Odd factoids

[Racing roadkill]

Winston Churchill invented the V sign when he was firing arrows at Adolf Schiklgruber

Was Churchill a Vampire? I’m not sure even vampires live that long.

 

[TVC]

Big Ben isn't the name of the clock tower at Westminster, it's actually called Maureen.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Baboons have been known to kidnap dogs, and keep them as pets.

 

[Racing roadkill]

The emperor penguin can dive to a depth of 1850ft, which is deeper than the maximum operational depth of pretty much all manned Naval submarines

 

[Dirk]

Three American presidents - Jefferson, Adams and Madison - died on the 4th of July, American Independence Day.

 

[Dirk]

Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910.

He himself predicted this in 1909, when he said: “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.”

 

[Tim Hall]

Samuel L Clemens got his nom de plume from a call used by Mississippi Riverboat men when they were sounding the shallows. Unfortunately the original version "F*ck me, that's deep" led to a decline in book sales , so he had to come up with all that nonsense about Mark one, Mark twain, swinging lead and so on.

 

[Dirk]

Mr Mc Donald, a farmer in Canada, has a postal address EIEIO.

 

[Andy_R]

The main food source for the Emporer Penguin is the Lesser Spotted Flamingo Squid, which can dive to a depth of 1851ft, which is often really frustrating.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The tank top is a perfectly fashionable piece of knitwear.

 

[TVC]

The deepest recorded dive by a penguin was on board the deep sea submersible Alvin where it remained in the lunch box of the captain, until he got peckish on the long journey back to the surface.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Early tanks were notoriously difficult to start in cold weather, so designers drew inspiration from housewives, and created a tea-cosy type cover to keep the engines warm. This is he origin of the trendy knitwear known as the 'tank top'.

 

[Drago]

Surplus tanks from WWI were sold to many countries, including Sweden. Some were too badly damaged to be economically repairable, so were sold to the local populace. Mr Sven Volvo bought a number of them, substituted the tracks with wheels, thickened up the armour and fitted a large main gun, and the Volvo 240 was born.

 

[Dave7]

Three American presidents - Jefferson, Adams and Madison - died on the 4th of July, American Independence Day.

What... in the same year??

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The Volvo 240 was named based on its range on a full tank - 240 miles.