World Facts

The breaststroke was the first stroke used in competitive and recreational swimming. It is also the stroke that most people learn when they first take up swimming. The first reference to the breaststroke was in French book in 1696. the sidestroke, with a scissor leg action, developed from breaststroke. Top swimmers can swim the breaststroke at 1.37 m (4.5ft) a second.
The backstroke is the only stroke in which the swimmers start in the water, rather than diving in. the stroke, in which swimmers lie on their backs and use their arms in a windmill style, was first made popular in the USA by Harry Hebner in 1912. An earlier form of the backstroke was first seen at the 1900 Olympics. For this fast stroke, top speed is about 1.52 m (5 ft) a second.

In this stroke, both arms enter and leave the water at the same time, while the legs perform a dolphin kick. It was developed in the 1930s and evolved from the breaststroke. Swimming Coach David Armbruster developed the arm movement of the stroke at the University of lowa in 1934 and the following year one of his swimmers, Jack Sieg, developed the foot and leg movements. The two combined produced the butterfly. The stroke was not officially approved until 1953 and became an Olympic event in 1956. Maximum speed is 1.67 m (5.5 ft) a second.
Front crawl/freestyle
In 1844 two Native Americans competing in a swimming regatta in London introduced their new revolutionary overarm stroke. Flying Gull beat Tobacco t take the winner’s medal. The stroke was later developed by Englishman John Trudgen, and then by Australian Richard Cavill, who realized the importance of kicking the feet at the same time as moving the arms. Front crawl is the fastest swimming stroke and ahs a maximum speed of 1.71 m (5.6 ft) a second.

No one knows exactly how the tennis scoring system came about, but it may have started in France in medieval times. People think the system may be based on the movement of the hand of a clock at one end of the court: on winning a point, the hand would be moved 15 minutes or a quarter round the clock. Next comes 30, half the clock, and so on. As a player had to win four points to win the game, the first round the clock face won. The score 40 may be used instead of 45 because in French quarante (40) is easier to say than quarante – cinq (45). When both sides reach 40 the score is deuce. This comes from the French quarante a deux, or 40 to both, or simply from deux, two, as players must gain two points to win. “Love”, the zero score, may come from the French l’oeuf, meaning egg, as the symbol for zero is egg – shaped.

The game of rugby probably started in 1823 at Rugby School in England, when William Webb Ellis picked up a football and ran with it. The first rules were drawn up in 1848 and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was formed by Edwin Ash in 1871. Today’s game of Rugby Union is played between two teams of 15 players. The two biggest events are International Championship and the World Cup. The International Championship began in 1884 and was originally played by four teams: England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. France joined in 1910 and Italy in 2000, making it a six – nation tournament. The Rugby World Cup was launched in 1987 and has been held every four years since then. In 2007, 20 teams took part and over 2.25 million people watched the 48 live matches at an average of 47,150 per game. Rugby league is now played in Australia, New Zealand, France, Russia and some pacific nations, as well as in Britain.

Basketball is hugely popular in the USA and is now played in other parts of the world, as well as at the Olympics. The game is played by two teams of five players each, usually on an indoor court. Players score points by shooting the ball through the basket. The National Basketball Association in the USA was formed in 1949. It contains 30 teams divided into two conferences, Eastern and Western. At the end of the season the two conference winners meet in a best – of – seven series fro the NBA championship. The inspiration for basketball may have been the Aztec game ollamalitzli and other ball and hoop games played by South American peoples. The modern game was invented in 1891 by Canadian physical education teacher Dr james A. Naismith at the International YMCA College at Springfield, Massachusetts. He wanted to find a game that could be played indoors during the winter.

Baseball is a much older game than you might think. Medieval manuscripts show ball games with bats; while a game called “base – ball” appears in a picture published in London in 1744. Baseball is also mentioned in Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, which she began writing in 1798. The game of rounders was first described 30 years later, and this or a similar game was known among British settlers in America. Abner Doubleday is sometimes said to have invented baseball in 1839, but Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr drew up the game’s rules in 1845. He founded the first team, the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York. Major League baseball started in the USA when the National League was formed in 1876. The rival American League was started in 1901, and in 1903 the World Series, a best – of – nine game event, was held between the winners if each league’s championship.

The word animation comes from the Latin animatus, meaning filled with life. Even before the invention of cinema, people realized that if the human eye sees a series if images that change at a rate of at least 24 frames a second, the brain can be tricked into thinking it is seeing a live moving image. 19th – century optical toys such as zeotropes worked on this principle.
Traditional animation
Individual frames of a story are hand drawn on cels – transparent sheets of plastic. They are then photographed as a sequence against painted backgrounds.
Cut – out
In this type of animation, two – dimensional drawings are placed on a fixed background. These are moved and photographed to create the impression of movement.
CGI
CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) has been used since the 1970s, originally for short films. The 1989 film The Abyss used some CGI visual effects, but the hugely successful Toy Story (1995), from the Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, was the first CGI feature film. Another development known as 3D motion capture has been used in films such as Beowulf (2007), a $150 million budget film with Ray Winstone in the title role, in which the movements of the actors are converted into computer images.

“Waltzing Matilda” has been described as Australian’s unofficial national anthem. The song was written in Australia in 1895 by Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson. He was inspired by events during a sheep – shearers strike the previous year. The music is by Christina Macpherson and is based on a traditional Scottish song.
Auld Lang Syne
The words of this song came from verses written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. The music is based on an old ballad. “Auld Lang Syne” (meaning old long since) is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve, except in Taiwan where it is a graduation song.

Primary school pupils
The country with the most primary school pupils is India, where there are 140,012,901 children in primary school. In china there are 112,739,964 primary school children.
Secondary school pupils
China has the most secondary pupils – 100,631,925 – although not all children go on from primary to secondary school. In India three are 89,461,794 secondary school children.
University students
China recently overtook the USA for the number of students at university, 21,335,646 compared with the USA’s 17,272,044. There are 11,777,296 at university in India and 9,019,556 in Russia.
Pupils per teacher at primary school
Primary school children in some African nations are taught in classes of more than 50: there are 72 pupils per teacher in Ethiopia and up to 83 in Congo. At the other end of the scale, there are only 10 per class in Italy, Norway and Sweden.