Portal:United Kingdom/Did you know/March 2009

... that Sir Charles Knowles claimed that the theories on naval tactics expressed in his 1777 book were reflected in Lord Howe's victory in 1794 (pictured)?
... that in 1945, footballer Doug McGibbon scored six goals in one match, one of which was timed at under five seconds from the second half kick-off?
... that novelist Charlotte Turner Smith condemned her father for forcing her to marry and turning her into a "legal prostitute"?
... that Herbert Spencer, secretary of the Derby Philosophical Society, first suggested the term "survival of the fittest" after reading Charles Darwin's idea of evolution?
... that when Prince Philip first saw the stumpery at Highgrove House he asked his son, Charles, "when are you going to set fire to this lot?"?
... that English barrister Joseph Keble went to the Court of King's Bench every day from 1661 to 1710, but was never known to have a brief for a client?
... that on Stac an Armin, the highest stack in Scotland, the last great auk in the British Isles was clubbed to death in 1840 because it was thought to be a witch?
... that Dr Charles White, co-founder of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, kept the mummified body of one of his patients in a room of his house for 55 years?

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