With an area of 242,500 sq km (93,600 sq mi), the UK is quite a large country, but in fact, nowhere in it is more than just 113 km (70 mi) from the sea.
Every day, the British drink 165 million cups of tea, which is over 20 times more than the Americans.
At one point in time, the British Empire, the most extensive empire in world history, ruled approximately 1/4 of the world's population and covered about 1/4 of Earth's total land area.
Britain has waged many wars including devastating conflicts lasting for long decades. However, the country was also involved in what is generally considered the shortest war in history. The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 lasted just 38 minutes.
With one in four British adults being obese, the UK has the highest rate of obesity in Europe.
The UK brought the world several sports, most notably soccer, rugby, and polo. However, the British now often lose at these sports to nations that adopted them.
In the UK, accents change noticeably about every 40 km (25 mi).
One of the most bizarre cultural facts about England is that it's actually illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
One of the most bizarre cultural facts about England is that it's actually illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
There is a 'Rent a Mourner' service in the UK to fill your funeral with fake friends.
With 500 recorded cases of ghostly encounters, York, Northern England, is the most haunted city in the UK and one of the most haunted in the world.
Connecting two tiny islands, Westray and Papa Westray in the North Sea, the UK is home to the world's shortest scheduled flight. The flight lasts just 2 minutes.
The British Navy used Britney Spears' music to scare off Somali pirates along the east coast of Africa.
London has not always been London. Successive occupants have used their own names for the city, such as Plowonida, Lowonidonjon, Londinium, Londinion, and Lundenwic.
The Windsor Castle in the English county of Berkshire is the oldest royal residence in the world that is still being used by the royal family.
The UK boasts the largest Indian restaurant in the world, and London has more Indian restaurants than some actual Indian metropolises such as Mumbai and Delhi.
The wife of Prince William, Kate Middleton, is an eighth cousin seven times removed to George Washington, the first President of the US.
Supposedly, soccer got its start in England when Anglo-Saxon farm workers plowing a field unearthed a skull of a Danish warrior. To show their bitter feelings towards the Danes and to amuse themselves, they began kicking the skull among them. Therefore, the early form of soccer was called “kicking the Dane’s head.”
Placing a postage stamp with the Queen´s head upside down on an envelope is considered an act of treason in the UK.
There is a unique, genetically distinct subspecies of the mosquito living in the London subway system. Scientists were surprised to find out that the underground mosquito evolved independently from its surface-dwelling relatives.
Concentration camps are inseparably associated with the Nazi Germans during the WWII, but in fact, they were first used by the British long before that. In the early 1900's, the British soldiers used these “camps” to imprison the Boers in the Boer Wars in South Africa.
The UK is the first place in the world to allow the creation of babies from the DNA of 3 people.
In 1811, nearly a quarter of all the women in Britain were named Mary.
According to the Romanian National Tourist Office, Prince Charles is a distant relative of Vlad the Impaler, a notorious Romanian ruler from the 15 century that inspired Bram Stoker's iconic novel Dracula.
The UK is known for its rainy and cold weather, but it can actually get very hot in summer. In 2003, a temperature exceeding 38 C (100 F) was recorded in Kent, southeastern England.
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