FANCY THAT!
Facts to make you go “WOW!”
In 2008, Cheryl and Nikki Bart became the first mother and daughter to climb Everest together.
◆ The theme song of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? was written by Mike Hugg of Manfred Mann, and sung by Tony Rivers.
◆ It would take 19 minutes to fall down a hole from the North Pole to the centre of the Earth.
You could fit Poland into Texas and still have room to drive around it.
◆ Marty Wilde’s real name is Reg Smith.
There is a street in York called Whip-Ma-WhopMa-Gate.
◆ Mary Young found infamy as Jenny Diver, the greatest pickpocket of the 18th century. She wore false arms to disguise where her real hands were!
CL07 HES is the number plate of Gok Wan’s Jeep.
◆The human nose can remember up to 50,000 smells. The human olfactory bulb can store vast amounts of data, hence why smells can trigger long-forgotten memories.
The letter “J” was only added to the alphabet in 1524. Before that, “i” was used for “j” sounds.
◆ A jacket worn by the Wizard in The Wizard of
Oz was bought from a second hand store. Inside, the actor found a name tag: its previous owner was L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
◆ Hampstead has the deepest lift shaft on the London Underground, at 55 metres (180ft).
In Switzerland, keeping a solitary guinea pig is classed as animal abuse. You need two, to keep each other company.
New cars account for just 10% of vehicle sales.
Activist Julia Hill spent two years living at the top of a giant redwood tree between 1997 and 1999.
◆ The term “Easter egg” for a message hidden in a video game or film was coined by Steve Wright, the then-director of software development at Atari, in 1979.
Spain, Bosnia, Kosovo and San Marino are the only countries whose national anthems have no words.
Craig Evans has covered his body in a world record 69 rabbit tattoos.
Venus is the only planet in the solar system that spins clockwise.
◆ Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, who were the voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, were married in real life.