THE MINI MASK MAN AND COOL STUFF!!!

Fact 297: How many strings are there on a Ukulele? There are four strings on a Ukulele which are from right to left, G,C, E, and A. The Ukulele originated because it was introduced to Hawai'i some time in the 1879 by Portuguese settlers from Madeira who brought with them an instrument that looks like a small guitar with 4 strings called the braguinha it was basically, just renamed the Ukulele when it arrived in Hawaiʻi.

Fact 295: How old is Tintin? In The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin's passport states his birth year as 1929 because, this was when Tintin was first  Published on the 10th January 1929, this means Tintin is now (in 2023) 94 years although the Secret of the Unicorn was Published as book (in French) in 1943 meaning that Tintin was 14 or 15 years old at the time of publication. The official Tintin website states his age as between 16–18.

Fact 295: What is the final volume of The Adventures of Tintin? The final volume of the Adventures of Tintin written by Georges Remi (Hergé), was the unfinished and is the twenty-fourth and subsequently the final volume of The Adventures of Tintin was called Tintin and Alph-Art it was left incomplete on Hergé's death on the 3rd March 1983 the manuscript was published in 1986.

Fact 294: Who wrote The Adventures of Tintin? The Adventures of Tintin were written from 1929 onwards until 1970, by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, whose actual name was Georges Remi, Georges Remi wrote Tintin which first appeared on the 10th January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième (The Little Twentieth) which was a kids supplement newspaper in the Belgian newspaper called Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century), the Adventures of Tintin were originally written in french. The Adventures of Tintin have been translated in more than 110 languages.

Fact 293: When was the first Asterix and Obelix comic translated from French into English? All the many Asterix comics, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo and was translated from French into English.  The first Asterix book\ comic to be translated was translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, was Asterix the Gaul and it was published by Brockhampton Press in 1969.

Fact 292: Are Komodo Dragons venous? It was originally widely believed by scientists that Komodo dragons weren't venous and just killed their prey or victims through bacterial infection for decades however it has since been proven that Komodo dragons are incredibly venomous, in fact their venom is highly venous and is enough to kill an animal in a few hours, even humans.

Fact 291: How long do Komodo Dragons live? Komodo Dragons live about 20 to 30 years in captivity and in the wild.

Fact 290: How long does a Komodo Dragon grow? The Komodo Dragon is the largest lizard in the world! The Komodo Dragon can grow to over 3 metres (10 feet) in length.

Fact 289: How many strands of horsehair are used to create a violin bow? A violin bow is made up of  between 160 and 180 individual strands of horse hair which are used to create the violin bow.

Fact 288: How many strings does a violin have? The violin has four strings which are from right to left G, D, A and E. The violin strings are between 32.5 cm and 32.8 cm in length. The violin rests on or near your left collarbone or left shoulder.

Fact 287: When did the French revolution start and end? The French Revolution began on the 5th May 1789 and lasted until 1794 or the 9th November 1799 when Bonaparte appointed himself as France's 'first consul' which marks the start of the Napoleonic era, historians are in a bit a disagreement. The French revolution happened because France was on the brink of bankruptcy due to their involvement and help in the American Revolution and due to King Louis XVI still extravagantly spending money, this led to the people revolting against King Louis XVI who was executed on the 21st January 1793. Bonaparte became the First Consul due to a coup he led known as the (bloodless) coup d'état, Pronounced "coo day tah". Napoleon Bonaparte after the coup, basically appointed himself as France's 'first consul' which marked the start of the Napoleonic era.

Fact 286: How many bathrooms does The White House have? The White House has precisely 32 bathrooms in total.

Fact 285: How many staircases and Lifts does the White House have? The White House has exactly 8 staircases, and just 3 Lifts.

Fact 284: How many windows does The White House have? The White House has exactly 147 windows in total.

Fact 283: How many doors are there inside The White House? There are precisely 412 doors inside The White House.

Fact 282: How many skydives did Tom Cruise do to train for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning? Tom Cruises did more than 500 skydives to train for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning and trained "for a few years" (-Tom Cruise) to do speed-fly at over 50 miles per hour, in fact Tom Cruise said he lands at speeds of "80 mph" when speed flying, "speed flying is incredibly unpredictable" according to Christopher McQuarrie. Speed flying is an advanced version of Paragliding which use a fairly small, high-performance paraglider wing, which looks like a thin parachute to quickly descend heights for example Tom Cruise in a video on the Mission Impossible Instagram, he descended off mountain in the Lake District.

Fact 281: How many motorbike jumps did Tom Cruise do to train for Dead Reckoning Part One's cliff jump? Tom Cruise did around 13,000 motorbike practice jumps over an 80ft mound in order to pull off the impressive (you could, say, nearly) impossible motorbike stunt, off a cliff for, Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part One.

Fact 280: When did Mission Impossible 1 come out? Mission Impossible 1 came out in the Uk on the 5th July 1996 and it was released in the United States on the 22nd May 1996. Tom Cruise was just 34 years old when he first played Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible.

Fact 279: When was Thorpe Park opened? Thorpe Park was officially opened to the public on 24th May 1979.  Nemesis Inferno officially opened to the public on 5th April 2003.

Fact 278: How tall is the Eiffel Tower? The Eiffel Tower is 1083 feet tall from street level to the tip. The Eiffel Tower was built from 1887 to 1889 by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution.

Fact 277: How tall is the Statue of Liberty? The statue of liberty is 151 feet tall and the pedestal that the Statue stands on is 154 feet tall which makes the total height of the entire sculpture 305 feet tall.  The Statue was a gift from Frances to America and designed by the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi who supported *Édouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye's idea and in 1870 began designing the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World." Bartholdi took a trip to the United States in 1871 during which, he selected Bedloe's Island as the site for the Statue *In 1865, de Laboulaye's came up with the idea of a monument that would be presented by the people France to the United States that ended up being the Statue of Liberty located in New York Harbor on Bedloe's Island.

Fact 276: How tall is the Empire State building? The Empire State Building stands 1,250 feet (380 meters) tall.  The Empire State Building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. The Empire State Building started being built on the 17th March 1930, and the Empire State Building was opened on the 1st May 1931. The Empire State Building has 102 floors and a "secret" 103rd floor also known as “celebrity balcony”. There are an impressive 1,860 steps from street level to the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building. The 102nd and 103rd floors are located in the 200-foot metal tip of the Empire State Building. The 103rd floor were originally supposed to be a mooring mast for airships to anchor there for several hours for refueling or service, and even to let passengers off and on, which at the time were considered the future of air travel.

Fact 275: What is the biggest Football Stadium in the world? Acouding to Olympics.com the answer is the  Rungrado 1st of May Stadium which is located in Pyongyang in North Korea, the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium is the biggest football stadium in the world the stadium itself occupies an area of 20.7 hectares (51 acres).  The stadium can seat 150,000 people and the main football pitch is 106m x 68m. The stadium's roof is 200 feet above the ground.  The stadium was opened on the 1st May 1989.

Fact 274: When was Ed Sheeran's portrait unveiled in the National Portrait Gallery?  Ed Sheeran, agreed to sit for the painting and the majority of the sitting for the portrait was in August 2015. The portrait helpfully named Ed Sheeran was painted by the Belfast-based painter Colin Davidson.  The portrait was unveiled on the 3rd May 2017. You can find Ed Sheeran's portrait in Room 39, on the Ground Floor of the Lerner Contemporary Galleries in the National Portrait Gallery.

Fact 273: When was the Science Museum founded? The museum was founded on Wednesday 24 June 1857 by Bennet Woodcroft, Bennett Woodcroft founded the museum by using the collection of the Royal Society of Arts and other items from the Great Exhibition (of 1851), from parts of the South Kensington Museum which now the V&A, were used to form and found the Science Museum in London. The Science Museum's current location was opened in 1928. The Great Exhibition was an examination in Hyde Park which moved to crystal Palace the exhibition was set up by Prince Albert. I am not doing a big paragraph on the Great Exhibition because I want to do this as a separate fact at some point.

Fact 272: When was the Tate modern opened? Tate modern is Located in the former Bankside Power Station. Tate Modern opened to the public in May 2000. Bankside Power Station begin being built in 1947 but wasn't completed until 1963 and was closed in 1981due Economic and environmental issues.

Fact 271: When was the British Museum founded? The British museum was founded by Sir Hans Sloane who was a seventeenth-century physician by traid and a collector of objects from around the world. By Sir Hans Sloane's death in 1753 he had collected more than 71,000 items. Sloane bequeathed (bequeathed basically means, left or gifted) his collection to the nation in his will and some of his collection of more than 71,000 items became the founding collection of (and for) the British Museum. The British Museum was founded in 1753 (after Sir Hans Sloane's death) and opened its doors in 1759 to the public (the Nation). Sir Hans Sloane was born on 16th April 1660 and died on the 11th January 1753.  Much of the wealth Sloane used to purchase his vast collection was derived from slavery due to Sloane’s marriage to Elizabeth Langley Rose, one-third of the income from her plantations and her property became his. Also In one of Sir Hans Sloane letters, Sloane referred to himself as a plan

Fact 270: When was the Victoria and Albert Museum founded? The V&A Museum was founded in 1852 and moved to its current location on Exhibition Road in 1857 originally named the South Kensington Museum it was renamed after Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the current building in 1899 and it was also named after Prince Albert to commemorate Prince Albert's role in its establishment. the V&A museum was apparently officially named the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert although the museum is known today as the V&A (Museum) and somtimes referred to as the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is one of the world's leading museum for art and design, it houses a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects which show 5,000 years of human creativity.

 Fact 269:  How tall are  Greyhounds? Greyhounds stand  about 2 feet, 1 inch to 2 feet, 6 inches tall at shoulder height (which is how people measure dogs)  and weigh between 60 and 75 pounds.    Greyhounds  run at a top speed of about  40  to 44 miles per hour.

Fact 268: How long is a Lion's tail? African lions, scientific name Panthera leo is a Carnivore, Carnivore means it only eats meat. An adult male Lion's tail is 90 -100cm and a female Lion's which is called a lioness has a tail that is 70 -100cm.

Fact 267: How long is a Tigers tail? A adult tiger's tail is about one meter in length (3 ft). Tigers use their tail for balance like some dogs do. It is thought that tigers may actually also be use there tail to communicate with other Tigers, this is called visual communication. It is also thought Tigers communicate vocally by making certain sounds to vocally communicate with other tigers according to the WWF website.