Interesting Facts about the United Kingdom

• The word “Britain” is derived from the name of a Celtic tribe, the Brythons.
• The word “England” comes from “Angle-land,” or land of the Angli, or Angles, a Viking tribe that came across the North Sea and settled in the east and north. The French name for England, Angleterre, also literally means “Land of the Angles."
• At its zenith in the 18th century, the British Empire stretched 20% of the world’s surface and contained a quarter of the world’s population.
• Nowhere in England is more than 75 miles (121 km) from the sea.
• Windsor Castle is the largest royal home in the world. It is also the oldest continually inhabited royal residence in Britain, having been built by William the Conqueror around A.D. 1080.
• The first fish and chips restaurant was opened in 1860 in London by a Jewish immigrant named Joseph Malin.
• There is only a 21-mile (34-km) gap between England and France, and the countries are connected by the Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994. It is the world’s second longest underground tunnel; Japan’s Seikan Tunnel is the first.
• Big Ben does not refer to the famous clock, but actually to the bell.
• Every day, the British drink 165 million cups of tea, which is over 20 times more than the average American.
• Champagne was invented in England by scientist Christopher Merret in 1662.
• James Bond’s code “007” was inspired by the author Ian Fleming’s bus route from Canterbury to London.
• More languages (300) are spoken in London than in any other country in the world.
• The London subway, or the “Tube,” is one of the oldest in the world. The 409 escalators in the Tube cover a distance every week which is approximately equivalent to several trips around the globe.
• Britain is the only country in the world which doesn’t have its name on its postage stamps.
• The sport of football, or soccer, supposedly got its start in England when Anglo-Saxon farmworkers plowing a field unearthed the skull of a Danish warrior killed in battle a few years earlier. To show their still bitter feelings towards the Danes and to amuse themselves, they began kicking the skull among them. This early form of football was called “kicking the Dane’s head.”

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