The Mammoth Book of Useless Information. Noel Botham
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so on. Her superstitions meant that she would never give her workmen the day off, afraid that the day she stopped building she would die. One day, however, after many complaints, she finally gave her staff a day off – and that is the day she died.
• It is believed that Handel haunts his former London home. Many who have entered Handel’s bedroom, where he died in 1759, have reported seeing a tall, dark shape and sensing a strong smell of perfume. Roman Catholic priests have performed exorcisms in their bid to clear the house of all spirits before it becomes a museum that will be open to the public.
• There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia but only 17 million people, while in New Zealand there are only 4 million people compared with 70 million sheep.
• In Holland, you can be fined for not using a shopping basket at a grocery store.
• On every continent there is a city called Rome.
• The oldest inhabited city is Damascus, Syria.
• The first city in the world to have a population of more than 1 million was London, which today is the thirteenth most populated city.
• The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
• Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.
• One-third of Taiwanese funeral processions include a stripper.
• It is illegal to own a red car in Shanghai, China.
• Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.
• There is now a cash machine at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200 people. It is the only ATM machine on the continent.
• Major earthquakes have hit Japan on 1 September AD 827, 1 September AD 859, 1 September 1185, 1 September 1649 and 1 September 1923.
• There are ninety-two known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.
• In Nepal, cow dung is used for medicinal purposes.
• All the Earth’s continents, except Antarctica, are wider at the north than at the south.
• There are no rental cars in Bermuda.
• The richest country in the world is Switzerland, while Mozambique is the poorest.
• Until 1920, Canada was planning on invading the United States.
• In 1956, only 8 per cent of British households had a refrigerator.
• In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog.
• The Ancient Egyptians trained baboons to wait on tables.
• One day in 1892, residents of Paderborn, Germany, witnessed the appearance of an odd-looking yellow cloud. Out of it fell not only a fierce rain, but also mussels.
• Mount Everest is 1ft (30.5cm) higher today than it was a century ago, and is believed to be still growing.
• Greenland has more ice on it than Iceland does, while Iceland has more grass and trees than Greenland.
• The country of Tanzania has an island called Mafia.
• Panama is the only place in the world where someone can see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean and set over the Atlantic.
• In Poland, a brewery developed a plumbing problem in which beer was accidentally pumped into the incoming water supply. It meant that residents of the town got free beer on tap for one day.
• The Kingdom of Tonga, in the South Pacific, once issued a stamp shaped like a banana.
• Japanese children can buy a toy in the shape of a small plastic atom bomb.
• Mount Athos, in northern Greece, calls itself an independent country and has a male-only population of about 4,000. No females of any kind, including animals, are allowed. There are twenty monasteries within a space of 20 miles (32km).
• In Cyprus, there is one cinema per every eight people.
• Two hundred and thirty people died when Moradabad, India, was bombed with giant balls of hail more than 2in (5cm) in diameter on 30 April 1888.
• A church steeple in Germany was struck by lightning and destroyed on 18 April 1599. The members of the church rebuilt it, but it was hit by lightning three more times between then and 1783, and rebuilt again and again. Every time it was hit, the date was 18 April.
• Monaco issued a postage stamp honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the picture on the stamp showed six fingers on his left hand.
• The most common place name in Britain is Newton, which occurs 150 times.
• China has more English speakers than the United States.
• The Toltecs, 7th-century native Mexicans, went into battle with wooden swords so as not to kill their enemies.
• In 1821, stones fell on a house in Truro, Cornwall. So remarkable was the event that the local mayor visited the house, though he was unnerved by the rattling of the walls and roof due to the falling stones. Called in to help, the military was unable to determine the source of the stones, and five days later the fall was still going on.
• Belgium is the only country that has never imposed censorship laws on adult films.
• Freelance Dutch prostitutes have to charge sales tax, but can write off items such as condoms and beds.
• The average court fine for drunk driving in Denmark is one month’s salary if convicted.
• People in Sweden, Japan and Canada are more likely to know the population of the United States than Americans.
• About 10 per cent of the workforce in Egypt is under 12 years of age.
• The Netherlands is credited with having the most bikes in the world. One bike per person is the national average, with an estimated 16 million bicycles nationwide.
• On a summer’s evening in Edinburgh, 1849, there was a loud clap of thunder, after which a large and irregularly shaped mass of ice, estimated to be around 20ft (6m) in circumference, crashed to the ground near a farmhouse.
• The average worker in Japan reportedly takes only half of his or her earned holiday time each year.
• The Amazon’s flow is twelve times that of the Mississippi. The South American river disgorges as much water in a day as the Thames carries past London in a year.
• Georgia is the world’s top pecan producer.
• People in Siberia often buy milk frozen on a stick.
• The population of Colombia doubles every twenty-two years.
• Sweden is the biggest user of ketchup, spending £2.25 per person a year on it. Australia is the second highest user, spending £1.35 a year, and the United States and Canada are joint third, spending £1.22 a year. The ketchup expenditure of other countries per person is as follows: Germany £0.95, United Kingdom £0.90, Poland and Japan £0.77, France £0.65 and Russia £0.50
• Eighty per cent of the Australian population live in the cities along the coast.
• The most common name for a pub in Britain is ‘The Red Lion’.
• Among the shortest people in the world are the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo River basin, where the men reach an average of 4ft 6in (1.36m) tall.
• In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than fifty minutes.
• The world’s longest escalator is in Ocean Park, Hong Kong. With a length of 745ft (227m), the escalator boasts a vertical rise of 377ft (115m).
• There is 1 mile (1.6km) of railroad track in Belgium for every 1.5 miles2