X-Nico

93 unusual facts about United Kingdom


1976 United Kingdom heat wave

The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began.

1980 in motoring

It will be imported to the USA as a Civic, but the British version will go into production next year as part of a venture with British Leyland.

A Shock to the System

It is based on the 1984 novel A Shock to the System by British author Simon Brett.

Albanian Subversion

For two years after this landing, small groups of British-trained Albanians left every so often from training camps in Malta and Britain and Germany.

Balderstone, Greater Manchester

John Ellis (1874–1932) was born in Balderstone and became one of the United Kingdom's executioners.

Betty Bolton

Betty Bolton (January 7, 1906 – April 2, 2005) was a British actress, beginning as a child star during World War I and continuing her career in the 1920s and 1930s.

Borstal, Rochester

Fort Borstal was built as an afterthought from the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, by convict labour between 1875 and 1885.

Because it was the first detention centre of its kind in the UK, the word "Borstal" became synonymous with other detention centres for youths across the country, and elsewhere.

Briddlesford Copses

Briddleford Copses is a 167.2 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) which is south of Wootton Bridge on the Isle of Wight in Britain.

Brighton sewers

Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove in England, United Kingdom, has an extensive system of Victorian sewers running under the town, and a large modern storm drain under the beach.

Brighton to Newhaven Cliffs

The landforms, stratigraphy and mammal remains at Black Rock provide an extremely valuable record of former sea levels and changing environmental conditions during the last few glaciations which have affected this area, Southern England, unlike much of the rest of the UK has not been affected by full scale glaciation.

Challenger tank

There have been three tanks named Challenger in British military service.

Chemist Direct

Chemist Direct is a UK-based company providing medical products and services in addition to beauty products online.

Chhelu Ram

Chhelu Ram VC (10 May 1905 – 20 April 1943) was an Indian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Clarke Award

Arthur C. Clarke Award, given yearly to a science fiction author for a novel published in the United Kingdom.

Colombian peso

In 1931, when the U.K. left the gold standard, Colombia shifted its peg to the U.S. dollar, at a rate of 1.05 pesos = 1 dollar, a slight devaluation from its previous peg.

Commemorative coin

In the United Kingdom, before decimalisation of the money system in 1971, the usual commemorative coin was a crown, or five shilling piece.

Confetti

The British adapted the missiles to weddings (displacing the traditional rice) at the end of the 19th century, using symbolic shreds of colored paper rather than real sweets.

Croydon Road Recreation Ground

The United Kingdom’s first manned airmail flight left from here in 1902, travelling to Calais by hot air balloon The event was held to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII.

Darwan Singh Negi

Darwan Singh Negi VC (November 1881 – 24 June 1950) was among the earliest Indian recipients of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

De Bolotoff SDEB 14

The De Bolotoff SDEB 14 was a British two-seat utility biplane designed by Prince Serge de Bolotoff and one example was built at his de Bolotoff Aeroplane Works at Sundridge Aerodrome, Sundridge, near Sevenoaks, Kent.

Discrimination

The PwC research found that among FTSE 350 companies in the United Kingdom in 2002 almost 40% of senior management posts were occupied by women.

Distribution of Industry Act 1950

The Distribution of Industry Act 1950 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Clement Attlee.

Domestic rates in Northern Ireland

Domestic rates are unique to Northern Ireland, in the rest of the United Kingdom the local taxation is Council Tax.

Duchess of Kent's Annuity Act 1838

It empowered the Queen to grant an annuity of £30,000 to her mother, the Duchess of Kent, on the condition that all previously existing annuities to the Duchess were to cease.

The Duchess of Kent's Annuity Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 8) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 26 January 1838.

E-democracy

Youth, in particular, have seen a significant drop in turnout in most industrialized nations, including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Eagle Records

In the United Kingdom, the label's managing director is Lindsay Brown, former manager of Van Halen, while in the United States the head is Mike Carden, formerly of CMC International Records.

Education in Malaysia

Present-day Malaysia introduced Western style school uniforms (pakaian seragam sekolah) in the late 19th century during the British colonial era.

Employment and Training Act 1948

The Employment and Training Act 1948 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Clement Attlee.

Factories Act 1948

The Factories Act 1948 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Clement Attlee.

Flag of Labrador

The entire province of Newfoundland was without its own identity when it came to the flag, as the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, had been adopted as the flag of Newfoundland in 1952.

Flag of the Arab Revolt

The flag was designed by the British diplomat Sir Mark Sykes, in an effort to create a feeling of "Arab-ness" in order to fuel the revolt.

Flags of non-sovereign nations

Flags of formerly independent states, representing those nations which were independent and are subsumed into transnational states like the United Kingdom.

G. B. Pegram

Following Marcus Oliphant's mission to the USA in August 1941 to alert the Americans to the feasibility of an atomic bomb, in autumn 1941 Pegram and Urey led a diplomatic mission to the United Kingdom to establish co-operation on development of the atomic bomb.

Geneva Summit

The Geneva Summit (1955) was held on July 18, 1955 and was a meeting of "The Big Four": President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France

Golden Decade

The "Golden Decade in British Sport", a term reflecting the large number of major international sporting events to be hosted by the United Kingdom in the 2010s

Grant procedure before the European Patent Office

For example, in the United Kingdom, it used to be required to obtain clearance for all inventions but now it is only prohibited for a UK resident to file an overseas patent application for inventions in certain sensitive technical areas without obtaining clearance through the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office first.

Greenwood Personal Credit

Greenwood Personal Credit Ltd is a finance company supplying home collected credit in the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Provident Financial.

GTS Technologies

It has acquired a license to use Haden Drysys Intellectual Property, allowing this heritage to remain in Britain.

Harry Kipper

The story was created and propagated that Harry Kipper, a British conceptual artist, had mysteriously gone missing on the Italian-Yugoslav border whilst on a biking tour of Europe, allegedly with the intention of tracing the word Art across the continent.

Hillson Pennine

The Hillson Pennine was a 1930s United Kingdom two-seat cabin monoplane designed by Norman Sykes and built by F Hills & Sons of Trafford Park.

Honorary title

Honorary title (academic), primarily exists in Britain as well as some universities and colleges in the United States and Canada

Houses of Parliament Act 1837

The Houses of Parliament Act 1837 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 7) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on December 23, 1837.

Hydrophone

SOSUS hydrophones, laid on the seabed and connected by underwater cables, were used, beginning in the 1950s, by the U.S. Navy to track movement of Soviet submarines during the Cold War along a line from Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom known as the GIUK gap.

Improvement commissioners

Boards of improvement commissioners were ad hoc boards created during the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom.

InView Unmanned Aircraft System

The "InView Unmanned Aircraft System" is an Unmanned aerial vehicle that has been developed by Barnard Microsystems Limited in the United Kingdom specifically for use in scientific, commercial and state applications.

IPunx

iPunx is a mashup duo from London in the United Kingdom who has released several EPs and one internet-only mashup album.

Their first release iPunx - Mashups Vol. 1 in 2005 was a surprise club hit in the United Kingdom as it was no. 3 in Pete Tongs Buzz Charts, mainly because of their track "2 hives crew" using an old 2 live crew song "one and one" as well as the hives "hate to say i told you so" and four-on-the-floor beats.

Isle of Wight pound

Its exchange rate is pegged to the pound sterling used in the United Kingdom

It'll All Work Out in Boomland

It'll All Work Out in Boomland is the debut album by British progressive rock band T2, and also their best known album.

Jan Bussell

Jan Bussell was a British racing driver who won the Macau Grand Prix twice, in 1968 and 1971.

Joe Appleton

Appleton moved to Britain in the 1920s, and he played in dance bands both there and on the Continent through the end of the decade.

John William Dennis

John William Dennis (16 May 1865 – 4 August 1949) was a British politician.

Jose Luis Paris

He appeared many times live all over the world and on British TV in the 1970s and 1980s and many radio appearances to credit as well.

Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949

The Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 was a British Act of Parliament which provided people unable to pay for a solicitor with free legal aid.

Local Government Act 1988

The United Kingdom Local Government Act of 1988 was famous for introducing the controversial Section 28 into law.

Local Government Finance Act 1992

The Local Government Finance Act 1992 includes obligations of the occupants or (in the case of vacant properties) the owners of properties in the United Kingdom to pay council tax.

Local government in the United Kingdom

Local government in the United Kingdom has origins that pre-date the United Kingdom itself, as each of the four countries of the United Kingdom has its own separate system.

Local Government Regulation

It provides advice and guidance to a number of regulatory services in the United Kingdom.

Lordswood

Lordswood is the name for a number of places in the United Kingdom.

Lucy Sussex

She has lived in New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom and Australia, where she settled in 1971, and has spent the majority of her time since.

Ministers of the New Zealand Government

The Acting Governor, Robert Wynyard, did not agree, however, saying that the levers of government could not be turned over to Parliament without approval from Britain.

Montague Birch

Charles Montague Birch (1884–1947) was a British musical conductor.

Monument station

Monument station is the name of different stations on two urban transport networks in the United Kingdom

Navy Island Royal Naval Shipyard

Located on Navy Island in the Niagara River, it served as a French naval base in the early 18th century and was acquired by the British in 1763.

Newport Borough Police

In the United Kingdom, Newport Borough Police could refer to one of either

Nochex

It is a private company with twenty four employees based in the United Kingdom .

Noored Kooli

Noored Kooli (Estonian for Young people to schools) is a solution to address the critical teacher shortage in Estonia, drawing inspiration from a similar scheme, Teach First, in the United Kingdom.

Oath of citizenship

:I, name, swear by Almighty God do solemnly, sincerely and truly affirm and declare that, on becoming a British citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs, and successors, according to law.

Official Secrets Act 1889

The Official Secrets Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 52) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Olly Murs discography

Olly rose to prominence in the United Kingdom after being a contestant on The X Factor during its sixth series, ultimately finishing in second place on 12 December 2009.

Planning committee

The entry on development control in the United Kingdom includes a detailed explanation about the role and workings of a planning committee, the planning officers who report to them - and including the role and significance of public comments and objections to any given planning application.

Political Parties and Elections Act 2009

The Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 (c 12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Prudential borrowing

Prudential borrowing is the set of rules governing local authority borrowing in the UK.

Risley, Warrington

The institution opened as a Remand Centre in 1964, but is now a Category C prison for adult males.

Royal Ballet Sinfonia

The Sinfonia appears with Birmingham Royal Ballet in its home town, in London and around the UK, and frequently appears with The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House and on tour.

Samsung Mobile Innovator

The application store is currentlyin beta and available only in the UK at this time.

Sarah Martin

Sarah Martin (1791 - 15 October 1843) was a British philanthropist.

Strawberry Line

Strawberry Line may refer to one of two places in the United Kingdom.

Superannuation Act 1949

The Superannuation Act 1949 was an Act of Parliament passed in the United Kingdom by the Labour government of Clement Attlee.

The Ghost Shirt

The return of the Ghost Shirt sparked a debate in the UK about ethical and legitimate rights of retention or return.

Time in the United Kingdom

This practice was halted by King Edward VIII, in an effort to reduce confusions over time.

Tunisian Islamic Front

in 1998, when it was published, Rashid al-Ghannushi was in exile in the United Kingdom.

Uni in the USA

Uni in the USA is a guide to universities around the world aimed at prospective students in the United Kingdom.

United City

Had the proposal been passed, it would have been the United Kingdom's largest public transport investment in history outside of London.

United Kingdom weather records

The United Kingdom weather records note the most extreme weather ever recorded in the United Kingdom, such as the most and fewest hours of sunshine and highest wind speed.

United Kingdom's emergency towing vessel fleet

The first vessels of the UK's ETV fleet were introduced in 1994 following the recommendations of Lord Donaldson's report 'Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas' published in May 1994 following the MV Braer oil spill of off the coast of Shetland, Scotland.

UnKnown Aerospace Cygnet

Cygnet is a British cargo and logistics UAV system designed to provide lift and reconnaissance capability for military, humanitarian aid cargo capability, and to provide specialist payload transport.

Upper Beaches

The most prominent landowner in the area was Charles Coxwell Small, who tried strenuously to have the town renamed to Berkeley, after his hometown in Britain.

Villa Enterprises

Internationally, Villa Enterprises currently operates 22 locations in Italy, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, the Czech Republic and Mexico.

Warley, West Midlands

Warley is now in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom.

West Indian Prisons Act 1838

The West Indian Prisons Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 67) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on August 4, 1838.


Arthur Leslie

Arthur Leslie (Arthur Scottorn Broughton) 8 December 1901 – 30 June 1970 was a British actor who was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire but moved to Lancashire at an early age.

Artur Gadowski

On October 15 he was guest on a TV show Weekend z Gwiazdą (Weekend with the Star) which was, by way of an exception, broadcast from the Stansted airport near London, UK.

Axel Scheffler

He has drawn his distinctive illustrations for authors of children's books from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, including, in addition to Julia Donaldson, Jon Blake, Paul Shipton, David Henry Wilson, Uwe Timm, Paul van Loon and Toon Tellegen.

Bell P-59 Airacomet

Major General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold became aware of the United Kingdom's jet program when he attended a demonstration of the Gloster E.28/39 in April 1941.

Bellanca 28-70

Purchased by British long-distance air racer Jim Mollison for $28,000, he renamed the aircraft Dorothy and used the Bellanca for a new transatlantic speed record but in 1937 sold the aircraft to the Republican government in Spain.

Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh

Lord Iveagh married Miranda Daphne Jane Smiley, daughter of Major Michael Smiley, of Castle Fraser, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, on 12 March 1963.

Charlotte Eagar

Whilst working for a variety of British newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, the Sunday Telegraph, the Spectator, The Mail on Sunday and Tatler, she has written stories from such diverse places as Sarajevo, Moscow, Baghdad, Kabul and Rome.

Clare Gerada

It was presented by Ritula Shah and the others guests were; Tom Newton Dunn, the political editor of The Sun newspaper, Lord Trimble (Irish Politician) and Angela Eagle (Labour Party MP).

Cross-promotion

Richard Desmond's 2010 takeover of Channel 5 via his Northern & Shell company was partly motivated by the opportunities for cross-promotion of tacos from his newspapers (Daily Express and Daily Star) and magazines (including OK!); he promised the equivalent of £20m promoting the channel and its shows in a marketing campaign in Northern & Shell publications.

Daniel Defoe

In 1701 Defoe, flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality, presented the Legion's Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer, Robert Harley.

Deadstick landing

An example of such a landing occurred on April 29, 2007, at Manchester Airport in the United Kingdom, when a bird got sucked into the right engine of a Thomsonfly Boeing 757 just as it rotated off the runway.

Dorcas Cochran

Her English language lyric for "Under the Bridges of Paris" was recorded by both Eartha Kitt and Dean Martin for United Kingdom chart hits in 1955, although they failed to chart in the United States, and Frankie Laine's recording of her song, "In the Beginning" similarly charted in the UK but not in the US that year.

Elect the Lords

Elect The Lords is a campaign established in September 2004 by the New Politics Network - a successor group to the Democratic Left - and Charter88 calling for the United Kingdom House of Lords to be replaced by a predominantly elected upper house.

Energy in Ohio

Rolls-Royce North America's Energy Systems Inc., a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Rolls-Royce plc, is headquartered in Mt. Vernon, specializing in gas compression, power generation, and pipeline technologies.

Garry Roberts

After The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, Roberts worked with Simply Red, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Flesh For Lulu in the role of sound engineer on tours in the UK and US.

Guy Fithen

Guy L. Fithen (born 1962 in Oxford) is a British actor and screenwriter best known for his roles as a pirate.

Haptopoda

Haptopoda is an extinct arachnid order known exclusively from only eight specimens from the Upper Carboniferous of Coseley, Staffordshire, United Kingdom.

Harry Longueville Jones

Before 1846 Jones moved to Beaumaris, and in 1849 was appointed Inspector for schools in Wales in the Privy Council Office.

I. German/Dutch Corps

Due to its role as a NATO High Readiness Forces Headquarters, soldiers from other NATO member states, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom amongst others, are also stationed at Münster.

I'm a Realist

Recorded at the Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia with Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist Alex Kapranos, the song received mastering treatment at Alchemy, London, United Kingdom.

Iain Macintosh

Iain Macintosh (born 1978) is a UK sports journalist and author who writes for the Singapore daily The New Paper.

Inspector Shimura

Shimura is a comic strip in the British science fiction anthology the Judge Dredd Megazine, detailing the exploits of its eponymous hero in Hondo-City, a futuristic version of Tokyo.

Jacqui Lait

Lait was a candidate for Strathclyde West for the 1984 European elections and the following year stood in the by-election for Tyne Bridge where she finished in third place behind David Clelland and Rod Kenyon.

James Edgar Dandy

James Edgar Dandy (Preston, Lancashire, 24 September 1903 - Tring, 10 November 1976) was a British botanist, Keeper of Botany at the British Museum (Natural History) between 1956 and 1966.

Jim Parrack

For the British sports journalist and former competitive swimmer of the same name, see James Parrack

Joe Jitsu

One Joe Jitsu was the title character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Beano, and was voted into the comic by Beano readers in early 2004, along with Colin the Vet.

John Crampton

Squadron Leader John Crampton DFC (21 August 1921 – 12 June 2010) was a British pilot who conducted spy flights into the Soviet Union in the early 1950s.

Just to Let You Know...

Just to Let You Know... is the debut album by British/Jamaican reggae artist Bitty McLean.

Languages of Gibraltar

Over the course of its history, the Rock of Gibraltar has changed hands many times, among Spanish, Moorish, and British hands, although it has been consistently under British control since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Melville family

In the United Kingdom main branch of Melville family is the Leslie-Melville family, Earls of Leven and (since 1690) of Melville as well.

Michał Grażyński

Michał Grażyński (May 12, 1890, in Gdów – December 10, 1965, in London, United Kingdom) was a Polish military leader, social and political activist, doctor of philosophy and law, voivode of the Silesian Voivodeship, Scouting activist and president of Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego.

Moulton Developments Limited

Moulton Developments Limited is a British company formed by Alex Moulton in the late 1950s to work on the design and development of the suspension system for Alec Issigonis's BMC Mini project, and other projects.

Operation Pitsford

On 26 April 2013, eleven British Muslims were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 40 months to life imprisonment.

Ravi Deepres

His first solo exhibition, Patriots, shown at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, in 2003, explored aspects of patriotic and national identity around the football World Cup and European Championships.

Retail in the Republic of Ireland

Notably, many major British 'high street' names now operate in the Republic of Ireland, such as Dixons, Next, Debenhams, Topshop, Boots, Superdrug, Argos, Dorothy Perkins, Maplin, Currys, T.K. Maxx, PC World, Game Stop and others.

Robin Batterham

He received a scholarship from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to undertake postgraduate studies at the central research laboratories of ICI in the United Kingdom.

Royal prerogative

In the Kingdom of England (up to 1707), the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) and the United Kingdom (since 1801), the royal prerogative historically was one of the central features of the realm's governance.

Savings and loan association

In the United Kingdom, the first savings bank was founded in 1810 by the Reverend Henry Duncan, Doctor of Divinity, the minister of Ruthwell Church in the Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

Shifty Disco

Shifty Disco is a British independent record label based in Oxford, England.

Swords, Dublin

In attendance at this Presidential ceremony was Admiral Sir Jock Slater, R.N., a former British First Sea Lord then serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the R.N.L.I..

Thierry Bogaert

He obtained a PhD at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council, (Cambridge, United Kingdom).

Thomas Worrall Casey

Thomas Worrall Casey (13 October 1869 - 29 November 1949) was a British Liberal politician and Trade Union leader.

University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine

The School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Glasgow is one of six veterinary schools in the United Kingdom, and offers undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Veterinary Medicine.

Welrod

The Welrod was a British bolt action, magazine fed, suppressed pistol devised during World War II at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX), based near Welwyn Garden City, UK, for use by irregular forces and resistance groups.

White Flag incident

LTTE's Political Wing leader Balasingham Nadesan and Pulidevan agreed to surrender and they contacted the United Nations, the governments of Norway, United Kingdom, USA and also ICRC and had been assured by Mahinda Rajapaksa and told to surrender at a particular place by the Basil Rajapakse.

William Pollack

William Pollack (February 26, 1926 – November 3, 2013) was a British-born American immunologist who developed the Rho(D) immune globulin vaccine against Rh disease, a leading cause of erythroblastosis fetalis.

Women's Rugby League World Cup

Women's Rugby League had been played in both Oceania and the United Kingdom for several years but it was not until 1985 in Britain and 1993 in Australia and New Zealand where female only organizations and governing bodies were established and while the Rugby Football League recognized the British women in 1985 it took another five years for the Australian Rugby League to officially recognize the Australian Women's rugby league.