1. Appropriately enough, August 23 was the day the great eruption of Vesuvius began in AD79. 2. The Romans celebrated Vulcanalia with bonfires into which live fish or small animals were tossed as a sacrifice to Vulcan. 3. Most of Earth’s surface had a volcanic origin and there are still […]
10 Facts
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1. Henry VII thus became the first Tudor monarch and the last King of England to gain the crown on the field of battle. 2. His father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, died aged 26 three months before Henry was born. 3. Henry’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, was only 13 when […]
1. The word “sprint” was first seen in English around 1780 to mean a spring-powered snare for catching birds. 2. Around 1800, it was used to mean a leap forward, by humans or animals. It was first used for fast running in 1862. 3. At the first modern Olympics in […]
1. Indonesia comprises over 17,500 islands, some 6,000 of which are inhabited. 2. Because of all those islands, Indonesia’s coast is about 34,000 miles long, the world’s second longest coastline after Canada. 3. Indonesia has a population of more than 260,000, exceeded only by China, India and USA. 4. The […]
1. This is the anniversary of the day in 1898 when a patent was granted to Edwin Prescott for the first rollercoaster with a vertical loop. 2. Actually a French invention called a “Centrifugal Railway” with a vertical loop had been installed in Paris 50 years earlier in 1848. 3. […]
1. North Korea gained independence from Japan 72 years ago today on August 15, 1945. 2. Two years ago today, on August 15, 2015, North Korea created “Pyongyang Time” moving its clocks 30 minutes back making it 8.5 hours ahead of GMT. 3. North Koreans born since the 1950s are […]
1. Afternoon tea began around 1840 as an idea of the Duchess of Bedford to deal with the problem that she got hungry between lunch and dinner. 2. At first, she just had tea and a snack alone in her boudoir, but soon began to invite friends. 3. The terms […]
GETTY – STOCK IMAGE This month is shaping up to be one of the rainiest Augusts on record in the UK 1. The average speed at which a raindrop falls is about 14mph but large raindrops can reach speeds up to 20mph. 2. The average raindrop takes little more than […]