26English Civil War
During the English Civil War, Lady Mary Bankes defended a castle from over 200 attackers with only five men under her initial command. She would be reinforced by 80 royalists and would hold against a total of 600 men for three years before being betrayed and forced to surrender.
27. The Lost Colony of Roanoke was the first attempt at the British settlement in North America. The leader of the colony left for England for supplies and returned to find all 120 colonists and their buildings had vanished. The only clue was the word ‘CROATOAN’ carved into a tree.
28. In 1848, the British East India Company sent Botanist Robert Fortune on a trip to China's interior, an area forbidden to foreigners to steal tea seeds from China to India. He succeeded and within his lifetime, India surpassed China as the world's largest tea grower.
29. During WWII, the British launched nearly 100,000 weather balloons trailing long metal wires toward occupied Europe, causing power outages when they shorted out power lines and causing at least one German power station to burn down.
30. The melody to the medieval English folk song "Nottamun Town" was considered lost to history until musicologists found isolated, illiterate, populations in Appalachia singing the song with a common melody and lyrics.
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31Plymouth Witch Trials
There were two witchcraft trials in Plymouth Colony 50 years before the Salem Trials. Unlike the later, more infamous trials, the accused were found not guilty and their accusers were fined for giving false statements.
32. The "Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain," was founded in 1977 for people proud of their incompetence. The club was forced to close when the founder sold a book that became a bestseller and the club received thousands of applications "even as failures, we failed."
33. The British used to call mainland Europe "The Continent." As more continental European tourists travel to England and the Americas, they pushed for a breakfast of pastry, fruit, and coffee they normally eat. That is why hotels serve a "Continental Breakfast," and it's also cheap.
34. British Submarines carry the Jolly Rodger because a First Lord Sea Admiral said that submarines are "underhanded, unfair, and damned un-English" and their sailors should be hanged as Pirates.
35. In 1784, Great Britain imposed a tax on bricks to pay for the war in America. In response, people starting using larger bricks, and buildings can be dated based on the brick size.
