5 July

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 5 July:

1. This date in 1810 saw the birth of PT Barnum, US showman known for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding a circus. He never actually said "There's a sucker born every minute," as is famously ascribed, but he did say "No one went broke underestimating public taste."
2. Born this date in 1996 was Dolly, a female domestic Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned. Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in Scotland carried out the procedure. The cell used for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, so she was named after Dolly Parton.
3. In 1966, Batman and Robin were first seen on British television. 
4. In 1883, the first photograph of lightning was taken in Bohemia by Robert Haensel.
5. In 1865, Britain introduced the first speed limit in the world for steam and petrol driven vehicles. The Locomotives and Highways Act stipulated a maximum speed of a giddy 2 mph. At that time there were only two cars in the whole country!
6. In 1888, three match girls were sacked from the Bryant and May Match factory in London for giving Annie Besant information about their working conditions. The other 672 employees went on strike, a landmark for women workers in Britain.
7. On this date in 1942, the first person graduated from "Special 25", a training school for spies in Canada. His name was Ian Fleming. This training proved to be invaluable to his future career: creating James Bond.
8. IN 1999, a 150 foot Tornado hit Selly Oak, Birmingham. 21 houses were damaged but no-one was injured.
9. In 1777, a London woman was convicted of disguising herself as a man and marrying three different women, defrauding them of their money and clothes. She was put in the pillory and imprisoned for six months.
10. In 1981, Englishman Reg Mellor broke his record by keeping two live Ferrets down his trousers for 5 hours and 26 minutes.

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