Teen queens
The Duke of York denied allegations in court papers that he had had sexual relations with a girl in Florida aged 17, below the age of consent there. Some of his ancestors who might now be in trouble:
— King John, who married Isabella of Angoulême in 1200 when she was 12.
— Henry VI, who married Margaret of Anjou in 1445 when she was 15.
— James I, who married Anne of Denmark in 1589 when she was 14.
— Charles I, who married Henrietta Maria of France in 1624 when she was 15.
— William III, who married his cousin Mary in 1677 when she was 15.
Crude estimates
The price of oil fell below $60 a barrel. There is nothing new about volatile oil prices. Some of the peaks and troughs in crude oil, at today’s prices
| Jun 1973 | $19 |
| Jan 1974 | $51 |
| Apr 1980 | $115 |
| Jan 1999 | $18 |
| Jun 2008 | $145 |
| Feb 2009 | $44 |
| May 2011 | $105 |
| Jan 2015 | $51 |
Sunk costs
A listing cargo ship was beached on a sandbank in the Solent, its £35m cargo of Jaguars, BMWs and JCBs leaning at 52 degrees. Some precious cargos lost:
£130m SS Gairsoppa, torpedoed off the Irish coast in 1941 carrying silver bars.
£4m Value of 14 tonnes of cigarettes which washed up in Devon last February after being washed off the Svendberg Maersk.
£475,000 SS Central America, sank off South Carolina in 1857 carrying gold.
Pet projects
A seal found stranded in a field 20 miles up a Lancashire estuary and taken to a sanctuary in Norfolk was revealed to be close to death from pneumonia. Some more futile attempts to save wayward animals:
— In 2006 a seven-tonne whale swam up the Thames as far as Albert Bridge, where she was lifted by crane onto a barge. Plans to ship her to the Atlantic were abandoned in favour of releasing her off Margate, but she died on the barge.
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