Unbelievable facts?

Over the weekend, I received an interesting email from one of our regular readers containing several photos accompanied by fascinating trivia culled most likely from Internet sources. People are naturally curious, and perhaps, that is one of the reasons why there is a certain preoccupation to discover little known facts, information or details – sometimes mere speculation or chatter – about historical figures, celebrities, popular individuals, countries, cultures, objects, etc.

That’s probably why aside from Ripley’s Believe it or Not, among the most popular books are the Guinness Book of World Records and other tomes containing oddities about sports, movies, animals, and almost any topic under the sun.  Here are a few interesting items:

The mechanic queen

Among the most absorbing photos sent to us include that of a young Queen Elizabeth II in a military uniform, kneeling before a vehicle and holding some kind of tool. As it turns out, she joined the British Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945 as an honorary second subaltern, and it was during this time that she learned to drive vehicles (including a military truck) and fix them as well, having also worked as a mechanic. She was eventually promoted to honorary junior commander five months later.

According to trivia released by the British government during the Queen’s 80th birthday in 2006, she was a girl guide in 1937 and a sea ranger in 1943. Not many also know that the British monarch who celebrated her 88th birthday last month does not have a passport despite having traveled to more than 100 countries. 

Prison break

The Dutch government is facing a crisis that many countries would kill to have, so to speak – they are running out of inmates because crime rates have been falling in the last several years. In 2008, the Netherlands recorded 15,000 inmates so a year later, the government announced the closure of several prisons due to “lack of criminals.” A year ago, there were only 9,710 prisoners remaining – less than the number of prison guards estimated at over 9,100. Since there are reportedly less prison guards and staff now than inmates, the Ministry of Justice has been cutting down jobs as well.  

The shooting nuns

If there are singing nuns, it would appear that there were also “shooting nuns” who formed the Vatican Women’s Rifle Team. However, the “nuns with guns” were reportedly disbanded in February 1938 perhaps because Pope Pius XI didn’t think the existence of the rifle team would advance the pious image of the Catholic Church. In any case, one of the nuns known as Sister Juliette (extreme right in the photo) must have chucked her habit for military togs because she reportedly joined the French resistance in 1942 and distinguished herself as a sharpshooter.

According to some reports, the sister was good with covert operations and was responsible for the assassination of several Nazi officials. The French government was said to have awarded her the Médaille Militaire in 1946, after which she tried her hand in politics. She didn’t have a lot of luck however, and so re-entered the convent sometime in 1949.

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