1 November: X Day

The first X Day was 1 November 1945, the day Operation Downfall (the invasion of Japan) was to begin. The term also generically means "attack day". 10 things you might not know about the letter X.

1. X is the 24^th letter in the English alphabet. It's also the antepenultimate one. Antepenultimate is a posh word for 'third from last'.
2. X is the third least frequently used letter in English after Q and Z. It's also the letter that the fewest words begin with. Words that begin with X tend to be Greek in origin. An X at the beginning of a word is usually pronounced like a Z (as in xylophone). In fact, so few words begin with X that when Samuel Johnson was writing his dictionary, he couldn't think of any at all, and wrote under X: “X is a letter which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language."
3. X is often used as an abbreviation and can represent several words or parts of words, including 'trans' (XFER for transfer), 'cross' (X-ing for crossing), 'ex' (XL for extra large), 'crys' (Xtal for crystal), and of course, 'Christ' (Xmas for Christmas).
4. In mathematics, the multiplication sign is virtually indistinguishable from a letter x. Also in maths, 'X' is used to signify an independent variable or unknown value. This is why the letter is often used to denote something unknown, as in The X-Files or Planet X, a hypothesised planet in the outer solar system. It's also used to label the horizontal axis on a graph.
5. In biology, one of the two chromosomes which determines the sex of an animal is the x-chromosome.
6. Another use for an X is to 'mark the spot' on a map – showing where you are, or where the treasure is.
7. The Roman numeral Ⅹ represents the number 10.
8. It's also used to denote a Kiss at the end of a letter. This dates back to when most people couldn't read or write and would sign documents with their mark. The mark was an X in the context of the abbreviation for 'Christ'. Hence people would often kiss their mark as a sign of reverence.
9. INXS, Def Leppard, Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran have all produced albums entitled 'X'.
10. There was a roller coaster in Thorpe Park called X, although it has recently been re-named 'The Walking Dead'.

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