Interesting Facts – Amazing Facts, Random Facts and Funny Facts

Who were the first team to do the south Wales derby double?

Swansea City became the first team to do the south Wales derby double during the 2021-2022 season.

The south Wales derby is a football fixture between fierce rivals Cardiff City and Swansea City, with just 41 miles separating the two cities in south Wales.

The club’s first met in a league fixture during the 1929-1930 season, when Swansea were then known as Swansea Town.

Swansea’s 4-0 win at Cardiff on 2 April 2022, having already won 3-0 in the return fixture at the Swansea dot com stadium on 17 October 2021, ensured that Swansea became the first club to achieve a league double in the 110 years of the fixture.

It is a little know fact, that Swansea City were also the first Welsh team ever to play in the Premier League.

What is the Seren Foundation?

The Seren Foundation is an aspirational programme for learner’s between years 8 and 11 at state schools across Wales that supports the development of valuable skills and academic ability at GCSE level.

The word ‘Seren’ is a Welsh word, which means ‘Star’ in English.

The aim is to provide support and guidance to enable you to make informed decisions about GCSE and a level subject choices with a long-term view of helping you maintain your higher education and career ambitions.

The Seren program provides inspiration and advice about university options and degree courses, the links to careers across a wide range of sectors, and the potential pathways open to you.

While the possibility of going to university might seem a long way off, particularly for learner’s in years 8 or 9, it’s never too early to think about a dream career or the educational path needed to get there.

Seren will help you develop valuable skills required at GCSE and a level such as analytical and critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and revision techniques.

Resources and workshops have also been created to enhance your communication skills such as essay writing, and how to craft, present, and debate your ideas. All of which relate to the skills required at university and in your future career.

At the heart of the programme is the commitment to expand your knowledge, encourage you to explore and pursue your academic interests, help build your confidence and self-belief, and motivate you to aim high in your GCSE exams and strive to reach your long-term goals.

Eurovision Song Contest Interesting Facts

Even if you’ve never watched it, you’ve most probably heard of it – the Eurovision Song Contest. It all started back in 1956 and the event took place in Switzerland.

Only 7 countries participated in this first Eurovision and they were The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Italy. As Austria, Denmark, and the UK missed the entry deadline. However they join in the following year.

The host nation Switzerland won that first Eurovision contest.

There were not many rules in the early days of the contest and this was prevalent in 1957, when the Italian entry lasted 5 minutes and 9 seconds. Since that song the rules changed and songs are now limited to last longer than 3 minutes.

Also, due to the lack of procedures in place if a tie-break occurred, there were actually four winners in 1969 as they all received the same amount of points. So Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, and France were all joint first.

In the following year to protest against that decision, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Portugal refused to take part.

So a new rule was introduced that is if a country’s points are tied, it goes down to the song with the highest votes from the highest number of countries will wins the competition.

Before 1971, there were only solo or duets allowed to compete, but this changed when it was decided that a country could choose to have a group of up to six performers on stage.

In 1974, the United Kingdom gave nul point to ABBA who sang Waterloo. ABBA went on to with the contest at Brighton in 1974 and have become the most successful Swedish pop, despite officially splitting up in 1983.

In 1979 the Eurovision contest was held outside Europe, in Jerusalem.

In 1986, the youngest contestant who won the Eurovision was Belgium’s Sandra Kim, she was just 13 years old, but claimed to be 15. After other countries such as France and Israeli also entered children into the Eurovision, this rule was also changed. After the 1989 Eurovision, contestants had to be older than 16 on the date of the final.

In 1997, televoting was being phased in and although the outcome still exists, it is now determined by a 50:50 combination of both the national jury and televoting to decide on the winner.

Oddly enough, when there is a tie in the national jury votes it is the youngest member who gets the final decision.

Whereby if there’s a tie between the jury’s score and the televoting score, it is the country with the most televotes who wins.

Up to 40 countries can enter and compete in the semi-finals for a place in the final. However, only 26 countries are allowed to move forward into the final competition.

There are actually six countries that do not have to compete in the semi-finals as they have guaranteed places.

These include Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the UK. The previous year’s winner also gets a free pass to the final.

Australia were invited to participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 in Vienna. Australia is the first country from the Oceania region apart from Morocco in 1980) to take part in this contest.

The country that has won the most Eurovision contests is Ireland, having won the competition on seven occasions.

Johnny Logan won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. He represented and won for Ireland in 1980 and 1987 as a performer with “Hold Me Now” and “What’s Another Year”.

In 1992, he wrote the winning entry “Why Me” for Linda Martin.

On the other end of the scale, Norway have scored “nul points” the most times and has happened four times for Norway!

Norway have come last ten times, and this is the most any country has ever lost.

The Eurovision show is always presented in both English and French. The rules are also written in both these languages too, but if there is a linguistic dispute between the two versions of the rules, the English version wins.

There have been 18 female solo artists winners compared to just 7 men.

The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest 2020 will begin at 20:00 on Tuesday, 12 May and end on Saturday, 16 May, with the Grand Final being held in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

What does Daylight Saving Time mean?

Quite simply it’s when we change the clocks to go forward for one hour on the final Sunday in March to signify British Summer Time and back one hour at the end of October.

The clocks going on one hour in March enables us to have more daylight in the evening.

It all started at the beginning of the 20th Century with a proposal from a British builder named William Willett, who happens to be the great-great-grandfather of Cold play’s Chris Martin.

The National History of Science at the Royal Observatory Greenwich stated that Mr Willett was incensed at the waste of daylight during the months of Spring and Summer.

As he was riding his horse through the Chislehurst and Petts Woods he was aware that many people were sleeping on even though the sun had been up for hours.

In 1916, British Summer Time was adopted to enable us to save fuel and money and get out in the sunshine for longer to improve our health.

Britain has thought of moving the clocks a number of times, even to the extent of forwarding the clocks by two hours ahead of GMT during the Second World War.

They have also been periods when the clocks were brought forward in the spring of 1947, which was to help with fuel shortages.

Britain even tried to experiment with keeping the clocks one hour ahead of GMT throughout the years of 1968 and 1971.

But they reverted back to our system of winter and summer times in March and October.

The ideas for clock-changing were first noted by Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US, in 1784.

He wanted to try and save candle usage and get people out and about to benefit from natural sunlight.

Then in 1895, over 100 years later, George Vernon Hudson a New Zealand entomologist suggested clocks be put forward two hours in the summer.

So the primary reason we use Daylight Saving Time is that people can simply enjoy long summer evenings in natural light, better for your health and energy conservation.

In 2019, the Daylight saving time (DST) in the United Kingdom began at 01:00 on Sunday, 31 March and ends at 02:00 on Sunday, 27 October.

In 2020, there will be a change of dates, as is the case every year, when the Daylight saving time in United Kingdom will begin at 01:00 on Sunday, 29 March and ends at 02:00 on Sunday, 25 October.

All of the quoted times for DST are in United Kingdom Time.

What are the biggest cut diamonds on Earth?

The largest cut diamond is known as the ‘Star of Africa’, a pear shaped Cullinan diamond, which is 530.2 carats.

It is set as the main stone in the majestic Sovereign Sceptre with the Cross.

The Cullinan Diamond was the largest rough diamond ever found and weighed in at 3,106.75 carats.

The rough diamond was discovered on 26th January 1905, at the Premier No. 2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, who was the mine’s chairman.

In April 1905, the large gem quality stone was put on sale in London, but it was never sold.

Then in 1907 the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan and gifted it to Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom.

It was then sent to be cut by Asscher Brothers in Amsterdam.

The Cullinan produced 9 stones of various cuts and sizes. The largest, named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, weighs in at an impressive 530.2 carats and is the largest clear cut diamond in the world.

Then you have the second-largest, called Cullinan II or Second Star of Africa, and this is placed at the front and centre of the Imperial State Crown and weighs 317.4 carats.

Seven other major diamonds, weighing a total of 208.29 carats are owned by Queen Elizabeth II, who inherited them from Queen Mary, after her grandmother died in 1953.

They vary in shape and size and make up a necklace, brooches, earrings and even a pear shaped ring.