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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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swimming the Channel
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The first man to swim across the Strait of Dover was a captain in the British merchant navy, Matthew Webb, who on 24–5 August 1875 swam the 34km/21m from Dover to Calais in 21hr 45min. It was another 51 years before the first woman achieved the feat (Gertrude Ederle from the USA, taking 14hr 39min on 6 August 1926). Since then extraordinary records have proliferated, such as a fastest time by either sex of 7hr 40min (Penny Dean, USA, 29 July 1978); a girl of 12 making the crossing in 1983 (Samantha Druce, UK, 15hr 27min) and a boy of 11 in 1988 (Thomas Gregory, UK, 11hr 54min); a British swimmer, Michael Read, achieving a total of 31 crossings between 1969 and 1984, six of them in one year; and the fastest ever triple crossing (England to France to England to France in one continuous swim of 28hr 21min) by the New Zealander Philip Rush in 1987.
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