The "Did you know" thread.....

[TCO95]

As of 09-19-2011 448 people have traveled to outer space including 12 that have walked on the moon.

As of 01-28-2011 2 people have been to the ocean floor and lived to tell about it.

[Greenman]

It impossible to keep your eyes open when sneezing or kissing and also virtually impossible to suppress a sneeze-some say it is dangerous to do so.

[rotobott]

Originally Posted by TCO95

As of 09-19-2011 448 people have traveled to outer space including 12 that have walked on the moon.

As of 01-28-2011 2 people have been to the ocean floor and lived to tell about it.

I walked on the ocean floor once, mind you the water was only about 6 inches deep

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by TCO95

As of 09-19-2011 448 people have traveled to outer space including 12 that have walked on the moon.

As of 01-28-2011 2 people have been to the ocean floor and lived to tell about it.

The deepest part of the ocean is in the Pacific,the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, seven miles down.Only two people have so far been down there.

[Greenman]

Did you know that the song 'Mouldy Old Dough' was number one in Belgium before it became a hit song for Lieutenant Pigeon and the old woman that plays the piano was the bass player's mother-who sadly died some years ago. Hard to believe it was nearly 25yrs ago it came out.

[rotobott]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Did you know that the song 'Mouldy Old Dough' was number one in Belgium before it became a hit song for Lieutenant Pigeon and the old woman that plays the piano was the bass player's mother-who sadly died some years ago. Hard to believe it was nearly 25yrs ago it came out.

It's 39 years old, the only British number one to feature mother and son.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy32skBSHs0

[roaduser]

The philibeg or small kilt, also known as the walking kilt (similar to the modern kilt) was invented by an English Quaker from Lancashire called Thomas Rawlinson

Haggis, Scotland’s most iconic dish, was an English invention that was hijacked by Scottish nationalists

George Wade (1673-1748) was a soldier and a road builder. Soldiering led him into road-building. From 1724 to 1740 he was Commander in Chief of the army in North Britain, and during this period he built 240 miles of military roads to open up the Highlands, many of which are still in use.
Wade was an Irishman. He is the man mentioned at the end of God save the queen :
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!

Joseph Swan, a British inventor, obtained the first patent for the light bulb in Britain one year prior to Edison's patent date. Swan even publicly unveiled his carbon filament light bulb in New Castle, England a minimum of 10 years before Edison shocked the world with the announcement that he invented the first light bulb. Edison's light bulb, in fact, was a carbon copy of Swan's light bulb.

There are 18 historical inaccuracies in the first 2 minutes of the film Braveheart.

Paris was ruled by the English between 1422 and 1436. 10 years longer than Nazi Germany, who the English fought against to liberate Paris in 1944.

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by rotobott

It's 39 years old, the only British number one to feature mother and son.

Well that told me then

[stardust2003]

Cleopatra was Greek, not Egyptian.


Leslie Charteris 3rd novel .... Enter the Tiger pub 1928 ....... introduced SimonTemplar to the reading public.


Charles Dickens, still in his mid-20s, kicked off his career as a novelist by producing Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby all three novels were written within a mere 18 months!


The BBC paid Lynne Fredericks £60,000 for Peter Sellers home movies... nice to know
that the BBC TV tax we all pay every year is being spent for a good cause.... and not frittered away on extravagence.


There are very few natural green pigments in nature.... most have been developed from synthetic
pigments in the 19th century.

There were 5000 plus suicides in Britain in 1994.... about 3/4 of that number were young men.


One of the movie roles Doris Day turned down was that of the iconic Mrs. Robinson in the movie....... The Graduate............. a role that eventually went to Anne Bancroft.
In her published memoirs, Doris wrote that she rejected the part on moral grounds.



For nearly 4000 years the Pyramid of Giza was the tallest, free standing building
in the world. England's Lincoln Cathedral finally surpassed it in the year 1311.
However now.... in the 21st century....... the Middle East is back with the tallest building in the world....
the "Burj Khalifa Tower" in Dubai standing at 2,717 ft.



In 1867 Czar Alexander 2nd sold Alaska for $7.2 million to the USA... he needed the
money to pay off his gambling debts.


Charles Dodgson was extremely secretive and to the end of his life he never admitted that he was Lewis Carroll.....the writer of Alice in Wonderland.


Frank Baum thought of the name Oz in ... the Wizard of Oz..... when he looked
at one of the draws of his filing cabinet it read O - Z

The Mousetrap..... is the worlds longest running play. Written by Agatha Christie in 1947,
it has been performed over 20,000 times.


Tommy Taylor ( who died in the Munich air crash )
Mike Parkinson
Dickie Bird
Geof Boycott
all have one thing in common.......
their dads worked down the pit in Barnsley Yorkshire at the same coal face !



The first 4 countries to have TV were England, the USA, USSR and Brazil.


Barbara Cartland had two brothers in the British army, tragically they were both killed
at Dunkirk at the start of WW2.


After the decline of Antwerp in 1585.... the Port of London flourished.

Europe is the only continent in the world without a natural parrot population, although
feral, ring -necked parakeets ... released into the wild .... are now breeding in parts of southern England and Germany.

The song.... Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer... was written in 1939 as a promotion for a department store.

The Muppet Show was banned in Saudi Arabia because one of the stars of the show was a pig.


Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious Yorkshire Ripper murderer.... was interviewed 9 times by
police before he was eventually arrested in jan 1981. He murdered 13 women.

By 2001 the Osmonds had 54 grandchildren....41 boys and 13 girls.

Anthea Redfern was brought up in Torquay, her father was a bookie.
She has two younger sisters... Lisa and Trudy.

The Novelist... Virginia Woolf... wrote all of her novels standing up.


The News of the World paid Christine Keeler £23,000 ..a fortune in 1963 !... for her scandalous story about the Profumo Affair.
(who says vice does n't pay ? )

Female canaries cannot sing.

Stephanie Marian was a page 3 pin up star, at age 17 she was having an affair with Benny Hill.

Earthworms in Australia grow up to 10 feet in length .

[electile disfunction]

Originally Posted by stardust2003

For nearly 4000 years the Pyramid of Giza was the tallest, free standing building
in the world. England's Lincoln Cathedral finally surpassed it in the year 1311.
However now.... in the 21st century....... the Middle East is back with the tallest building in the world....
the "Burj Khalifa Tower" in Dubai standing at 2,717 ft.

... And architects have long noticed that economic recessions start almost immediately after construction starts on the next "new world's tallest building", just like happened with the Empire State Building, CN Tower, Burj Khalifa Tower, etc., etc.!

What is infuriating is that modern sky scrapers are designed and built for a life span of only 20 years!

e.d.