In 2011 European bookies were putting the odds of Queen Elizabeth II abdicating and replacing Bruce Forsyth as the host of the popular BBC dance competition Strictly Come Dancing at 50,000 to 1. source
To put that in context consider the odds of the following:
- Being struck by lightning in one’s lifetime: 1 in 12,000 source
- Dying in a plane crash: 1 in 7,178 source
- Dying in a car crash: 1 in 5,000 source
- Being elected President of the United States: 1 in 10 million source
- Being killed by a shark: 1 in 3,748,067 source
- A well-shuffled deck of cards returning to the same order twice: 1 in 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 source
Meet the Man Who Was Struck By Lightning 7 Times
Whoever said lightning never strikes twice never met Roy Sullivan. Sullivan was born on February 7, 1912. From 1936 to his retirement in 1977, he served as a United States park ranger in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. By all accounts, he performed his duties competently. It is was what happened to him on the job…
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Is the Risk Worth the Reward? Understanding Micromorts and Microlives
When considering whether to do something, do you ever consider the risks? If you knew that one activity would certainly bring an immediate end to your life, you probably would not be very inclined to proceed. If, on the other hand, it would only reduce your life expectancy by a day, you might be willing…
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Learn How Two Grandparents Hacked the Lottery and Made Millions
Despite all the advertisements telling us about the lavish lifestyle that comes to the winners of the lottery, most of us know that buying lottery tickets is just a less efficient means of throwing away money. The odds of actually winning a pretty low, as we have pointed out in this article. There was one…
Keep readingCategories: Death, Gambling and Wagers, Mathematics, Presidents, Royalty, Transportation
Commonplace Fun Facts 