11 July

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 11 July:

1. This date in 1274 saw the birth of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland. According to legend, while he was on the run he hid in a cave, where he watched a Spider trying to spin a web. Each time the spider failed, it simply started over again. Inspired by this, Bruce returned to inflict a series of defeats on the English, thus winning him more supporters and eventual victory.
2. In 1994, Jeremy T. Brenno, aged 16, slammed his No. 3 wooden gold club against a bench after making a bad shot at the Kingsboro Golf Club in Gloversville, New York. The club's broken shaft snapped back and pierced his pulmonary vein, causing him to bleed to death.
3. In 2003, Gino Cucchi set the world record for the longest Spaghetti strand, which measured 503 feet.
4. Space Oddity by David Bowie was released in the UK for the first time on this date in 1969. It was timed to coincide with the Apollo Moon landing.
5. Born on this date in 1834 was James Abbott McNeill Whistler, US painter most famous for his painting of his mother.
6. The abandoned US space station Skylab fell to Earth on this date in 1979, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. Scientists had calculated that between 20-25 tons of Skylab material would survive and hit Earth. There was an estimated 1 in 152 chance that one of the pieces would hit someone. This caused so much panic in the Philippines that President Ferdinand Marcos had to appear on national television to reassure the public. Elsewhere, people had fun with it. Hats with targets on were popular, and one neighbourhood in Nebraska painted a big target on the ground for Skylab to aim for. People organised sweepstakes as to where the station would land and The San Francisco Examiner offered a US$10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab delivered to its offices. While no-one was actually hit, a county in Western Australia issued a fine to NASA for littering.
7. In 1962, Fred Baldasare of the USA became the first person to swim the English Channel under water using scuba gear.
8. In 1881 Prince George, the future King George V, aged 16, then a young midshipman on HMS Bacchante, wrote in his journal that he’d seen the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman, off the port bow.
9. In 1995, the Benson family from Hull, who’d won £20m on the National Lottery went to collect their winnings. They returned home to find their house had been burgled.
10. In 1956, cesspit emptier Herr Koelsch of West Germany had legal action brought against him to stop him displaying his phone number on the side of his van. His number was 4711 and the action was brought by the makers of 4711 eau-de-Cologne.

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