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in Gaelic, or “water of life,” and it is one of the United
Kingdom’s top five exports, along with cars, computers, aircraft, and oil.
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21.
The full, official name of the Tower of London is “Her Majesty’s Royal
Palace and Fortress of London.” It is home to the Queen of England’s
jewels. Among the 25,578 gems is the 530-carat Cullinan diamond at the
top of the Royal Sceptre, the largest part of what was (until 1985) the
largest diamond ever found.
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There is a British legend that says
there must be 6 ravens in residence at all times at the Tower of London, or
else the British Monarchy and Tower will fall
22.
The most celebrated residents of the Tower of London today are the
ravens. There must be six ravens in residence at any one time by a Royal
Decree put in place by Charles II. According to an old legend, if the birds
should leave, the British Monarchy and the White Tower will crumble and
fall. To be on the safe side, the Tower usually keeps eight birds at all
times.
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23.
It is illegal to import haggis from the UK into the U.S., as the American
government has declared that sheep lungs are unfit for human
consumption.
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24.
The 1.5-mile journey from Westray to Papa Westray in the UK’s Orkney
Islands is the shortest scheduled flight in the world. The trip takes less than
two minutes.
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25.
Britain’s most remote pub is the Old Forge on Inverie, Scotland. It is 107
miles (172 km) from the nearest city, Inverness, and has no road access.
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26.
Champagne was invented in England by scientist Christopher Merret in
1662.
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27.
An estimated 2 billion people around the world viewed
the
wedding
ceremony of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on
April 29, 2011.
i
28.
James Bond’s code “007” was inspired by the author Ian Fleming’s bus
route from Canterbury to London.
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29.
The Ghost Research Foundation has determined that with 500 recorded
cases of ghostly encounters, York is the most haunted city in England and
one of the most haunted in the world.
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30.
Kate Middleton is an eighth cousin seven times removed to the first U.S.
President George Washington and a thirteenth cousin once removed from
American
World War II
hero General George Patton.
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31.
More languages (300) are spoken in London than in any other country in
the world.
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32.
The
Christmas
tree in Trafalgar Square is presented every year by the
people of Oslo in gratitude for London’s assistance during World War II.
aa
London’s “Tube” has
409 escalators which cover a distance roughly equivalent to several trips
around the world
33.
The London subway, or the “Tube,” is one of the oldest in the world. The
409 escalators in the Tube cover a distance every week which is
approximately equivalent to several trips around the globe.
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34.
A new breed of mosquito was found in the Tube tunnels in 1998. Scientists
309
believed it mutated from the bird-biting form that colonized the London
Underground when it was built in last century and, as it would not mate
with its aboveground cousin, it has evolved into a separate species.
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35.
The most famous of all British pop bands, and maybe in the world, “
The
Beatles
” were once known as “Johnny and the Moondogs.” Johnny was, of
course, John Lennon. He legally changed his middle name from Winston
(after Winston Churchill) to Ono in honor of his then girlfriend and later
wife, Yoko Ono.
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36.
Britain is the only country in the world which doesn’t have its name on its
postage stamps.
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37.
Over 27 tons (59,523 lb.) of strawberries and 7,000 liters (1,849 gal.) of
cream are consumed every year during the two weeks of Britain’s
Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
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38.
The sport of football, or soccer, supposedly got its start in England when
Anglo-Saxon farmworkers plowing a field unearthed the skull of a Danish
warrior killed in battle a few years earlier. To show their still bitter
feelings towards the Danes and to amuse themselves, they began kicking
the skull among them. This early form of football was called “kicking the
Dane’s head.”
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39.
As far back as the Anglo-Saxons, the English brewed and drank beer in
great quantities. A favorite drink was mead, ale mixed with honey. A
record of taxes on beer in the late 1600s indicates the average Englishman
drank three quarts per week.
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40.
English Cockneys call the telephone “dog and bone” and a wife “trouble
and strife.”
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41.
Six of the 10 wettest counties in the UK are in Scotland. Almost every
low-pressure system that barrels east out of the North Atlantic passes over
Scotland.
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42.
Nazi officer Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner held in the Tower of
London, for four days in 1941.
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43.
Until 1832, England only had two universities: Oxford and Cambridge.
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The Queen of England is the only
British citizen who travels without a passport
44.
Queen Elizabeth II travels with her own toilet seat and feather pillows, and
she is the only person in Britain who travels without a passport. She is also
the only person for whom Harrods used to close its doors to the public for
one day a year so she could do her Christmas shopping.
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45.
Queen Elizabeth II feeds her corgis herself with fillet of beef from a silver
platter with a silver fork. A royal “pooper scooper” takes care of the
“afters” with a different sort of platter and gets paid to do to his duties full-
time!
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46.
The famous stone London Bridge of “London Bridge is falling down”
fame was eventually replaced by a stronger concrete version, and its
original stones were taken to the United States and reassembled to make a
bridge over a river in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
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47.
Guglielmo Marconi did not invent radio, but he was the first to invent a
radio transmitter. When he could not find a buyer in
Italy
, he turned to
England, his mother’s country, and on July 27, 1896, he gave the first-ever
public demonstration of a radio. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in
1909 and on July 21, 1937, the day of his funeral, radio transmitters went
silent for two minutes in tribute.
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48.
The British coronation ceremony is over 1,000 years old. Since the
coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day in A.D. 1066,
Westminster Abbey has been the setting. The coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II in 1953 was the first to be televised.
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49.
The historical King Arthur may have been Magnus Maximus, or Prince
Macsen of Welsh legend, who was one of the greatest figures in Britain
toward the end of the Roman Empire. He was also an uncle by marriage of
the Welsh King, Coel Godhebog, who is believed to be the Old King Cole
of nursery rhymes.
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50.
Probably built around 3000 B.C., Stonehenge has stood on England’s
Salisbury Plain for more than 5,000 years and is older than the famous
311
Great Pyramids of
Egypt
.
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51.
Golf is Scotland’s national game. It was invented on the grounds of St.
Andrews, and the earliest record of the game dates from 1457, when James
II banned it because it interrupted his subjects’ archery practice. Mary,
Queen of Scots, enjoyed golf and was berated in 1568 for playing so soon
after the murder of her husband Lord Darnley.
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52.
At the end of the 19th century, an eager hill walker named Sir High Munro
published a list of 545 Scottish mountains measuring over 3,000 feet (914
m) high. New surveys have revised this to 283. Today, any Scottish
mountain over the magical 3,000-ft mark is called a “Munro,” and many
hill walkers now set themselves the target of “bagging,” or summiting all
283. By 2010, 4,500 people had bagged all 283 “Munros.”
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53.
In medieval times, Magpie Lane was Oxford, England’s red light district,
where the “nymphs of the pavement” would tout for business. The street
was previously called Gropecunt Lane.
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The London Eye is the tallest
observation wheel in the world, and its 330-lb hub weighs more than 20 times
the weight of Big Ben
54.
The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world, and each
rotation takes about 30 minutes. Its hub weighs 330 tons, more than 20
times the weight of Big Ben.
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55.
The artistic antihero Banksy is now world famous for his guerrilla graffiti
and stencil street art, but his true identity is a closely guarded secret. It is
generally believed he was born in 1974 in Yate, 12 miles from Bristol,
England. His documentary,
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