26 October: Woolwich Foot Tunnel

On this date in 1912, the Woolwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames was opened by Lord Cheylesmore, Chairman of the LCC. 10 facts about the Woolwich foot tunnel.

1. The tunnel was designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, who was also responsible for Vauxhall Bridge, the Rotherhithe Tunnel and the Aswan Dam.

2. It was built by Walter Scott & Middleton for London County Council, for the benefit of Woolwich workers.

3. The tunnel is 504 metres (1,654 ft) long and at its deepest, the tunnel roof is about 3 metres (9.8 ft) beneath the river. The tunnel is roughly 9 feet in diameter.

4. It crosses from Old Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich to North Woolwich in the London Borough of Newham.

5. Both entrances to the tunnel are Grade II listed buildings.

6. The south entrance has 94 steps. The north entrance has 126 steps. Only the south entrance has a Lift. The north lift has been out of service for years due to difficulties procuring spare parts. A group called Fogwoft (Friends of Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels) tried campaigning to get the lift fixed, but eventually gave up.

7. In 1915, a soldier returning to Woolwich barracks fired his gun into the floor of the tunnel just for the fun of it. A policeman who happened to be passing arrested him and he was fined 20 shillings. It might have been worse if not for his previous good character.

8. As well as shooting at the floor, things expressly forbidden in the tunnel are photography (although there are plenty of photos illustrating the various articles I referred to while researching this) though sadly none without restrictions, hence the map of Woolwich above and not a pic of the actual tunnel; cycling; driving animals, be they “cattle, or any animal forming part of a menagerie, or wild animal"; busking; animal fouling; skating; spitting; or loitering.

9. A 2016 survey showed around 1,000 people use the tunnel per day. That said, most of the people who wrote about their experience of walking through said it was eerily deserted and not for the faint hearted.

10. One author quoted it as the 536th best thing to do in London according to Tripadvisor although I followed the link to the Tripadvisor page, and it would appear that it has since fallen to #645 at time of writing.

25 October: Vegemite

On this date in 1923, Vegemite was first sold in Australia. Ten things you didn’t know about Vegemite.

1. Vegemite began as a replacement for Marmite after the first world war. Before the war, Australia imported Marmite from the UK but disruption to the shipping lanes made this difficult. In February 1923, food manufacturer Fred Walker enlisted food technologist Cyril Callister to create an Australian-made version of Marmite. The recipe he came up with is still used today.

2. It wasn’t an immediate success. By 1923, the Marmite shipping routes were opening up again and sales of Vegemite suffered. It was rebranded then as “Parwill”, a groan-worthy pun on Marmite: “Marmite but Parwill” (Ma might, but Pa will). It still didn’t sell.

3. In 1935, Fred Walker, the owner of the company, died and the company passed to Kraft Walker Cheese Co. who decided to give marketing Vegemite another go. They gave it away free with Kraft cheese, promoted the idea that once you’d eaten all the Vegemite you could re-use the jars as egg cups or conserve jars, and ran a Poetry competition with a Pontiac car as the prize.

4. Vegemite is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. The yeast content is the reason why it’s banned in many Australian prisons, in case inmates try to make booze out of it. Which, I gather, isn’t actually possible because the yeast isn’t active, but the ban remains. There’s a lifer in Australia challenging this, saying it deprived him of the right to enjoy his culture as an Australian.

5. It contains no animal products, so vegans can eat it, and it’s certified kosher and halal. It’s also certified as a great source of B vitamins.

6. It was rationed during the second world war although Australian soldiers were provided with Vegemite in their ration packs.

7. As with Marmite, some people love it and others hate it, and it has been known to get political. In 1987, John Howard was quoted in the New York Times as saying he doesn’t like Vegemite, while his political rival Kevin Rudd responded by saying he liked it on toast. Barack Obama tried it and didn’t like it much, while UK celebrity chef Nigella Lawson says she prefers Vegemite to Marmite.

8. In April 1984, a 115-gram (4.1 oz) jar of Vegemite was the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout.

9. It has also hit the charts. In 1980, the Men At Work song, Down Under, featured the line: “He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.”

10. In 2015, an Australian chemist used Vegemite to complete a circuit and turn on an LED light. It worked because of Vegemite's high concentration of ions and water. This experiment was part of an attempt to make a medical diagnostic tool that could be eaten and digested once it had done its job.

24 October: 297

Today is the 297^th day of 2026. 10 fun facts about that number.

1. The international telephone country code +297 belongs to Aruba, an island nation in the Caribbean Sea.

2. 297 is a novel by John Christophe. Originally written in French, 297 is part of Gabriella's record, a chronicle written 50 years into the future. Gabriella looks back on the events leading up to 2028, marking the arrival of the first aliens and the development of sentient AI beings on Earth.

3. The Roman numeral for 297 is CCXCVII.

4. The A297 is a road in England which connects Morden Hall Park, Merton Rose Hill, a suburb of South London.

5. The R297 is a regional road running through County Sligo and County Mayo in Ireland.

6. In binary, 297 is 100101001.

7. The year 297 was a common year starting on Friday, known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Valerius and Valerius. In this year, Emperor Diocletian introduced a new tax system and other economic reforms.

8. London Bus Route 297 runs between Pound Lane/Willesden Bus Garage and Ealing Broadway Station.

9. 297 Caecilia is a typical main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois in 1890 in Nice.

10. Angel Number 297 means you are going the right way in life. It reminds you to stay honest and value real facts, and hints that a big and positive change is coming soon.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 October: Bordeaux

Today is the feast day of St Severinus or Seurin of Bordeaux Patron of Bordeaux. 10 facts about Bordeaux.

1. The name Bordeaux means “Beside the Waters”. The city is nicknamed known as the "Pearl of Aquitaine".

2. The first settlers in the area are believed to be a Celtic tribe called the Bituriges Vivisci, who named their town “Burdigala”. The Romans ruled here for a while and built the Palais Gallien, a huge amphitheatre which could seat 17,000 people. Only a small portion of the original structure remains.

3. Thanks to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet, who became King Henry II of England, Bordeaux was part of England for 300 years. Richard II, also known as Richard of Bordeaux, King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399, was born at the Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux. It became part of France in 1453 after the Battle of Castillon.

4. Bordeaux is famous for its wines. Its fame as a Wine growing region was helped by the English, who developed a taste for the wines during Henry and Eleanor’s time. Today, Bordeaux has 287,000 acres of vineyards, 10,000 wine producing estates. The city is home to the world's biggest wine fair, Vinexpo. 85% of Bordeaux's wine production is red wine, but that wasn’t always the case. Until the 1970s 80% of the wine produced there was white. The change is at least partly down to a frost in 1956 that killed off many white grape vines, with many growers choosing to replant with red Grapes.

5. The wine industry is also the origin of a signature pastry in the city called the canelé. This sweet treat has a crunchy exterior with a soft, custardy centre flavoured with Vanilla and Rum. Bordeaux winemakers used to use Egg whites to clarify their wines, a process known as fining. This left them with a surfeit of egg yolks. Nuns at the Annonciades convent thought it would be a shame to waste them, so they came up with a recipe using the leftover yolks, along with Flour, Sugar, and vanilla.

6. Bordeaux is home to the longest shopping street in Europe, Rue Sainte-Catherine, over 1,2km long, and the largest city square in Europe, the Place des Quinconces, into which 18 football fields would fit. A feature of the square is a monument to the Girondins, made up of bronze Horses and fountains. It allegedly survived the second world war because the Nazis were sufficiently impressed with it that they decided not to melt it down to make bullets.

7. The world’s largest reflecting pool is here, too, the Miroir d’eau which covers an area of 3,450 square metres. Not only that, but it has a water system that changes from a 2cm deep layer of Water to a fine fog every 15 minutes.

8. For a while in the 18th century, all the buildings in Bordeaux were painted Blue. This was because the Marquis de Tourny, who was responsible for much of Bordeaux's urban planning, issued a decree to that effect in 1767. Why? You might ask. Because he believed the colour blue repelled Mosquitoes, a problem in the marshy countryside at that time.

9. Talking of urban planning, parallel streets in Bordeaux are traditionally named in a way that connects them. For example, "Rue du Loup" (Wolf Street) runs parallel to "Rue de la Brebis" (Sheep Street), and "Rue du Puits" (Well Street) is next to "Rue de la Corde" (Rope Street).

10. There is a vast network of underground tunnels and chambers, some dating back to the Middle Ages. Originally dug to extract limestone for building the city, they were known as "carrières" or quarries. Since then, they have been used for various purposes from connecting wine cellars, allowing merchants to move wine without being seen, to hiding places and venues for resistance fighters during World War II.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

22 October: Earthworms

Today is World Earthworm Day. 10 things you might not know about Earthworms.

1. The earthworm belongs to the phylum Annelida. There are over 6,000 different species around the world.

2. The body of an earthworm is divided into segmented rings, each of which is attached to its own set of muscles and has small bristles called setae to help the worm move. Each ring of the worm can contract and relax independently of the rest.

3. They eat organic waste, soil and minerals, their own weight every day. They also excrete their own weight in castings, which helps enrich the soil, break it up and aerate it. This is so good for a garden that gardeners sometimes even buy worm casts as compost. They won’t touch living plant tissue, so it’s a win win.

4. They are hermaphrodites, with each worm having both male and female reproductive parts. That said, they still need another worm in order to mate. When two worms get it on, they each exchange sperm and fertilize each other’s eggs. Each worm then creates a cocoon to hold the eggs until they hatch, about 3 weeks later.

5. The longest earthworm in the world is the African giant earthworm, which can grow up to 6.7m (22ft) long.

6. Earthworms don’t have lungs. They breathe through their skin, but only if their skin is wet. If the skin dries out, the worm cannot breathe. They can survive underwater for a while by absorbing Oxygen from the Water, although they cannot do this indefinitely and would eventually drown. Worms secrete a thin layer of mucus onto their skin to prevent dehydration.

7. They don’t have Eyes, but can sense light through specialised cells in their heads, and will avoid it.

8. They don’t have Hearts, either. Instead they have something called aortic arches. They have five of these to move Blood around their bodies.

9. It’s not true that if you cut a worm in half, both halves will regenerate, giving you two clones. A worm can survive such trauma, but only one half, the one with the pink saddle, will live. The other half will die.

10. Worms are a significant part of the diet of many Birds, such as Robins. In case you’re wondering why so many dead worms are found on paths – why don’t robins hoover them up as an easy meal? - it’s because birds use the movement of the worm to locate it.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

21 October: Ursula name day

If your name is Ursula, today is your name day. Here are 10 people whose name day you share.

1. Saint Ursula: Romano-British virgin and martyr possibly of royal origin. 21 October is her feast day.

2. Ursula Andress (pictured): Swiss actress. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No.

3. Ursula K. Le Guin: American science fiction author

4. Ursula von der Leyen: German politician and current president of the European Commission.

5. Ursula Brangwen: character in the 1915 novel The Rainbow and the 1920 novel Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

6. Ursula Mary Lawley: daughter of Arthur Lawley, 6th Baron Wenlock, mother of the 2nd Lord Wraxall.

7. Ursula: theoretical founding ancestor of Haplogroup U (mtDNA)

8. Ursula Bloom: British novelist

9. Ursula: fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film The Little Mermaid, a villainous Cecaelian sea witch.

10. Ursula Holden-Gill: English actress best known as Alice Dingle on ITV's soap opera Emmerdale.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

20 October: National Shampoo Day

Today is National Shampoo Day. 10 things you might not know about that stuff you wash your Hair with.

1. The word shampoo comes to us from India and is derived from the Sanskrit for 'to press, knead, or soothe'. In fact, there is a kind of Indian head massage with hair oil known as shampoo. The "wash the hair" meaning of shampoo was first recorded in 1860.

2. People have been using substances akin to shampoo for centuries. Ancient Mesopotamian tablets from the Neo-Assyrian period document the use of medicated shampoos for scalp problems.

3. A traveller from India called Sake Dean Mahomed opened a bathhouse in Brighton in 1814 offering hair treatments for health. The idea of shampooing had arrived in the UK.

4. Early ingredients in shampoos included soapberries, the husks and straw of Rice, the bark of vines, and the soapy substance that had to be washed out of quinoa before cooking. The first shampoos in England were made by hairdressers by boiling shaved Soap in water and adding herbs for shine and fragrance.

5. Today, a shampoo will contain a cleaning agent known as a surfactant, Water, salt for thickening, a preservative and something to make it smell nice.

6. Shampoos can contain ingredients deemed harmful to some. People can be allergic to some of them. The EU bans 1328 ingredients from shampoo. Canada bans 587, and the US just 11.

7. In 1900, a German perfumer, Josef Wilhelm Rausch, created the first liquid hair washing soap. After this, commercial shampoos began to appear. Mass produced shampoos were first introduced in 1927 by Hans Schwarzkopf, whose name is a well-known haircare brand to this day.

8. Dry shampoo is a type of shampoo which reduces hair greasiness without having to rinse it off with water. The first commercially produced dry shampoo was sold in the 1940s, but substances very like it had been used for centuries. The first written reference to dry shampoo in the United States is from the late 1700s when it evolved from the starches used for cleaning Wigs.

9. Human shampoo is not recommended for use on animals as they might lick their fur and ingest something nasty. There is special shampoo for animals which might also include ingredients to treat skin problems or to kill fleas. Even these need to be used with care and only as directed by a vet.

10. Shampoo works by removing sebum, the natural oils and dirt from the hair. Some people believe this is a bad thing, and/or that the more you shampoo your hair, the more oil it will produce, to compensate. They suggest washing the hair less often, just rinsing it with water or using natural ingredients such as baking soda, Vinegar, diluted Honey, raw Eggs, rye flour, or chickpea flour.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/