64
64 is not really that special. Thus, its popularity in modern culture is somewhat perplexing. In fact, such popularity is largely down to chance - when Queen Victoria gave her famous speech in 1864 nobody knew of the number. Previous to this, it was more commonly known as heebleskerk and forty.
“64! 64! Annuo sixty fouuuuuur!”
Since this legendary announcement, society has clamoured to jump on the 64 bandwagon. Indeed, the Western world would celebrate 19:64 hours (8:04pm) every day subsequently and of course the year 1964. The UK went on to build both the M54 and A54 whilst the US and the continent of Australia has numerous Highway 64s.
Pretty soon it became standard practice to add '64' to the end of products to make them sound cooler. The Commodore 64, Nintendo 64 and Squirrel 64 (lesser known brand of washing powder) were subsequently manufactured whilst The Beatles' When I'm 64 was infinitely more popular than the previously released When I'm. Whilst the latter flopped, the former reached number 0.54 in the charts (it was before Britain went metric, remember).
64 in books
- 1964, novel by Dave Orwell, George's innumerate brother
- 64,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Pi is 64! by Elvis Costello
- 64 fish by Dave Orwell's cat