Top 10 United Kingdom facts

Royal Mail Ship. RMS was used for seagoing vessels that carried mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. Having the title "RMS" was seen as a mark of quality and a competitive advantage, because the mail had to be on time. Today, some modern ships like RMS Queen Mary 2 also use "RMS", as a gesture to Cunard's history.

Mary I of England. Mary restored Roman Catholicism after the short-lived Protestant reign of her half-brother Edward VI. Her sobriquet "Bloody Mary" was given by Protestant opponents, as she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake during the persecutions. Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed after her death by Elizabeth I

18. Elizabeth the Second is the head of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Antigua and Barbudes, Australia, Bahamas, Gibraltar, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Tuvalu and Salomon Islands. All these states are independent monarchies with Elizabeth II as queen.

In Spain. Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. The word "Sherry" is an anglicisation of Xeres (Jerez). Sherry was previously known as sack, from the Spanish saca, meaning "extraction" from the solera.

Literature. Winston Churchill was a prolific writer. Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his numerous published works, especially his six-volume work The Second World War.

SS. Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars. In 1945 the company changed its name to Jaguar Cars Ltd, because of the connotations of the use of the SS name by Nazi Germany.

Farrokh Bulsara. Mercury was born of Parsi descent in the Sultanate of Zanzibar. He spent most of his childhood in India. At the age of 18, he moved with his family to Middlesex, England.

Sweyn Forkbeard the King of Denmark and Norway in 1013 after many tries finally has conquered British soil and announced himself as the King of England. Another Vikings that became the King of England were his son Cnut and William the Conqueror.

70 miles (112 km). Coton in the Elms is a village and a parish in the English county of Derbyshire. It is located five miles south of Burton upon Trent. South east of the village is Church Flatts Farm, which is defined by the Ordnance Survey as the farthest point from the sea in Great Britain.

Steam locomotives. Ventilation shafts at various points on the route allowed the engines to expel steam and bring fresh air into the tunnels. These shafts were sometimes hidden behind false facades, like the one in the photo (Leinster Gardens 23). The right-hand property is a fake.