Taylor Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989 to Scott, a financial adviser, and Andrea, a former mutual fund marketing executive. 

She was named after musician James Taylor. Swift's mother believed that a gender-neutral name would help forge a business career.

Swift performing on The Red Tour in March 2013. By Jana Zills

She grew up on a Christmas tree farm. Taylor told Rolling Stone her job was "picking the praying mantis pods off of the trees so the bugs wouldn't hatch inside people's houses."

Taylor Swift's maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, was a professional opera singer, and inspired Taylor to become a singer.

Taylor Swift first picked up a guitar, aged ten, when a computer repair man and local musician Ronnie Cremer showed her how to play three chords.

When Taylor was 12, she devoted an entire summer to writing a 350-page novel, which remains unpublished.

Taylor began writing songs regularly and used it as an outlet to help her with her pain from not fitting in at school. She was a victim of bullying, and spent her time writing songs to express her emotions. One of the first tunes Taylor wrote was "The Outside."

Taylor's family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee when she was 14 so that she could pursue a career in country music. She attended Hendersonville High School, but after two years transferred to the Aaron Academy, a Christian high school, which also offers a home schooling program and graduated a year early in July 2008.

MUSIC CAREER

After performing at Nashville's songwriters' venue, The Bluebird Café, Taylor caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed record label, Big Machine Records. She released her debut single, "Tim McGraw," on June 19, 2006. The song reached number 40 on the Hot 100.

Covet art Big Machine Records. Wikipedia

On September 1, 2006, Taylor Swift made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. Wearing a white sundress and sporting her natural curls, the 16-year-old sang "Tim McGraw" on the Opry stage.

Taylor released her self-titled debut album in 2007 at the age of 17. The record topped the country chart for 24 non-consecutive weeks. 

As a result of its success Swift became the first female solo artist to write or co-write every song on a platinum-selling debut album. 

When "Our Song" reached #1 on the country chart week ending December 22, 2007, Swift who had just turned 18, became the youngest performer ever to write and sing a chart-topping country single. 

Taylor wrote the song "The Best Day" an ode to her mom as a surprise Christmas present for her. She had to drop the song from her setlist as Andrea would burst into tears backstage every time she heard it.

Swift performing at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California in 2007. By Brian Cantoni.

Her first number-one song on the US Billboard Hot 100 was "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", the lead single from Swift's fourth album Red.

In 2014, Taylor Swift accidentally released 8 seconds of white noise on iTunes for $1.29. It immediately reached #1 in Canada before being removed.

The music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" was viewed 43.2 million times in its first 24 hours on Vevo following its debut during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards. In doing so it overtook the previous record holder, Adele's "Hello," which racked up 27 million views in its first day on the platform. The clip similarly usurped Psy's 24-hour YouTube record set by the Korean star's "Gentleman," which had 36 million views in a single day back in 2013.

Taylor Swift is the first artist in history to release six albums that sold more than one million copies in their opening week in the United States.

Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, March 5, 2009 episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" as Haley Jones. She made her movie acting debut in the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, where she played Felicia. 

Among the phrases she has trademarked are "this sick beat," "party like it's 1989," and "Nice to meet you. Where you been?"

In a poll that was carried out across the US between February 8 and February 12, 2024, nearly one-fifth of Americans said they believed that Taylor Swift is part of a covert operation for the Pentagon. It followed  Fox News broadcast segment that claimed the pop star was secretly working with the government. The Pentagon denied rumours that Taylor Swift was a political “asset”, and a spokesperson said that, when it came to the theory, they were “going to shake it off.” 

Swift entered the Forbes World's Billionaires List for the first time in April 2024. 

Released in October 2025, Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl set the new record for traditional album sales (physical and digital copies) in one week with 3.479 million copies, surpassing Adele's 25 (3.378 million).

PERSONAL LIFE 

Because she was born on December 13, 1989, Taylor has a Christmas-themed birthday party every year.

Swift at the 2010 Time 100 Gala, where she was honored. By David Shankbone

Taylor's best friend is Abigail Anderson, with whom she's been friends since their freshman year in high school. She sings about their friendship on the song "Fifteen."

Swift has two cats of the Scottish Fold breed, called Meredith and Olivia. Meredith is named after Ellen Pompeo's character on Grey's Anatomy and Olivia after Mariska Hargitay's Lieutenant, now sergeant, in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Meredith can be seen when she was a kitten in a wallpaper picture on Swift's work computer during the video for "Ours" and Olivia featured in a Diet Coke ad, which was soundtracked by Swift's song "How You Get The Girl." Swift also has a Ragdoll cat, Benjamin Button, named after the character from the movie of the same name.

A triskaidekaphobic is somebody who fears the number 13, but Taylor Swift is the opposite; she loves the numeral, so much so that she paints a '13' on her hand before every show she does. It also influences such matters as how many times she sings certain phrases.

Swift was born on December 13 and she turned 13 on Friday 13th. She moved to Nashville when she was 13 and her first album went gold in 13 weeks. In 2009 she commented that every time she'd won an award she was sat in the 13th row, seat, section, or in "Row M, which is the 13th letter "Basically," she's been known to reflect, "whenever a 13 comes up in my life, it's a good thing."

Source NME, Some of this entry was originally written by myself for Artistfacts

Jonathan Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. 

Portrait by Charles Jervas

He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick).

Jonathan was born seven months after his father's death from syphilis.

His grandfather was a well-known royalist vicar at Goodrich, Thomas Swift who had lost all he owned during the English Civil War.

The house in which Swift was born; 1865 illustration

His mother abandoned Jonathan at the age of 6 when she returned to England. She left him in the care of his Uncle Godwin, a close friend and confidant of Sir John Temple whose son later employed Swift as his secretary.

Jonathan was educated at Kilkenny Grammer School. The future poet and playwright William Congreve was there the same time.

In 1682, Swift started attending Trinity College, Dublin, where he was censured for offences against discipline, obtaining his degree only by "special grace”. He remained at college for three more years not quite long enough for a higher degree. 

Swift spent much of his time at Trinity College reading for pleasure. He stayed away from lectures and hang around with friends in town.

After his not very successful career at Trinity College, Dublin, Swift went to stay with his mother, Abigail Erick, at Leicester.

POLITICAL AND CLERICAL CAREER 

In 1689 Swift went to live at Moor Park, Farnham, Surrey, where he joined the Household of Sir William Temple, a diplomat. He read to Temple, wrote for him, and kept his accounts. Growing into confidence with his employer, he "was often trusted with matters of great importance." 

Within three years of their acquaintance, Temple had introduced his secretary to William III, and sent him to London to urge the king to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments.

By 1694 Swift had grown tired of his position, and finding that Temple, who valued his services, was slow in finding him preferment, he left Moor Park in order to carry out his resolve to go into the Church. He was ordained on January 13, 1695, and obtained the prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast. 

Swift was bored by his rural parish and in May 1696 Temple induced Swift to return to Moor Park, where he was employed in preparing Temple's memoirs and correspondence for publication. He remained there until Temple's death in 1699.

Between 1701- 1705 Jonathan Swift was the Vicar of Laracor in County Meath. At Laracor, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage.

Jonathan Swift switched allegiance from the Whigs to the Conservatives (Tories) in 1710, chiefly as he felt they showed more concern for the church. The following year he published the political pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies, attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France.

By 1713, Swift was acknowledged as the greatest of pamphleteers of his era and as a reward, he was given the Deanery of St Patrick's Dublin. He remained there until 1747. 

Jonathan Swift at the Deanery of St Patrick's, illus. from 1905 Temple Scott edition of Works

On one occasion, Swift was admonished for preaching a charity sermon of such an excessive length that by its conclusion the congregation felt totally uninclined to contribute to the cause concerned. The next time the Dean determined to keep it brief and he proceeded to announce his text from Proverbs 19 v 17. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward him for what he has done." He repeated this twice more then continued, "You, have heard the terms of the loan. If you like the security, put down your money." Then he sat down and watched the congregation donate in a much more generous manner.

WRITING CAREER 

During his visits to England in 1704 Swift published A Tale of a Tub, where he attacked corruption in religion and education and The Battle of the Books, a response to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning. It was with those works that he began to gain a reputation as a satirical writer. 

Cover, 1704.

Swift published most of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously.

Swift also published poetry, for which he is less known. His cousin, John Dryden commented on his early work "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet."

During the 1720s, Swift turned his pamphleteering skills to the support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works. His series of pamphlets, Drapier's Letters, published between April 1 - October 13, 1724, where he attacked the English for debasing the Irish policy, earned him the status of an Irish patriot.

The first edition of Gulliver's Travels was published in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced at 8s. 6d. Though it’s vulgarness provoked much critical opinion it was a runaway best seller and sold out its first run in less than a week.

Gulliver's Travels was the only book for which Swift made much money. His friend Alexander Pope had negotiated a copyright fee of £200.

Swift described in Gulliver's Travels the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. He did this more than a hundred years before either moon was officially discovered. As the Earth has one moon and Jupiter he mistakenly thought four, Swift formulated the geometrical progression that Mars would have two. Because of this, Swift Crater on the Martian Moon Deimos is named after him.

First edition of Gulliver's Travels

In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick. The book was a satire written in a mock public spirited way in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque arguments, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their offspring to the rich who could fatten the children before eating them.

Having got the idea for A Modest Proposal from meetings at the Scriblerus club, Swift had first started working on the book in 1720. It was an immediate success from the cradle to the cabinet. 

The phrase 'Land of Nod' originally referred to the place where Cain was exiled to after murdering his brother. Swift birthed its alternative meaning in his A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, by relating going to the land of Nod as falling asleep.

At times, Swift was abusive in his satire. In 1731 he wrote Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, his own obituary, which was published eight years later. His poem about his own death was just as cutting about himself as his attacks on others. Swift had pre-empted his critics. 

BELIEFS 

Swift used the name Isaac Bickerstaff to discredit a certain astrologer named John Partridge. In January 1708, he wrote "Predictions for the ensuing year by Issac Bickerstaff" asserting that on March 29, 1708 Partridge would die. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on March 30th claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary. In asserting that he was still alive, Partridge covered himself with ridicule and Swift wrote in April 1709 his vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff.

One of the episodes Gulliver founds himself in was being shipwrecked on a land of little people called Lilliput. The book's protagonist ended up in the middle of a dispute where the Lilliputians were arguing whether to break eggs at the broad or narrow end. Swift was satirizing religious disputes between Protestants and Catholics.

Swift once advised a young man about to enter Holy Orders that it was the duty of a clergyman to "Preach and practice the contempt of human beings."

CHARACTER AND APPEARANCE 

Dean Swift was a tall, powerful man with large unemotional face and flashing eyes.

Swift

To save money Swift wore his clerical gown when attending the court of Queen Anne.

Swift was gifted in conversation and was enormous fun to be with. Once Lady Cateret, wife of the English Viceroy in Ireland remarked how good the air was in Ireland. Swift fell on his knees and besought her "For Gods Sake, madam, don't say that in England for if you do they will surely tax it."

Swift was generous with his money. He gave one third of his income on charity and another third he saved up to found St Patrick's Hospital for imbeciles. 

Swift showed many kindnesses to people who needed help. He seems to have given Mrs. Dingley fifty guineas a year, pretending that it came from a fund for which he was trustee.

RELATIONSHIPS 

When the 22-year-old Swift took up his residence at Moor Park, he found there a sickly eight-year-old little girl. Esther (later known as Stella) was the daughter of a merchant named Edward Johnson, who had died young. 

Stella (1868). John Everett Millais 

On his return to Temple's house, Swift found his old playmate had grown into a girl of fifteen, in perfect health. 

When he returned to Ireland in September 1702 from a stay in England, he was accompanied by Stella — now twenty years old — and her friend Rebecca Dingley. 

There's a great deal of mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Stella. Many hold that they were secretly married in 1716, though they never lived together as man and wife.

Swift wrote in an embarrassing baby language to Esther Johnson, which later became The Journal to Stella.

Stella's relationship with Swift became fraught after 1707 when he met in England Esther Vanhomrigh, daughter of the Dutch-born Lord Mayor of Dublin. She was 22 years younger than Swift, and for a time they he served as her tutor. Swift nicknamed her "Vanessa".

Vanessa became infatuated with Swift and after his return to Ireland followed him there. When her father died she inherited Celbridge Abbey 12 miles from Dublin and Stella. The uneasy triangle between Swift, Stella and Vanessa continued until 1723 when Vanessa (who was by now seriously ill from tuberculosis) apparently asked Swift not to see Stella again. This led to a violent quarrel between them, and Vanessa before her death in June 1723 she cut him out of her will.

Imaginary portrait of Vanessa by John Everett Millais

Although there has never been definite proof of this, there is no doubt that Stella was dearer to Swift than anyone else, and that his feelings for her did not change throughout his life.

On January 28, 1728, Stella died. Swift was too ill to be present at the funeral at St. Patrick's, but afterwards, a lock of her hair was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair."

Swift was a member of the Scriblerus Club with Alexander Pope and John Gay. He gave Gay the idea for his well known work "The Beggars Opera" when he mentioned to him "A Newgate Pastoral might make a pretty sort of thing."

HEALTH 

Swift contracted Ménière's syndrome as a young man and was harassed all his life by attacks of deafness, ringing in the ears and dizziness.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

The mental decay which Swift had always feared — "I shall be like that tree," he once said, "I shall die at the top" — became marked about 1738. Paralysis was followed by aphasia and acute pain, followed by a long period of apathy, during which he went a whole year without uttering a word. Finally death relieved him on October 19, 1745. His last words were: "I am dying like a poisoned rat in a hole. I am what I am. I am what I am."

Swift was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral next to Stella. The epitaph he wrote for himself inscribed on his tomb is "Here he lies, where savage indignation can longer lacerate his heart."

Bust in St Patrick's Cathedral. By Wknight94 - Own work

Swift left £12,000 in his will to found the St Patrick's Hospital for idiots and lunatics in Dublin along with his second best beaver hat and his horses.

Sweet potato

Sweet potatoes have beautiful flowers and are in the same family as morning glories.

The white/orange swollen storage root is used as a source of starch and alcohol, and eaten as a vegetable.

Pixiebay

The young leaves and shoots of the sweet potato are sometimes eaten as greens.

The sweet potato differs from the Irish potato, which are underground stems known as tubers. It does not belong to the nightshade family, Solanaceae, but both families belong to the same taxonomic order, the Solanales.

HISTORY

Sweet potatoes are thought to have been first domesticated in Central America at least 5,000 years ago.

The first Europeans to taste sweet potatoes were members of Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492. After that, many explorers had discovered a wide variety of local names for different cultivars for the sweet potato.

Sweet potato, Moche culture, 300 AD, Larco Museum Collection

The sweet potato was introduced to Okinawa, Japan in the early 1600s and became a staple in the country because they were important in preventing famine when rice harvests were poor. They were later planted in Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune's private garden.

Sweet potatoes have helped reveal that Polynesians may have traveled to the Americas in pre-columbian times. Sweet potatoes originated from the Americas were found in the Pacific islands when Captain James Cook discovered them.

The Maori word for sweet potato "kumala" is almost the same as the Quechuan (indigenous South American people)'s word "k'umara" for sweet potato.

In Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the sweet potato is called batata. In Chile, Central America, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines, the sweet potato is known as camote, which comes from the Nahuatl word camot.

Pixiebay

In New Zealand, the most common cultivar is the red sweet potato called kumara, which is very popular as a roasted food, often served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce.

In 2016, global production of sweet potatoes was 105 million tonnes, led by China with 67% of the world total.

FUN SWEET POTATO FACTS

Sweet potatoes are referred to as “dry-fleshed” or “moist-fleshed.” This refers to how they feel in your mouth, not the moisture present in the root.

Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, pink or orange flesh.

Sweet potatoes with different skin colors. By Pdemchick - Own work

Moist-fleshed convert more of their starch to sugars during cooking, becoming softer and sweeter than the dry-fleshed types.

Although the soft, orange sweet potato is often called a "yam" in parts of North America, the sweet potato is botanically very distinct from a genuine yam (Dioscorea), which is an entirely different plant species, grown only in tropical climates.

Sweet potatoes are high in nutrients, especially vitamins A and C.

Unlike other potatoes, sweet potatoes like long, hot growing seasons.

Sweet potatoes are recognized as the state vegetable of North Carolina, where 1.2 billion pounds a year are produced.

National Cook A Sweet Potato Day is celebrated on February 22nd each year.

Source Msue

Sweet

Sweet is the common word used in the UK and Ireland for the most common varieties of sugar confectionery. Words used in other territories include candy (US and Canada) and lollies (Australia and New Zealand).

Pixabay

Sugar was once the chosen medicine when vision was impaired. Sugary sweets would be ground up and blown into the patients eye.

In Britain barley sugar sweets were being made in the 17th century. They were sold in the form of twisted sticks and were thought to be helpful for getting rid of a winter cold.

Licorice root, also known as glycyrriza, is one of the oldest and most commonly used herbs in ancient medicine; its uses predating both the Babylonian and Egyptian Empires. 

Pontefract in Yorkshire, England, was the first place where licorice was used to create a sweet. It was a Pontefract chemist, George Dunhill who, in the mid 18th century, came up with a new type of licorice candy by mixing juice from licorice root with flour and sugar.

The appropriately named Oldest Sweet Shop (originally called “The Old Sweet Shop”) is the oldest candy store in the world. The shop was founded in 1827 in the town of Pateley Bridge in England.

The first appearance of a jellybean in an advertisement was in 1861. A William Schrafft of Boston promoted the sending of jellybeans to soldiers in the Union Army. 

The jellybean center is a descendant of the Mid-Eastern sweet, Turkish Delight, which dates back to Biblical times. The shell coating is an offspring of a process called panning, first invented in 17th century France to make Jordan Almonds. 

Within a year jellybeans were earning a place amongst the many glass jars of "penny candy" in general stores where they were sold by weight and taken home in paper bags. 

Pixabay

In Britain the first packet of multi-colored Liquorice Allsorts was created by accident in 1899 when a salesman knocked over his tray of samples, scattering candy all over the counter. The customer liked the look of the different candy all mixed up and immediately placed an order. 

Lollipops were invented by George Smith of New Haven, Connecticut, who started making large boiled sweets mounted on sticks in 1908. He named them after a racehorse of the time, Lolly Pop. To help meet the demand a Wisconsin company built for George Smith an automatic lollipop-making machine, which produced 40 a minute. Smith trademarked the lollipop name in 1931. 

Pixiebay

Wine Gums were almost never created. The son of a London sweet shop owner, Charles Gordon Maynard wanted to create a sweet that could be savored like a fine wine, but his father, Charles Riley Maynard was a strict Methodist teetotaller who threatened to expel him from the business for introducing wine to his products. However, when Charles Riley was informed the wine label was merely a ruse, he allowed Maynard's wine gums to be introduced in 1909. 

According to Cadbury's, red and black are the most popular wine gum colors today. 

Bassetts winegums Wikipedia

On a trip to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Forrest Mars Sr. encountered soldiers who were eating pellets of chocolate that were encased in a hard sugary coating to prevent them from melting. Inspired by this idea, Mr. Mars went back to his kitchen and came up with the recipe for M&M's.

Scientists found that it actually takes about 2,500 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

Source Food for Thought by Ed Pearce

Sweden

HISTORY

Some 20,000 years ago, Sweden was covered by an ice sheet two miles thick. As it melted, the land started springing up. So far, it has risen 286 metres and it's still rising.

View of the Stora Sjöfallet National Park By STF Saltoluokta Fjällstation 

Ansgar (801-865) was a Frankish Benedictine monk who from his teenage years been active in missionary work in north Germany and Denmark. In 829 the "Apostle of the North" was sent to Sweden by the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis the Pious, the deeply religious son and successor of Charlemagne. Ansgar had heard that several Swedes were willing to convert to the Christian faith and the Swedish king Björn had personally requested a Christian mission in his land. The king allowed him to build the first church in Sweden and amongst the small congregation was the monarch's own steward Hergeir.

Frankish missionaries have been teaching Christianity in Sweden for nearly a century, slowly establishing it as the country's religion. 
In 993 Olaf Skotkonung, the King of Sweden, accepted Christianity, the first Swedish King to do so.

Between 1161-67, Sweden was ruled by a king known as Charles VII, but there never were any kings Charles I to VI. In fact, the numbering began with Charles IX (ruled 1604-11) who calculated his number based on a fictional history of the country. Charles VIII and VII were posthumously assigned numbers.

Little of Sweden's early history is known because there are no written documents from the country before the 12th century. On its formation, a Swedish history book simply states: "How and when the Swedish kingdom appeared is not known."

In the Middle Ages the town of Hurdenburg in Sweden elected its mayor by seeing which candidate's beard was selected by a louse.

June 6 is the National Day of Sweden celebrating the foundation of modern Sweden with the election of Gustav I, later known as Gustav Vasa as king on June 6, 1523 and the adoption of a new constitution on June 6, 1809. June 6 has been an official public holiday since 2005.

Gustav Vasa

During the 17th century Sweden was a great power having conquered Estonia, Latvia and Finland and parts of Norway, Germany and Russia.

By the middle of the 17th century Sweden was the third-largest country in Europe by land area, only surpassed by Russia and Spain. Sweden reached its largest territorial extent under the rule of Charles X after the treaty of Roskilde in 1658.

The Swedish Empire  in the 17th century. By Ortus-imperii-suecorum.png:

Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English called the country Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes".
The Swedes call Sweden Sverige, which means “our kingdom”.

In 1700 Peter the Great of Russia launched the Great Northern War, fighting Sweden for control of the Baltic Sea. Russia was ill-prepared to fight the Swedes, and their first attempt at seizing the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva on November 30, 1700.

After the battle, Charles XII of Sweden decided to concentrate his forces against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which gave Peter time to reorganize the Russian army.

Charles XII moved from Saxony into Russia to confront Peter. Though his primary goal was Moscow, the strength of his forces was sapped by the cold weather (the winter of 1708/09 being one of the most severe in modern European history) and he stopped his march, outside Smolensk, marking the turning point in the Great Northern War.

Charles XII's campaign ended in 1709 with the destruction of the main Swedish army at the decisive Battle of Poltava (in present-day Ukraine). As a result the Swedish Empire ceased to be a major power.

The Battle of Poltava in 1709. Pierre-Denis Martin 

Sweden was in 1766 the first country to introduce a constitutional law where censorship was abolished and the freedom of the press guaranteed.

Russia invaded Sweden on February 21, 1808. The war resulted in Sweden losing control over Finland.

From 1157 to 1809, Finland was part of Sweden. There is still a golf course in which half the holes are in Sweden and the other half in Finland.

In 1812 there were 30 days in February in Sweden as it dithered over calendar change.

The French soldier Jean Bernadotte became so popular in Sweden that they elected him king in 1818 when their own royal family was about to die out. The Bernadotte family still rules in Sweden today.

Swedish timber supplied beams, joists, door and window frames for homes in 19th-century Britain.

The flag of Sweden consists of a yellow Nordic Cross on a field of blue. It was adopted on June 22, 1906. The Nordic Cross design traditionally represents Christianity. Blue and yellow have been used as Swedish colors at least since King Magnus III's royal coat of arms of 1275. 

In 1979, Sweden became the first country to impose a ban on smacking children.

Swedish only became Sweden's official language in 2009.

In 2010, Sweden removed the statute of limitations for prosecuting murder because the 1986 assassination of their prime minister, Olof Palme, had still not been solved. Though 10,000 people have been questioned, the killer remains unknown to this day.

Sweden has remained neutral in all wars for the past 200 years, including both world wars.

FUN SWEDEN FACTS

Sweden is a nation of islands - 267,570 of them. More than 100,000 of them are located in lakes or rivers. Less than 1,000 of them are inhabited.

Flickr

Sweden's capital Stockholm extends across 14 larger islands.

Sweden is the country with the most islands in the world.

Sweden won the Underwater World Rugby Championship on all five occasions it was held between 1987 and 2003.

Ystad in Sweden has a Cow Bingo festival every year, betting on where a cow will drop a cow pat.

There are about 400,000 moose in the forests of Sweden. They are said to be Sweden's most dangerous animal, causing about 6,000 road accidents a year.

The Swedes drink more coffee per head than any other nation.

"Fika" is a concept in Swedish culture that means "to have coffee, cake and a chit-chat". It's a big part of the culture and most companies have two daily fika breaks at 9am and at 3pm.

The Swedes eat more tomato ketchup than any other nation.

Sweden has the highest number of McDonald’s restaurants per capita in Europe.

The Swedish government is proud of gender equality: in 2017 it had 12 men and 12 women ministers.

The current royal family of Sweden is descended from an ordinary French commoner who rose through the ranks to become a general under Napoleon and was then randomly selected to become the King of Sweden.

Though its less famous than Switzerland for its neutrality, the two countries have been neutral for around the same time. Switzerland fought their last war in 1815, Sweden in 1814. Neither are members of NATO nor participated in either World War.

Sweden has won 3.1 Nobel prizes per million of its population. The US has only 1.1 per million.

Sweden has the highest number of choirs per capita in the world.

Sweden has more telephones per capita than any other country on earth.

Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest six times, most famously ABBA in 1974. Only Ireland (seven) has more wins.

ABBA  a few days after they won the Eurovision Song Contest. By AVRO 

Sweden has the  second highest wealth inequality in the world after the United States.

Source Daily Express