In Japan, where Christians make up around 1% of the population, Christmas is a festive occasion rather than a religious one. In 1974, KFC launched its 'Kentucky for Christmas' campaign there, pitching fried chicken as the local answer to the Western turkey. It stuck: every year, millions of families pre-order their bucket weeks ahead, and queues stretch outside restaurants on 24 December. A national tradition, born from an advertising campaign.
That's the estimate from a WHO-led study published in The Lancet in 2024, covering the half-century since the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974. It works out to about six lives saved every minute, mostly infants. The measles vaccine alone accounts for around 60% of those lives.
According to the World Gold Council, about 216,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in all of human history. Because gold is so dense (19.3 tonnes per cubic metre), it would fit in a cube about 22 metres on each side, roughly the height of a seven-storey building. Strikingly, about two-thirds of it has been mined since 1950.