Thursday Thirteen # 5 - Wales

Thirteen Things about Wales I thought I'd make this week's list thirteen things about my homeland, Wales. 1…. Wales is NOT in England!!! A surprising number of non-Britons think it is, possibly because a lot of them think that 'England' and 'UK' are interchangeable. They're not. Both Wales and England are constituent countries of the UK. 2.... It is now believed that Welshmen may have reached America before Columbus. Madog ab Owain Gwynedd is believed to have arrived in America with a group of followers, during the twelfth century. It is believed their descendants can be found amongst the Mandan Indian tribe. 3.... Wales's national emblem is the leek, and the daffodil is its national flower. 4.... Lawn tennis was invented in Wales. The modern game is derived from a traditional game called Cerrig y Drudion 5.... Welsh immigrants began the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Utah, giving their first public recital on Sunday, August 22, 1847. 6.... The railway station with the longest name in the whole world, is in Wales. It can be found on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. It's called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantisiliogogogoch, which translates as "the Church of Mary in a white hollow by a hazel tree near a rapid whirlpool by the church of St. Tisilio by a red cave". Most people refer to it as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, or Llanfair P.G - which is a relief to anyone who has to send regular mail to the place. Llanfair P.G. station sign © clspeace - Creative Commons 7.... Wales is home to the world's largest second-hand book store. It is owned by Richard Booth, in the sleepy little town of Hay-On-Wye, on the Wales-England border. 8.... The New York Times was established by George Jones, who was of Welsh origin. The first edition was printed on September 18, 1851. 9.... Despite being little more than 8,000 sq. miles in size (barely bigger than the state of New Jersey), Wales raises more sheep than any European country. It has 11,000,000 sheep, compared to a human population of just under 3,000,000. Wales is home to an estimated 15 percent of the sheep in the European Community. Some genuine Welsh sheep. Baaaa! 10.... The Mumbles Railway, in my home town of Swansea (Wales' second city), was the first railway in the world to accept paying passengers. Sadly, despite also being the world's longest serving railway line, the Mumbles Railway ceased to operate on Jan 5, 1960. A footpath now lies along the seafront, where the railway used to be. 11.... Cardiff, Wales's capital, is home to the world's largest retractable-roof arena. The Millennium Stadium hosts major rugby and football matches, as well as rock concerts and other entertainment. 12.... A Welshman named David Edward Hughes was the first person in the world to transmit and receive radio waves. He did so a good eight years before Heinrich Hertz, who was to lend his name to radio waves. Yet popular history insists that Guglielmo Marconi was the inventor of radio. 13.... "Murray the Hump", Al Capone's chief lieutenant, was born in Chicago, to Welsh parents, who originated from Llanidloes, in mid-Wales. He was one of the US's most successful and notorious criminals. Not exactly one to boast about, I know, but there you go. So there endeth this week's list! Happy Thursday ... Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants