Not a Lot of People Know That...

Here is a little collection of strange facts about Britain that most of you probably didn't know.  Don't worry, there are plenty more where they came from.
The second most commonly spoken language in Northern Ireland is Polish.

Over the years, England has been involved in may wars, against many foes.  What you probably didn't know was that England were involved in the SHORTEST war in history.  At 9.02 am on 27th August 1896, the English commenced bombardment of the Sultan's Palace on the island of Zanzibar (off the East coast of Africa).  Firing ceased at 9.40 am, with the result that the Anglo-Zanzibar war lasted approximately 38 minutes.

From 1066 until 1362, the official language of England was French.

Britain has the highest per capita consumption of cider (hard cider to Americans) in the world, and produces nearly 62% of all the cider produced in the European Union.

Australia is over 31 times larger than Great Britain, yet Great Britain is 2.9 times more populous.

Around 13% of Scots have red hair, the largest percentage anywhere in the world.

The village of Avebury in Wiltshire is surrounded by the largest stone circle in Europe.  It has a diameter of 1088', compared to Stonehenge's diameter of around 110'.

Avebury by Moonlight by Stuart Herbert is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

London is the only city to have hosted the summer Olympics on three occasions.

Modern lawn tennis was invented in Wales, in 1873, by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield.