original form is made from Gin and white wine and should be stirred. If you like your Martini like James Bond - "shaken not stirred" then you want a "Bradford Martini"

Other Martini’s:
*The Franklin Martini - garnished with 2 Olives - named after... you guessed it Franklin Roosevelt
*The Dirty Martini - add 1/2 shot of brine from olives
*The breakfast Martini - add 1/4 shot of lemon juice and a small spoon of orange marmalade - created by Salvatore Calabrese

Home-working
There are over 2.6million home offices in the UK and one in ten households have at least has someone who works from home. 40% of home-workers are teleworkers with the rest being self-employed or freelancers

Diet
According to studies the exact time of day when the willpower of a dieter runs out is 3.09pm.

Driving
In a survey of UK drivers by Masterlease 80% admitted their mirrors were not correctly aligned! The Department for Transport revealed that 15,000 UK motorists were involved in an accident in 2005 as a result of their vision being impaired.

Film facts
The 1997 film Titanic has 180 'mistakes' in it. These range from goofs by the film crew to factual inaccuracies. A major inaccuracy is the lake that Jack told Rose he went ice fishing on, Lake Wissota, Wisconsin which was created in 1918 after the Chippewa River was dammed 6 years after the Titanic sank.

Pisa
The leaning tower of Pisa is 55 meters tall and weighs circa 14,453 tonnes and was built over 2 centuries. Believe it or not but the tower started leaning after the third floor was built.

Butler
The word "Butler" was brought from France by the Normans around 1066 and is from the French word "bouteiller" which means a man who bottles wine.
In the UK a private members organisation was founded in 1979 called the Institute of British Butlers aimed at providing advice and support for Butlers in the UK

Travel
Over 607,000 people travel more than 60km to their place of work. 634,000 people travel to work via bicycle - but none of them travel the 60km - no surprise there!

Films
Pixar and Walt Disney film "Finding Nemo" grossed US$100m in its first 8 days of release in 2003 in America

Innovation
In the 3 years to 2004 25 percent of UK businesses were product innovators

USA	173,770
Japan	141,399
Republic of Korea	120,790