Interesting Facts – Amazing Facts, Random Facts and Funny Facts

The Grand National Facts

The first ever Grand National was held at Aintree Race Course in Liverpool, England in 1839. The Aintree Racecourse’s name derives from an ancient Viking settlement, where all the trees but one fell down.

The first Grand National in 1839 also saw the slowest time for a horse to win the race. The aptly named Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason, who was 5-1 favourite, completed the race in 14m 53s.

In 1883, just 10 racers faced the starter, making it the smallest field to partake in a Grand National race. However 66 horses lined up in 1929, which is the most the Grand National has seen.

The smallest number of horses to finish the Grand National was in 1928 when the 100-1 outsider, Tipperary Tim, was the first of two horses left in the race to pass the post.

In 1984, the greatest number of horses finished the race. There were 23 horses that completed the race and the winner was “Hallo Dandy” who was ridden by the Welsh jockey Neal Doughty.

The horse named Mr Frisk, was the fastest ever time to win the Grand National, in just 8 minutes 47.8 seconds in 1990.

It is said to be one of the most challenging steeplechase races with 16 tough fences to jump. Some of the early races included a stone wall jump, which has since been replaced with the water jump.

Another jump, the Becher’s Brook was named after a top jockey, Captain Martin Becher, after he fell from his horse and took shelter in the brook from the other riders and horses as they passed.

The jump known as The Chair is the broadest and the tallest fence and stands at 5ft 2ins. This fence was named as in the early days of the Grand National, the jump was situated alongside the seat used by the distance judge.

All the fences are made up from spruce coming from the Lake District. The building work costs are high, reaching tens of thousands of pounds and will normally take about 4 weeks to complete.

The most successful and well known horse to win the Grand National was Red Rum. He won it three times in 1973, 1974 and 1977. When Red Rum died on 18th October 1995, his remains were buried at the winning post at the Aintree Racecourse.

The oldest winning horse was Peter Simple in 1853 and he was aged 15. There were also quite a few young horses all aged 5 and these were Alcibiade in 1865, Regal in 1876, Austerlitz in 1877, Empress in 1880, and Lutteur III in 1909.

Golden Miller was the only horse to complete both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in 1934.

In one of the strangest Grand National wins, Moiffa won it in 1904. It was odd because in 1903 during a trip to Liverpool from New Zealand, the horses ship was wrecked and Moiffa was presumed lost at sea. Shortly after the wreck, Moiffa turned up on some outcrop in the south of Ireland and went on to win the Grand National the following year.

The most successful jockey in the Grand National’s history is George Stevens who won the race five times. They were on Freetrader in 1856, Emblem in 1863, Emblematic in 1864 and The Colonel in 1869 and 1870.

In 1938, the youngest jockey to win the Grand National was 17 year old Bruce Hobbs, who rode Battleship to victory. Battleship is currently the only horse to have won both the Grand National and the American Grand National.

Whereas, the late Dick Saunders is the oldest winner, at 48 years old, to win the Grand National and he partnered Grittar to triumph in 1982.

Peter Scudamore officially competed in 12 Grand National without winning. He technically lined up for thirteen Grand Nationals, but the race in 1993 was void.

The reason the Grand National was cancelled in 1993 was because 30 of the 39 riders hadn’t realised a false start had been called. They continued to complete both laps of the hard 30 obstacle course before they knew what had happened, and so it was declared to be a void race.

Richard Johnson has now beaten that record, this year The Grand National 2019, will be the champion jockey’s 21st attempt at the Grand National without a win.

The first female jockey to participate in the Grand National was Charlotte Brew in 1977, partnering her horse Barony Fort. She almost finished the race, but she fell at the fourth-to-last fence making it impossible complete the race.

This female participation however, paved the way for female jockeys to continue to compete in the Grand National and the first woman to complete the Grand National was Geraldine Rees in 1982. She finished in 8th place on her horse named Cheers.

In 2012 Katie Walsh achieved the best placing by a woman to date, with a 3rd place position on Seabass.

Rosemary Henderson finished fifth when aged 51 on her own 100/1 shot Fiddlers Pike in 1994. She subsequently wrote a book, ‘Road To The National’, about her exploits.

The 2019 Grand National steeplechase race will take part of 6th April, the field will hold a maximum of 40 Grand National runners, with 4 reserves.

The meaning behind the gifts in the carol “The 12 Days of Christmas”

The carol was first published in England in 1780 without any music, chant or rhyme and it is thought to have originated in France.

The reasoning behind this carol is thought to be viewed by Christians as the period between Christmas Day and the time it took for the three magi, or wise men, to travel to Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus Christ, known as the Epiphany.

The word epiphany is from the Greek word meaning “revelation”.

For example, the churches here celebrate Christmas on 25th December and the Epiphany on 6th January, and the period in between as the 12 days and nights of Christmas.

It is thought the meaning behind the gifts in this carol were there to help young Christians learn about their faith.

As the song goes, “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…”. The meaning of this is that, “true love” would represent God and the “me” would be the Christian person receiving the gifts.

If you break the carol down line by line, the hidden meanings become clear as you’ll see below:-

The “partridge in a pear tree” was to symbolise Jesus Christ who died on a tree, and this was a gift from God.
The “two turtle doves” were the Old and New Testaments from the Bible.
The “three French hens” were faith, hope and love – the three gifts of the Spirit.
The “four calling birds” were the four Gospels, whom were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The “five golden rings” were in respect to the first five books of the Bible also called the “Books of Moses” and also known as Torah or Law, which describe man’s fall into sin.
The “six geese a-laying” represented the six days of creation.
The “seven swans a swimming” were referring to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The “eight maids a milking” were the eight beatitudes, which were the blessings listed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
The “nine ladies dancing” were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The “ten lords a-leaping” referred to the Ten Commandments.
The “eleven pipers piping” were the eleven faithful disciples and finally
The “twelve drummers drumming” were the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed. The word ‘creed’ derives from the Latin word credo, which means ‘I believe and trust’.

So next time you sing “The 12 Days Of Christmas” you will understand the meaning behind such a well known Christmas carol.

Who was Rosalind Franklin?

We’ve all heard of DNA haven’t we, well this lady, Rosalind Franklin, was the first lady to start the research into it.

Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920 in London, and although her father disapproved of her going to university, she went to Cambridge and earned a PhD in physical chemistry.

The big unanswered question of that era was “What is the shape of DNA?”.

Even though scientists knew that DNA formed the building blocks of the body they had no idea what it looked like and so started Rosalind Franklin’s research in King’s College.

She spent many hours using an X-ray on delicate fibres of DNA, capturing a famous photo proving DNA is a double helix.

It is now understood that two other scientists named James Watson and Francis Crick were also trying to fathom out what DNA was made up of and they secretly looked at Rosalind Franklin’s research without her knowledge or permission.

They later published their findings along with Rosalind’s work and but crucially did not credit her.

After that incident Rosalind left King’s College and went to work at a top research lab, where she moved on to research the tobacco mosaic and polio viruses.

She also research the use of charcoal to be used in gas masks during WWII.

She died very young at the age of 37 years old from cancer in 1958.

Watson and Crick won a Nobel Prize four years later for their research and work into DNA, but it came to light that they had used some of Rosalind Franklin’s data and she is now known as one of the pioneer’s into the research of the “shape of DNA”.

Interesting Bat Facts

Here are some really interesting facts about those nocturnal creatures that you see flitting back and forth at dusk and at night time.

There are over 1,300 species of bats worldwide and 17 of them breed in the United Kingdom.

One of these creatures are called the pipistrelle, which weighs about 4-7g (about the same weight as a 2p piece).

There are three species of pipistrelle and they are known as the common pipistrelle, the soprano pipistrelle and the rarer Nathusius’ pipistrelle. If you folded the wings of a pipistrelle, it would fit into a matchbox.

Another common species in Britain is the noctule and is one of Britain’s larger bats and weighs up to 40g (which is about the weight of a £1 coin).

The noctule emerges early in the evening and can be seen flying in a straight line high overhead, before suddenly swooping down to catch an insect. The noctule is around the same size as a starling and has long narrow wings.

The brown long eared bat is very difficult to spot and usually comes out after dark and flies close to trees and in between branches. It’s flight is slow and hovering, a bit like a butterfly.

All British bats eat insects and they eat a large amount of insects as flying uses up a lot of their energy.

For example a pipistrelle will eat up to 500 tiny insects in an hour and some species even eat spiders.

Bats are not actually blind, as we are led to believe. They can see, but at night their ears are their most important asset as they fly around and look for food using a system known as echolocation. Which is a system that uses sound waves or reflected sound to “see” things.

Bats don’t make nests, but they do hang upside down in caves or creep into crevices in trees to roost.

Some bats shelter in buildings, behind hanging tiles and boardings and in roof spaces.

During April-June the female bats gather in maternity groups, by deciding on where to give birth and look after their young safely, until the babies can fly and feed themselves.

Female bats usually give birth during the months of June and July, and tend to have just one single pup, suckling them frequently until the young start to fly at 3 weeks old.

Mating occurs during the months of September to November. Bats feed as much as they can to prepare them for hibernation.

British bats hibernate during the winter as their are not enough insects around for them to eat.

They usually hibernate in a disused tunnel or cave which is cool and humid and safe for them. They control their heartbeat and breathing and their body temperature drops so that it reserves their energy.

You might see some bats flying around during the winter time, if they need to find a new shelter or need to look for food and water to boost their energy.

For tiny mammals, bats live surprisingly long lives. If they survive their first winter, then a pipistrelle can usually live for 5-6 years with some species living up to 30 years.

A Daubenton bat is also known as a “water bat”. It’s because they use their feet or tail to fish insects from a water’s surface.

What does the saying ‘Yankee Dodge’ mean?

With the words “We are going to try a Yankee Doge today, gentlemen, for making men insensible”, Robert Liston, senior surgeon at University College Hospital in London prepared to perform the first public operations in Europe involving the amputation of a limb while the patient was anaesthetised with Ether.

“The Yankee Dodge” to which Liston was referring to had been practised two months earlier on 16th October 1846, at a Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The hospitals first surgeon and principal founder, Dr John Collins Warren. He had successfully removed a tumour from the jaw of a 20 year old printer named Gilbert Abbot.

Ether was administered to the patient by a local dentist, Dr William Thomas Green Morton, who only a month earlier had become the first dentist to remove a tooth painlessly from a patient anaesthetised with ether.

Once Abbot was unconscious, Dr Warren cut away the tumour and shortly afterwards Abbot safely came around. ‘Did you feel any pain?’Morton asked him. ‘No,Sir,’ replied the young man ‘only some blunt thing scratching my cheek!’

Previously, operating without anaesthetics, surgeons severed arms and legs at high speed, while the patient, usually blindfolded and tied to a stretcher, remained fully conscious and screaming with pain, despite the piece of leather given to bite on.

The more compassionate surgeons mesmerised or hypnotised their patients, half suffocated them, made them intoxicated, sedated them with opium or froze the part of the body which was to be operated on.

Before serving as the anaesthetist at Warren’s history making operation, Dr Morton had been the partner of another Boston based dentist, Horace Wells, who was the first person to use nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as an anaesthetic in dental surgery.

In 1844 Dr Wells had one of his own teeth extracted while under the influence of nitrous oxide, and he later used it successfully on several patients.

Morton, however preferred ether as a means of killing pain. After his successful demonstration of surgical anaesthetic in a hospital, Morton patented his discovery under the name of ‘Letheon’.

Meanwhile, Wells campaigned to have his own use of nitrous oxide, which he claimed was safer than ether, recognised as a surgical ‘first’. It was against this background that on 21st December 1846, the Scottish born Robert Liston prepared to follow Dr Warren’s example and operate on an anaesthetised patient.

Robert Liston Surgery — Robert Liston performing an amputation in front of a crowd of spectators. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Liston entered the hospital’s operating theatre wearing his customary coat and apron which were encrusted with months of accumulated dirt. A few moments later the patient, a butler named Frederick Churchill, was bought in. He had a diseased thigh that needed amputating.

A colleague of Liston’s then applied the anaesthetic by means of an inhaling device containing a sponge soaked in ether. Liston took a long, serrated knife and rapidly sawed into the thigh. He completed the amputation in some 30 seconds without Churchill feeling a thing. Liston then turned to a spellbound audience and said ‘This Yankee Dodge, gentlemen, beats mesmerism hollow!’

Among the onlookers that days was Joseph Lister, a 19 year old student who attended several of Liston’s anatomy lectures at University College.

Lister was appalled by the unhygienic conditions in the operating theatres of the day, which he felt must put patients at risk of infection.

At the time, the death rate in British hospitals following successful amputations was one in every three patients. In nearly every case the patients who died, did so a short while after their operations as the result of infected wounds, generally known as ‘Hospital Gangrene’.

Most doctors held that infection in operation wounds was caused by the entrance of air. Lister however, believed that germs in the air, not air itself, were responsible for the deaths in the overcrowded, unclean wards. Twenty years went by before Lister put his theory to the test.

In 1861, he was appointed surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Over the next five years he noted that some 50 per cent of the patients in the male accident ward died from sepsis, or blood poisoning, caused by infected wounds.

Then in 1865 Lister came across the work of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, who argued that disease was spread by airborne microbes, or germs.

Lister began to experiment with antiseptics, which he hoped would act to form a barrier between the wounds and the germs. After trying several chemical agents, he settled on carbolic acid, which until that time had been used mainly for cleaning foul smelling sewers.

Lister decided to try out the acid on patients with compound fractures, in which the broken bone had pierced the skin, often bringing about death through infection.

His first such patients was an 11 year old boy named James Greenlees, who was admitted to the infirmary on 12th August 1865. James’ left leg had been fractured and Lister dressed the wound with carbolic acid. The leg was then splinted and bandaged, four days afterwards the dressing was duly removed. There was no sign or smell of suppuration.

Over the next few days two more antiseptic dressing were applied and the wound began to heal. Just over six weeks after his accident, James Greenlees walked out of the hospital with his leg healed.