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1. There are no letter K, Q or Z in the Welsh language – and the letter Y is a vowel.

2. Boxing’s Queensberry Rules were drafted by a Welshman, Llanelli-born JG Chambers (1843–83).

3. The inventor of the modern cremation process was Dr William Price (1800-93) of Llantrisant. He was taken to court in 1884 for attempting to burn the corpse of his baby son, Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ) but was found not guilty.

4. The English are Wales’ largest ethnic minority community with 20.3 per cent of the country’s population having been born in England.

5. In 2003, Wales became the first country in the UK in which the majority of babies – 50.3 per cent – were born outside marriage.

6. Notable Americans who have been of Welsh descent include Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge.

Also blessed by Welshness were the great Jack Daniel (founder of the drink), J. P. Morgan (banker), architect Frank Lloyd Wright, recluse, Howard Hughes, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and actor Tom Cruise.

7. The longest corridor in Europe is to be found in Llandough Hospital near Cardiff.

8. The most famous Welsh British Prime Minister, Lloyd George was in fact born in Manchester.

9. It is now believed that the United States of America was in fact named after a Welshman. Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci is commonly believed to have been the source of the name, but this may not be true.

10. It is believed that Welsh carpenter William Frost from Saundersfoot in West Wales claimed in 1896 that he had been airborne in a craft he constructed himself, and that had his flight been authenticated. The was some seven years before the Wright brothers in the USA.

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