Fact 196: When was MI5 formed? MI5 was formed in 1909 by Vernon Kell, Vernon Kell was also the first director General of MI5, and Vernon Kell was director General from 1909 to 1940. There have been 17 Director Generals the current Director General is Ken McCallum, interestingly the first Director General to be (officially) publicly named was Dame Stella Rimington (Director General from 1992 to 1996) basically until 1993, the Prime Minister would appoint the MI5 Director General in secret and MI5 didn't disclose the Director Generals names to the general public.
Fact 141: Who invented the first telescope? The person who first created the telescope wasn't Galileo Galilei (Italian) in 1609 it was in fact Hans Lippershey who was a Dutch glasses maker and had a glasses shop, his telescope was made in 1608 however someone else whose name was Jacob (or James) Metius (who is also Dutch and a Lenz, glasses maker) he made his telescope in 1608 a few weeks after Hans Lippershey, and zacharias janssen (yes he was also Dutch) is thought to have created his compund microscope/or telescope, sometime between 1590 and 1618, basically, he created a microscope that used a telescope for the magnification, however, however these dates were only mentioned 20 years after his death by his son so the dates are unreliable and technically it is a compund microscope so you could argue it doesn't count, until you see a picture. *This image is of Galileo Galilei.
Fact 212: Who was the first Monarch to be anointed with the Coronation spoon? The Coronation spoon was first used to anoint king James I at his coronation in 1603, however the spoon has been apart of the Royal coriation Regalia since 1349 when the coronation spoon was first recorded as preserved among St Edward's Regalia in Westminster Abbey the coronation spoon is thought to have been made for either Henry II or Richard I and is thought to have been used to originally mix water and wine in a chalice. The soon dates back to the 12th century and is 26.7 cm in length. The spoon was used at Charles I's coronation and later was sold by Oliver Cromwell after the civil War basically Oliver Cromwell sold and malted crowns and royal items from the tower of London the coronation spoon was one of the items sold in one piece and it was brought by a Mr Kynnersley for 16 shillings and Mr Kynnersley returned the spoon (personally) to Charles II and Charles II was able to use the coronation s...