THE BIG QUESTIONS
I’ve been watching Scotland’s Biggest Families, including the Dundee couple with 13 kids, but what is the world record size for a family? – A
That is probably a Russian couple, Valentina and Feodor Vassilyev.
Valentina gave birth to a total of 69 children – 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, a total of 27 births.
Sixty-seven of the children survived infancy.
With news that Scotland will play England to mark the 150th anniversary of the first meeting of the two in the world’s oldest football fixture, I was wondering what the oldest sport might be? – P
The two sides played out a 0-0 draw in 1872, less than a decade after the first governing body was created.
This makes football a youngster compared to the oldest sporting event, which is running.
Though it is difficult to say when the sport originated, humans have been capable of running for millions of years. The earliest depiction of running is in cave paintings in France, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic
era (about 15,300 years ago).
Obviously, I know that Liz Truss is the shortest serving Prime Minister in history, but who served the longest? – E
Robert Walpole held the office for 20 years and 314 days, compared to Truss’s 49 days.
Walpole, a Whig, was Britain’s first PM and was in office from 1721-42.
During his tenure, King George II gifted Walpole 10 Downing Street, who insisted it should be used as the official residence of the prime minister, which
it has been ever since.