How much of your day was invented in Britain? More than you'd ever guess. 🇬🇧 Follow one ordinary family through one ordinary Friday. Six things ordinary Brits gave the world. They won't notice a single one. And the last one, just before bed, is the biggest of all. 🎥 The little lights down the middle of the road. 🚗 Invented by a mill lad who left school at thirteen. So the story goes, a cat on a fence saved his life. The stamp on the post. ✉️ Before 1840, the person receiving a letter paid for it. One letter could cost more than a day's wages. A servant girl handed hers back. It was blank. The marks on the outside were a code from her sweetheart. School for every child. 🏫 A cobbler in Portsmouth taught poor children for nothing. He won them over with hot baked potatoes. Saturday football. ⚽ Arsenal began with fifteen workers who chipped in sixpence each for a ball. 999. ☎️ Born out of one terrible night in London in 1935. A call for help that never got through. And the front door. 🚪 In 1762, four of the King's men forced their way into a schoolmaster's home. John Entick took them to court. The judge's answer: unless the law allows it, nobody comes in. Not even the King's men. Not one of them was a king. 👑 They teach you history is kings and parliaments. Not that your ordinary day was built by ordinary people. Watch the full story. 🎥 People like you built all of this once. We can build together again. Count yourself in: proudofus.co.uk Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧 Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

They teach you the world got connected in the 1990s. 
Not that a British ship did it in 1866. 🇬🇧 Watch the full story. 🎥 When Abraham Lincoln was shot, London didn’t find out for twelve days. ⏳ An American called Cyrus Field dreamed of a wire under the ocean. 
But nobody in America could make it. Only Britain could. 🇬🇧🏭 Two warships tried to lay it. HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara. 🚢 
It snapped. It broke. Again and again. 💔 In August 1858 it finally held. America went wild. 🎆 
Three weeks later the cable was dead. For seven years the ocean stayed silent.
Then Britain took it on. 🇬🇧 A new cable from Greenwich. 
The only ship on earth big enough to carry it: Brunel’s giant, the Great Eastern. ⚓ In 1865, twelve hundred miles out, the cable snapped. 
It sank more than two miles down. 🌊 Most people would have given up… 
They made another cable instead. 💪 July 1866. Heart’s Content, Newfoundland. 
Britain and America were joined. News that took twelve days now took minutes. ⚡ But the job wasn’t finished. 
They went back for the cable they’d lost. Two and a half miles down. Nearly thirty attempts. 🪝 Then the spot of light moved. 
The cable was alive. ✨ The wharf is still there in Greenwich. The house on it is a pub now. 
You can drink a pint where the world was wired. 🍺 We come from people who go back for it. 🇬🇧 Help us bring Britain back up from the dark: proudofus.co.uk Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧
Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

There's an old saying: "A mine is a hole in the ground with a Cornishman at the bottom of it. ⛏️" For a hundred years, it was true almost everywhere on earth. 🌍 Cornwall had been mining tin since the Bronze Age. Its miners built giant engines to pump the water out of the deepest mines. ⚙️ Then, in the 1860s, copper crashed. Tin followed. The mines closed. Families had a choice. Go hungry. Or go. 💔 Around a quarter of a million people left Cornwall. To America. To Australia. To South Africa. To Mexico. 🚢 The world called them Cousin Jacks. The story goes, whenever a boss needed another man, a Cornish miner would say, "My cousin Jack could do that." 😄 In Mexico, they brought their dinner. The pasty. Mexicans still eat them today. They call them pastes. With chilli in. 🌶️ After their shifts, they kicked a ball about. They started Mexico's first football club. Pachuca. Still playing today. ⚽ Above the old mines in Mexico, there's a little English cemetery. Every grave turned to face home. 🙏 They teach you Britain sent soldiers around the world. Not that it sent miners. With their skills, their football and their dinner. 🇬🇧 A little corner of this island taught the whole world how to dig. Your country did that. Hardly anyone knows. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Help us tell the world. 👇 proudofus.co.uk/support Be Part Of Us. ☝️🇬🇧 Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧