Singapore turns 53 this year on 9 August and we have put together 53 facts that are uniquely Singapore! Play a game of Singapore Trivia or simply impress your friends and family on how much you know the little red dot this National Day.
- It has been 59 years since the Singapore National Flag was first unveiled on 3 December 1959, at the installation of Singapore’s first President Tun Haji Yusof bin Ishak.
- The flag could have been made up of different colours because then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Toh Chin Chye, explained that “White above red is the flag of Poland. Red above white is the flag of Indonesia.” But he was very firm about having the five stars and crescent moon. The stars stand for the five core principles of democracy, justice, peace, prosperity and equality while the crescent moon signify Singapore’s status as a young nation
- Singapore’s finalised version of the national pledge was largely drafted by then Minister for Foreign Affairs S.Rajaratnam in February 1966 as a way to promote national loyalty and consciousness among citizens following Singapore’s separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965.
- About 500,000 students at all 529 government and government-aided schools held the first daily recitation of the pledge of allegiance before the national flag on 24 August 1966.
- Before 1988, the National Pledge was recited with the right hand raised above shoulders while one stands facing the National Flag.
- The national anthem is in micro-text on the back of the $1000 note.
- The orange sugar eaten with Putu Mayam (Indian string hoppers), is indigenous to Singapore.
- “Singapore Noodles” is a popular dish in Asian restaurants in Western countries but it is not found in Singapore.
- Singapore is one of three city states in the world that are independent countries. The other two are Monaco and Vatican City.
- XDel Singapore is a 100% home-grown courier company that has been around for 25 years!
- Singapore’s most famous cocktail – Singapore Sling – was initially known as Gin Sling, and concocted by Hainanese bartender Ngiam Tong Boon, in 1915. As it was improper for ladies to consume alcohol in public, this cocktail was concealed as a juice with the potency of a martini.
- Singapore has a total land area of just 683 square kilometres, making it one of 20 smallest countries in the world. The main island is 42km long and 23km wide.
- There are more than 3,000 kilometres of roads in Singapore which, stretched from end to end, would cover the distance from here to Hong Kong.
- Singapore has the world’s fastest walking speed, averaging 6.15km per hour! That’s also how fast bumblebees fly.
- Singapore oldest person is Fadilah Noor Abbe, who was a supercentenarian. She was 115 years old when she passed away in 2012.
- Singapore is made up of the island of Singapore itself and 60 smaller islands.
- Built in 2016 and exempted from the height limit of 280m in CBD zone, Tanjong Pagar Centre is Singapore’s tallest building at 290m tall.
- Bukit Timah Hill is the “Mount Everest” of Singapore, standing tall at 163.63 metres.
- Singapore has the biggest Yakult bottles in Southeast Asia, and the most expensive.
- In 1993, XDel was known as H&D – characters taken from the names of the two business partners. D left the business on the first day of business while today, Harold is steering the ship of XDel and growing the business locally and globally.
- Singapore’s first name was Temasek which literally meant sea town.
- Singapore became the 117th member of the United Nations on 21 September 1965.
- Singapore’s original chili crab dish can be found at Roland Restaurant.
- Singapore is also the name of one of Michigan’s famous ghost towns, founded in 1837 as a lumber port town. The town was supposedly named after this little red dot, to attract boat traffic along Lake Michigan.
- In 1965, a baby was born every 11 minutes! Some patients had no beds in Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH), and delivery had to take place with the patients lying on the floor.
- The Family Planning and Population Board (FPPB) was subsequently established in January 1966 to curb Singapore’s high birth rate with limited resources.
- Singapore’s Night Safari is the world’s first ever night zoo.
- The lowest temperature ever recorded in Singapore was on 31 January 1934, at 19.4°C.
- Evergreen National Day songs “Stand Up for Singapore” (1984), “Count On Me, Singapore” (1986), and “We Are Singapore” (1987), were penned by a Canadian named Hugh Harrison.
- XDel offers a range of express delivery services – starting at 3.5hours and the fastest within 1.5hours.
- Singapore has changed time zones 6 timessince 1905.
- The longest stretch of road in Singapore is the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE), at 42.8km.
- If all the notes in circulation are put side by side, they would go round Singapore’s coastline 633 times.
- If all the coins in circulation are stacked one on top of another, they would be 710 times higher than Mt Everest.
- More Singaporeans are born in the month of October than any other month of the year.
- Singapore started the world’s first international organization for toilets – the World Toilet Organisation (WTO) – founded by Jack Sim in 2001, to provide proper sanitation to less developed areas of the world, and make sure that no one gets away without flushing!
- Toa Payoh was the first MRT stationin Singapore, completed on 5 August 1985.
- There are 107markets and hawker centres in Singapore.
- Chinatown Market is Singapore’s biggest market / hawker centre, with 703 stores.
- Since 2011, XDel offers our clients the easy option to put in their delivery orders online, instead of calling in. Customers can also track live on job status.
- Singapore’s first television transmission was 1 hour and 40 minutes long, showing a short film on Singapore, a cartoon, the news, a half-hour feature, and a variety show.
- Singapore’s first multi-storey carparkwas at Market Street.
- The Singapore Flyer was initially rotating in a counter-clockwise direction but it changed direction on 28 July 2008 when geomancers pointed out that the flyer was “taking fortune away from Singapore” with the direction of its rotation.
- The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.
- Ainan Celeste Cawley was only 7 years and 1 month when he took the GCE ‘O’ Level Chemistry paper and passed, making him the youngest in the world to do so.
- Singapore’s first NS enlistee was Mr Albel Singh, who was first in line for national service (NS) registration at the Central Manpower Base in Dempsey Road.
- The Sir Stamford Raffles statue in front of Victoria Theatre at Empress Place is the original statue. It was relocated from the Padang in 1919.
- Bukit Timah Nature Reserves has more species of trees than the whole of North America.
- Singapore’s Teh Tarik ice cream is trade-marked by Stanley Kwok, founder of ice-cream parlour, Island Creamery.
- Beside delivering island-wide in Singapore, XDel also provides international and cross border delivery services.
- A&W was the first fast food chain to set up shop in Singapore. The very first A&W was at the SIA building on Robinson Road in 1968.
- Chewing gum was officially banned nationwide in January 1992.
- As Singapore is a Commonwealth member, Singapore citizens have rights to vote in all elections in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.