14th January: V

Today is V for victory Day - marking the anniversary of the day when the V sign was first suggested as a rallying emblem during WWII. 10 facts about the letter V:

1. The 22nd letter of the English alphabet derives from the Semitic letter, Waw.
2. In the middle ages, the letter V was used interchangeably with the letter U depending on its position in the word. 'Have' and 'upon' were printed as 'haue' and 'vpon', for example.
3. It is the 6th least common letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 1.03% in words. It's more common in the Romance languages where it is the first letter of the second person plural (eg. French - vous) and in the Polish alphabet it is not used at all.
4. V is the only letter that cannot be used to form an English two-letter word in the Australian version of the game of Scrabble.
5. V is the chemical symbol for the element Vanadium.
6. V (Roman numeral for five) is the fifth studio album by American pop rock band Maroon 5.
7. The first few notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony have the same rhythm as the Morse Code representation of the letter V: ...-. Was this because Beethoven knew Roman numerals and Morse code? That isn't either of the theories about what inspired Beethoven to start his symphony that way. One of the composer's pupils claimed "the little pattern of notes had come to [Beethoven] from a yellow-hammer's song, heard as he walked in the Prater-park in Vienna," while others have said Beethoven intended for it to represent the idea of "fate knocking at the door". Whichever it was, the fact it was V in Morse code made it an audio representation of the visual V for Victory sign which could be broadcast over the radio as a call sign during the war. V for Victory, and Fate knocking at the enemy's door.
8. The visual V sign, a hand gesture in which the index and middle fingers are raised and parted, while the other fingers are clenched, with the signer's palm facing the observer, was suggested as a symbol for Victory by Victor de Laveleye, former Belgian Minister of Justice and director of the Belgian French-speaking broadcasts on the BBC. As well as the English and French words for Victory, it's also the first letter of vrijheid, the Dutch word for freedom. More recently, it came to represent "peace".
9. It is a sign that must be used with great care. Get it wrong, and you could be misunderstood. The exact same gesture, but with the back of the hand facing the observer, is an insulting gesture in Australia, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. This gesture is said to have originated with longbowmen fighting at the Battle of Agincourt. If captured, these two fingers would be removed by the enemy so they could no longer use their bows. Holding those two fingers up essentially says, "I've still got my fingers, up yours". There isn't, however, any historical evidence for this and according to Desmond Morris, we may never know exactly how this gesture originated.
10. In television, V is a science fiction franchise created by American writer, producer and director Kenneth Johnson, about an alien invasion. The aliens pretend to be friendly and are called "Visitors" but it becomes apparent that they really want to farm humans for food. In the 1983 V miniseries, children spray paint graffiti over the Visitors' propaganda posters, but are shown how to spray the V over the posters by Holocaust survivor Abraham Bernstein, who explains the meaning of the sign to them.