Surprising if unimportant facts you've discovered recently.

[Dr Jekyll]

These surprised me.

The Chinook helicopter was first in combat over 50 years ago.

James Earl Ray, assassin of Martin Luther King, was finally arrested at Heathrow Airport.

Soviet spy Rudolf Abel was British born and originally called William Fisher. He lived in England until he was 18.

[Dr Jekyll]

John Thaw was 36 when The Sweeney finished, and had just turned 60 when he died.

Jan Francis was 39 when Just Good Friends finished.

[Dr Jekyll]

The last time Spitfires were ever in combat was against other Spitfires.

[Dr Jekyll]

A half decent song was once written on a Ukulele.

[Dr Jekyll]

The brother of Alan Clark (MP petrolhead and troublemaker), had an affair with Marilyn Munroe.

[Dr Jekyll]

The name Cedric originated as a Misprint in the novel Ivanhoe.

The name 'Marion' was originally a boys name, but as it caught on the girls name 'Marian', a corruption of Mary Ann that had gone out with Robin Hood, became popular again. So the two became one name which eventually became just a girls name.

[Dr Jekyll]

Amused2death said:

John Wayne's birth name was Marion Morrison, in all my years of being on this planet I've never heard of another male with the name Marion.

Marion Barry? Mayor of Washington DC

[Dr Jekyll]

There is an Aboriginal tribe whose language has no words for left and right, they use their words for North South East and West instead. Not sure how they say thing like 'I keep getting a pain in my left leg' but they do have an enviable sense of direction.

[Dr Jekyll]

mhurley said:

Although the death penalty for murder was abolished in the 1960s, it still existed for treason.
A gallows was kept at Wandsworth jail in full working order until 1993 and tested every six months. In 1994, they were dismantled.

The gallows' trapdoor and lever were sent to the Prison Service Museum in Rugby, Warwickshire. After this museum permanently closed in 2004, they were sent to the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, where those and an execution box may be seen.

What happens if someone is convicted now for an offence that carried the death penalty at the time it was committed? DNA evidence is solving some very cold cases.