The Greatest Trivia Book Ever 2

By Mitchell Symons

All my life I’ve collected weird and wonderful facts. Even before ‘trivia’ was (or should that be ‘were’?) invented, I’ve been obsessed with the pursuit of what you might call worthless knowledge. Now, after a lifetime’s devotion to the cause, I’m proud to present to you my favourite facts of all time. My greatest hits, if you will. Most of what you will read has been acquired organically, from reading books, magazines and newspapers. However, I am happy to acknowledge material culled from the internet. I have tried to source – and/or get permission to use - these wonderful items but to no avail. However, I'm sure that their original authors would appreciate this wider audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Hart Books
• Release date: Aug 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913721077

Mitchell Symons

Mitchell Symons (born 11 February 1957) is a British journalist and writer. Born in London, he was educated at Mill Hill School and the LSE where he studied Law. Since leaving the BBC, where he was a researcher and director, he has worked as a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He was a principal writer for the early UK editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit, and has devised many television formats. He wrote an award-winning opinion column for the Daily Express.

Book preview

The Greatest Trivia Book Ever 2

The Greatest Trivia Book Ever 2

MITCHELL SYMONS

White Hart Books

Contents

Introduction

Firsts

Everest Firsts

Around The World

All The Landlocked Countries In The World

ONLYs

The Very Best Of The Best Trivia

Celebrities And Other People

Movies

Casablanca Facts

The Only Perfomers To Have Won The Tony And Then The Oscar For The Same Role

Movie Roles That Were Turned Down

Humans

The U.K

Music

Beatles Trivia

Shakespeare's Longest Roles

Wonderfully Titled (Genuine) Books

How Dogs Bark In Different Languages

Sport

All The Record Holders Since Roger Bannister Became The First Person To Run A Mile In Under Four Minutes

The Fifa World Cup

One-Club Players

Great April Fool’s Day Pranks

Animals

London Zoo’s Stars From The Past

U.S. Presidents

Genuine Complaints Received By Travel Companies

The Extraordinary Coincidences In The Lives And Deaths Of Abraham Lincoln And John F. Kennedy

Miscellany

The U.S

Words

Names Of Things You Didn’t Know Had Names

Wonderful Spelling Mistakes On Twitter

Numbers

History

A Rhyme To Help You Remember All The Monarchs From 1066 To The Present Day

Insects & Other Creepy-Crawlies

Love, Sex & Marriage

Death & After-Death

Art & Literature

Wonderfully Named Characters From The World Of Bertie Wooster

Charles Dickens Characters

Desert Island Discs

Suicide Facts

Actors Who Made Uncredited Appearances In Films

Meteorology

Countries That Produce The Most

Food & Drink

Things A Foreigner Would Know About England From Reading Agatha Christie Books

The Way We Live

The Darwin Awards Honour Those Who Do A Service To Humanity By Permanently Removing Themselves From The Gene Pool Here Are Some Past Deeds Which Have Been ‘Recognised’ By The Judges

Tv

Science & Nature

Fish & Other Sea Creatures

Unintentionally Funny (Genuine) Newspaper Headlines

Birds

Lasts

Introduction

All my life I’ve collected weird and wonderful facts.

Even before ‘trivia’ was (or should that be ‘were’?) invented, I’ve been obsessed with the pursuit of what you might call worthless knowledge.

Now, after a lifetime’s devotion to the cause, I’m proud to present to you my favourite facts of all time. My greatest hits, if you will.

Most of what you will read has been acquired organically, from reading books, magazines and newspapers. However, I am happy to acknowledge material culled from the internet.

---

I’d like to thank my publishers, John Blake and Jon Rippon for this wonderful opportunity.

---

In addition, I’d also like to thank the following people for their help, contributions and/or support: Penny Symons, Gilly Adams, Marcus Berkmann, Jeremy Clarkson, Paul Donnelly, Jenny Garrison, Tricia Martin, William Mulcahy, Nicholas Ridge, Charlie Symons, Jack Symons, Chris Tarrant and Rob Woolley

---

If I’ve missed anyone out, then please know that – as with any mistakes in the book – it’s entirely down to my own stupidity.

---

Mitchell Symons

[e-mail]

Firsts

A Japanese surgeon named Hanaoka Seishū performed the world's first operation under general anesthesia in 1804

Abba’s Waterloo was the first Eurovision Song Contest song to reach the U.S. Top 10.

Alfred Balfour was a Labour MP from 1945-59. He waited eight years to make his first (maiden) – and only! – speech in the House of Commons.

Bahrain was the first country in the Arabian Gulf in which oil was discovered. It was originally discovered in 1902, although it was not fully exploited until the 1930s.

Beethoven’s Fifth was the first symphony to include trombones.

Britain’s first National Lottery was in 1567 to pay for public works. The top prize was £5,000.

Bugs Bunny was the first cartoon character to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.

Coffee was first brewed in Ethiopia. The word coffee comes from Kefa, the name of a province in southern Ethiopia.

Construction workers’ hard hats were first used in the building of the Hoover Dam in 1933.

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone out of a window and it gets its name from the Latin words meaning ‘out of’ and ‘window’. The first recorded defenestration was several years before the word was even invented. In the Bible, Jezebel was defenestrated by her own servants.

Germany was the first European country to have a McDonald’s (Munich in 1971)

Gold was the first metal to be discovered

Gustav Mahler composed his first piece of music at the age of four, Sergei Prokofiev composed his first piece of music aged five and Wolfgang Mozart was eight when he composed his first symphony.

Ice-cream cones were first served at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, United States of America.

In 1642, at the age of 18, the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the first counting machine to help his father who was a tax collector

In 1869, Austria became the first country to use postcards. In 1937, Austria issued the world’s first Christmas stamp

In 1890, Dr. W.S. Halstead became the first person to use rubber gloves during surgery

In 1910, Harry Houdini became the first man to fly a plane in Australia

In 1930, Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an aeroplane. She was also the first cow to be milked in the air

In 1930, Grace Robin, a model, became the first person to demonstrate contact lenses

In 1978, Princess Margaret became the first member of the royal family to divorce since Henry VIII in 1540

In 1987, the American Lynne Cox swam the Bering Strait to become the first person to swim from the U.S. to the USSR

In 2001, Singapore hosted the first ever World Summit on Toilets.

In 2010, South Africa became the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup.

In the 7th Century BC, China became the first country to use banknotes

Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberley process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as conflict free. That’s to say that the diamonds come from a part of the world which is not at war

King Henry VIII was the first King to be called Your Majesty.

Lego was first invented in Demark in 1949. The pieces were originally called Automatic Binding Bricks.

Mauve was the first synthetic dye

Mexico was the first country to produce chocolate on a large scale

Namibia was the first country to make it a political priority to protect the environment.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate turkey in foil packets as the first meal on the moon.

Nintendo was first established in 1889. The company started out making playing cards (specifically Japanese flower cards).

Pamela Anderson was Canada’s Centennial Baby, having been the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada’s independence

Potatoes were first grown in Peru

Singapore is home to the world’s first night zoo.

Sir Thomas More is credited with being the first person to write and record the expression ‘mad as a March hare’ after watching the antics of hares during their breeding season

Sugar was first added to chewing gum in 1869 - by a dentist

Sweden was the first country in the world to keep population statistics

The coffee break was first introduced by a New York manufacturing company in 1901

The Egyptians created the first calendar and based it on the flowing of the Nile. The Egyptians also built the first sailing boats.

The Fall of a Nation, the sequel to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, is considered to be the first film sequel.

The first astronauts to go to the Moon trained in Iceland because the terrain there was reckoned to be similar to the Moon’s surface.

The first bagpipe was made from the liver of a dead sheep.

The first country to abolish capital punishment was Austria in 1787.

The first dinosaur to be found and recognized as a huge reptile was the Megalosaurus.

The first domain name ever registered was ‘symbolics.com’ in March 1985

The first electric razor was invented by Jacob Schick. During World War I, he was in the U.S. Army and was in an Alaskan army base. Tired of breaking the layer of ice that formed in the washbasin so that he could shave, he developed an electric razor which he patented in 1923. In 1931, his razor was ready to be sold to the public (for $25). By 1937, he had sold nearly two million.

The first ever organized Christmas Day swim in the freezing cold Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park took place in 1864.

The first ice lolly dates back to 1923 when lemonade salesman Frank Epperson left a glass of lemonade with a spoon in it on a windowsill one very cold night: the next morning, the ice lolly was born.

The first illustrated book for children was published in Germany in 1658.

The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in under 5 minutes.

The first man to fly over the North Pole and the South Pole was called Dickie Byrd

The first member of the Royal Family ever to leave home for a haircut was the Queen: it was in Malta back in the days when she was a princess and she is said to have enjoyed the experience

The first Michelin Man costume was worn by Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.

The first mosque in the United States was built in 1893.

The first novel written on a typewriter was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The first patent for a video game was taken out as long ago as 1948

The first personal computer, the Apple II, went on sale in 1977.

The first presenter of A Question of Sport (in 1970) wasn't David Coleman but David Vine

The first prisoner in the Tower of London, Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, was also the first person to escape from it. He used a rope smuggled to him by friends in a cask of wine

The first recorded game of Conkers using Horse Chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight in 1848

The first song to be sung in outer space was Happy Birthday – sung by the Apollo IX astronauts on 8 March 1969.

The first steeplechase for horses was run in Cork County in Ireland in 1752. It derived its name from the fact that riders rode towards a distant landmark like a steeple, jumping over hedges, ditches, banks and walls on the way.

The first traffic cones date back to the 1950s when they were used during the building of the Preston bypass. They replaced red lantern paraffin burners.

The first TV advert was aired on 1 st July 1941. The Bulova watch company paid nine dollars to WNBT for a ten second spot, aired before a baseball game.

The first TV remote control - called Lazy Bones - was sold by Zenith in 1950. It was connected to the set by a wire.

The first words spoken on the telephone by its inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, were: ‘Watson, come here, I need you.’

The London Underground system was first used in 1863.

The novelist Monica Dickens helped found the first U.S. branch of the