Fascinating Facts and Trivia

(12-01-2020 21:35 )Carl-Gen X Wrote:  A BBC News program broadcast in 1957 ended claiming that spaghetti grew on trees on a farm in Switzerland. Many viewers believed the report and called the BBC asking how to grow their own trees. Their response: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

This was an April Fools joke transmitted by the BBC News team

It was and still remains the best hoax ever perpetrated by a serious news programme PANORAMA and fronted by an even more deadpan Richard Dimbleby and it fooled thousands of people.

Now this is fascinating. Cast your minds back to the heady summer of 1989(if you can remember that decade) and nice little ditty called Back to Life(How Ever Do You Want Me) from Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler. This was so called because she had nearly died on the table when giving birth to her son, so she recalled that she was brought back to life by the surgical team and that was the basis for the song title which she sang along with Jazzie B.

However, due to differences of opinion with a BBC producer for Top of the Pops Jazzie B and his band along with Caron stormed out of the studio where they had been due to sing because they wanted to do it live, whereas most acts recorded a backing track or vocal and then mimed to it(usually really badly) They weren't having any of that. The outcome was the song rocketed up the charts and TOTPs were forced to play the video each time it was at Number One.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are about 2 chickens for every human in the world.

The word “maverick” came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan refused to brand his cattle.

Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

Termites have been known to eat food twice as fast when heavy metal music is playing.

There are more beetles than any other animal. In fact, one out of every four animals is a beetle.

During World War II, twice as many fighter pilots were killed during training than combat.

Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand

In 16th century France, 400 people started dancing and couldn't stop, leading to dozens of deaths

"The Dancing Plague" began with just one woman dancing intensely in a street in Alsace, France.

Eventually, for no apparent reason, more than 400 people joined her in mass hysteria.

Over the course of a month many ended up dying due to heart attacks or exhaustion because they literally would not stop dancing.

On April 1,1976 astronomer Patrick Moore stated to BBC Radio 2 listeners that at 9.47am that morning, an astronomic event called the ‘Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect’ would take place, which would noticeably decrease gravity on earth. He said that if listeners jumped in the air at that moment, they would feel a floating sensation.

Soon after 9.47, the BBC received hundreds of calls from listeners reporting the decrease in gravity. One woman who called in claimed that she and her eleven friends had been sitting and had been ‘wafted from their chairs and orbited gently around the room’

One of my favourite April Fool gags was perpetrated by the Sport a few years ago. It told its readers that the paper had been specially treated with some ink that when you soaked it in water it would reveal its Sport Girls in 3-D. You would not believe how many people fell for that and ended with soggy newspaper

The only county in England(and at time of writing this it is being voted on by the council) Rutland that doesn't have a McDonalds restaurant. It has been resisted for years, they want to build a drive-thru version and provide 60 jobs or so. People are divided over whether it is needed or not, and it looks as though the majority of the council is supporting it...watch this space!

There are more beetles than any other animal. In fact, one out of every four animals is a beetle.

The rhinoceros beetle is the strongest animal and is capable of lifting 850 times its own weight.

On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the American flag is flying over the Parliament Building.

An American urologist bought Napoleon’s penis for $40,000.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters “MT”.