On one slow news day on April 18, 1930, a BBC radio announcer blatantly said, “There is no news.”
100 Mind-Blowing BBC Facts
Sir Keir Starmer has the most diverse Parliament the UK has ever seen, in terms of race and gender. The BBC say that for the first time in parliamentary history, the proportion of women elected is more than 40%. Meanwhile, the proportion of MPs from ethnic-minority backgrounds is now a record 14%.
A BBC radio announcer once stated that they did not have any news. This occurred on April 18, 1930, when no major events took place that day. The announcer blatantly said that there was no news.
There are 1 million ants for every person on the planet. It is believed that the total number of ants in the world is equal to the weight of all the people on the planet. A BBC documentary commented that there are an estimated 100 trillion ants on Earth.
Since the beginning of newscasting, there has only been one day with no news. April 18, 1930, was such an uneventful day, that the BBC’s radio announcer said, “There is no news,” by 6:30 PM.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. Crocodiles have a membrane which holds their tongue in place on the roof of their mouth so it does not move. According to BBC, this nearly makes it impossible for them to stick it outside of their narrow mouths.
The Churchill myth. Of Winston Churchill’s most famous 1940 speeches: ‘Blood, toil, tears and Sweat,’ ‘Fight Them on the beaches’, ‘Finest Hour,’ and ‘The Few,’ only one, ‘Finest Hour’ was broadcast on the radio at the time. All of them were delivered to the House of Commons, but only after his ‘Finest Hour’ speech did Churchill record a version later for the BBC. The other speeches he only recorded in 1949.
Over 560 million Ticketmaster customers had their information stolen in a 2024 breach. (BBC)
Sparkling wine was invented in England: It’s widely thought that Dom Perignon, a French monk, invented sparkling wine in the form of champagne in 1697. The BBC states that this isn’t entirely true and that an English scientist discovered and documented how to add fizz to sparkling wine 30 years prior. The scientist in question was Christopher Merrett, who lived in the Cotswolds. If you ever happen to be in the area, you can head to the village of Winchcombe and uncover a plaque dedicated to Merrett and his wine documentation on Mill Lane. Additionally, in the 17th century Sir Kenelm Digby, an English diplomat, was known to make the most ‘superior’ wine bottles of the time, with millions of his sturdy bottles being shipped throughout Europe each year.
The BBC domestic television channels do not broadcast advertisements; as they are funded by TV viewers who are required to pay an annual television license fee.
In a survey conducted by BBC, it was found that 39% of the UK’s population were atheists.