71 Eye-Opening Facts About The United Kingdom

Europeans traditionally swam the breaststroke, while Native Americans swam the front crawl. When two Native Americans won an 1844 swimming competition in England, newspapers criticized their barbaric, "un-European" form. Europeans refused to use the faster front crawl for decades.

52. During the Great Famine, Ireland continued to export enormous quantities of food to England. This kept food prices far too high for the average Irish peasant to afford and was a major contributing factor in the large death toll from the famine.

53. The Great Pyramid is made of 6.3 million tons of material which is more material than it took to build all the churches and cathedrals in England.The Pyramid base covers 13 acres and is flat and level to within 1cm

54. 1327: Edward II of England, after being deposed and imprisoned by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, was rumored to have been murdered by having a horn pushed into his anus through which a red-hot iron was inserted, burning out his internal organs without marking his body. However, there is no real academic consensus on the manner of Edward II's death and it has been plausibly argued that the story is propaganda.

55. 1958: Gareth Jones, the actor, collapsed and died between scenes of a live television play, Underground, at the studios of Associated British Corporation in Manchester, England. Director Ted Kotcheff continued the play to its conclusion, improvising around Jones’s absence. Jones's character was to have a heart attack, which is what Jones suffered during the performance.

A 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, England, drank himself to death by consuming 10 gallons (37.85 liters) of carrot juice in ten days, causing him to overdose on vitamin A and suffer severe liver damage.

57. The last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, Hampshire, England, decapitated himself with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out.

58. No study has shown the food additive MSG to be dangerous and the entire public outcry against it in the 1970s was because of one letter sent to the New England Journal of Medicine

59. There is a school named Christ’s Hospital in England where they have been wearing the same uniform for 460 years.

60. There is a nonexistent city in West Lancashire, England that shows up on Google Earth and Google Maps. This nonexistent town is named Argleton in those maps.

When the French King Jean II was a prisoner of the English, he was allowed to return to France to raise money for his ransom, leaving his son as a replacement hostage. When his son escaped, he voluntarily returned to England, citing reasons of "good faith and honor".

62. The actor who played Crabbe in the Harry Potter series was arrested for growing cannabis, participation in the 2011 England riots, and possession of Molotov cocktail.

63. There is a massive load of 52-gallon drums containing mustard gas and nerve agents at the bottom of the seas near Ireland and England

64. On the Christmas Eve 1994, two cars collided near Flitcham, England. The drivers were twin sisters who were delivering presents to each other. Their names were Lorraine and Lavinia Christmas.

65. There are at least 22 cat statues scattered about the city of York in England, on top of buildings and houses. They are thought to have been put in place as far back as the early 19th century. Residents personally decorate these statues and the cats are said to protect the city’s residents.

After the final Harry Potter movie was released, animal sanctuaries around England were forced to deal with hundreds of pet owls that were abandoned by their owners.

67. Sometime around 2000, the child labor laws changed in the England in order to film the movie "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone"

68. Queen Elizabeth II does not hold a passport. Since all British passports are issued in the queen’s name, she herself doesn’t need one. She just has to say that she is the queen.

69. The Queen of England still maintains an official "champion" to fight on her behalf in duels.

70. Queen Mary of England was gifted a 1:12 scale dollhouse in 1924. It had working lights, books that were specially written by writers for the library, bottles filled with the appropriate drinks in the wine cellar, and model cars made by Rolls Royce. Even the toilets had working plumbing.

Queen Victoria of England demanded her train's speed never exceed 40 miles per hour and that it be completely stopped when she ate her meals.