777 facts about the number 7

page six

556

In the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is player number seven in his house Quidditch team.

557

And in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, there was a fact about the number seven which leapt out at me and which I forgot to write down. If I watch the film again I'll try and remember to.

558

The legend of the Flood, as described in Genesis, has many references to the number seven. From vii 1-10: "Yahweh said to Noah, 'Go aboard the ark, you and all your household, for you alone among this generation do I see as a good man in my judgement. Of all the clean animals [those deemed fit for sacrifice or consumption] you must take seven of each kind, both male and female; of the unclean [some suggest that only herbivores were selected] animals you must take two, a male and its female (and of the birds of heaven also, seven of each kind, both male and female), to propagate their kind over the whole earth. For in seven days' time I mean to make it rain on the earth for forty days and nights, and I will rid the earth of every living thing that I made.' Seven days later the waters of the Flood appeared on the earth . . ."
A curious thing is that, in the same part of Genesis, we find that Noah took on board the Ark only two of each kind of creature, even the "clean" ones - although he did take seven human beings with him (his wife, his three sons, their three wives).
More sevens appear in the Flood story. Noah's three releases of the dove occurred at seven-day intervals. The Flood started on the 17th day of a month and ended on the 27th day of a month. The highest mountains on earth were said to be submerged under floodwater to a depth of about seven metres. And at the end of the Flood Noah's son Shem was aged 98, which is a multiple of seven (7 x 14). 

559

On 16th September, 2004, I received by e-mail a picture of seven stages of evolution.

560

In the Wallace and Gromit film A Close Shave, Wendolene’s wool shop has a motorised sheep in the window juggling seven balls of wool.

561

An Egyptian decorated chest from the trove of Tutankhamen depicts the Pharaoh hunting a lion whilst seven other lions lay dead.

562

Ed Gein, cannibalistic Psycho-inspiring serial killer, died in Mendota Mental Health Institute geriatric ward in 1984, aged seventy-seven.

563

The demon Asmodeus understandably became known as the 'Demon of Matrimonial Unhappiness' after he fell in love with Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, and caused the deaths of her first seven husbands on their wedding nights. Tobias, son of Tobit, was her eighth husband, and was made of sterner stuff. On the advice of the angel Raphael he concocted a charm from the heart and liver of a fish, which he placed upon burning incense. The demon fled, choking and spitting, from the noxious stench, to be captured and enshackled by Raphael in Egypt. The lucky Tobias lived happily to the age of 117.

564

A US one-time Park Ranger called Roy Sullivan has been seven times struck by lightning - in 1942, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1976 and 1977 - and still lives to tell the tale. He admits to no mortal sins, and cannot understand why he should be the target for so many thunderbolts.

565

The seventh state of the Union was Maryland, which ratified the US Constitution on 28th April, 1788.

566

Findchu, a legendary Irish ascetic, believed so much in the power of seven that he made seven smiths construct seven sickles with which he flogged himself for seven years. In so doing, he won a new place in Heaven.

567

In an early Chinese Creation myth, Tao (God) created a hairy dwarf called P'an Ku; from his eyes shone light and from his mouth came forth the winds. P'an Ku created the Sun and planets by saying their names seven times.
When P'an Ku died his feet formed the mountains of the west, his arms those of the north and south, and his head the mountains of the east. His coursing blood became the rivers, his hair the plants; and the insect pests on his skin evolved to become the animals, including Man.

568

The Seven Sages of Ancient Greece and Asia Minor were: (1) Thales of Miletus (early 6th century BC), Bias of Priene (6th century BC), Cleobulus of Lindus in Rhodes (6th century BC), Periander of Corinth (c625-c585BC), Solon of Athens (c639-559BC), Pittacus of Mitylene (c650-c570BC) and Chilon of Sparta (fl560BC).

569

There are seven holy angels: Abdiel, Gabriel, Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Simiel and Uriel.

570

The Endless Peace Treaty, signed in AD533 between Persia and the Holy Roman Empire, kept the peace for seven years.

571

Apparently the Jewish custom of slaughtering animals involves the cutting of the animal’s throat in seven places.

572

Timothy Leary recorded and released an album with the Ashra Temple titled Seven Up.

573

The seven proofs of God’s existence is one of the themes to be found in the Russian novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

574

The human knee joint has seven muscles.

575

On Friday 11th August, 2oo6, I saw seven concrete construction slabs on a pavement in Berlin at 3.47pm.

576

In areas where they thrive, there can be an estimated seven million earthworms in a single hectare of soil.

577

578

The largest known single robbery of gold occurred from Unit Seven of the Brinks Mat warehouse in 1983.

579

The Sound of Music, an evidently popular musical film, features the Von Trapp family which includes seven children:

• Leisl, age 16
• Freidrich, age 14
• Louisa, age 13
• Kurt, age 11
• Brigitta, age 10
• Marta, age 6 (7 on Tuesday)
• Gretl, age 5

580

According to the Theosophical Society, mankind will have in its history a total of seven root races, of which we are the fifth - the third root race was the Lemurians and the fourth lived on Atlantis. Each root race has produced / will produce in turn seven subraces: so far our root race has had five subraces, although the sixth is at the moment making its appearance in California.

581

“Rain before seven, fine before eleven.”

586

In the film AI David was imprinted upon his mommy by her speaking of a sequence of seven words: “cirrus, Socrates, particle, decibel, hurricane, dolphin, tulip”.

587

On 19th November, 2002, the twenty-six year old vessel Le Prestige ran aground off the West Coast of Spain, spilling 77,000 metric tons of fuel oil into the sea.

588

The Ancient Egyptians used a system of measurement in which seven palms made one cubit.

589

The Seven Churches of Asia, founded by the apostles, were at Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamum, Philadelphia (in Turkey), Sardis, Smyrna, and Thyatira. It is to these Seven Churches that The Book of Revelation is addressed and it is tempting to think that the many recurrences of sets of seven in Revelation are a result of the attempt to symbolize these churches. At a guess, such a supposition is oversimplistic. Revelation is a mystic work, and it is clear that its author(s) were steeped in numerological lore: they would have been fully aware of the significance of seven.
Here is a list of seven-ish things in Revelation (references are in the main to first appearances only):
The Seven Churches of Asia (i 4); the seven spirits before God's throne (i 4); the seven golden lampstands (i 12); .the seven stars (i 16); the seven flaming lamps burning (iv 5); the scroll sealed with seven seals (v 1); the lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (v 6); the seven angels who stand in the presence of the Lord and the seven trumpets they blow (viii 2 to x 19 passim); the seven words like thunderclaps which the seer must not record (x 3-4); the seven thousands who shall die by the wrath of God (xi 13); the seven-headed dragon (xii 3); the seven-headed beast who appears in xiii; the seven angels who bring the seven last plagues (xv 1), who are given seven bowls of God's wrath (xv seven) which they spill upon the Earth (xvi); yet another seven-headed beast (xvii 3ff).
Astride this last beast there rides a whore (the "Whore of Babylon"). An angel explains to the seer (xvii 9) that its seven heads represent the seven hills astride which sits a whore (clearly Rome); also that the seven heads represent, in addition, seven emperors.

590

Seven black cats live on Oxford Road Station in Manchester, UK. There is a sign in the window of the guard’s office informing everyone of this. (I have not yet received the photographic proof I was promised, however).

The Greek legend of the Seven Against Thebes is rooted in the disputes between Oedipus' twin sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, whom he had cursed before his death. They were unable to agree as to which of them was to occupy the throne of Thebes following their father's death, and so decided that each would reign in alternate years. However, at the end of Eteocles' first year he refused to let his brother Polyneices take over. King Adrastus of Argos, Polyneices' brand-new father-in-law, took up arms against Eteocles, the seven generals of his army being (according to Aeschylus' version) Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polyneices and Tydeus (another of Adrastus' sons-in-law). In the ensuing war, Polyneices and Eteocles killed each other - thereby fulfilling Oedipus' curse.
The Thebans won the war, though. A generation later Adrastus returned to the attack, aided by the sons of the great seven, the Epigoni. This time he was successful, but unfortunately died on his way back home to Argos.

Male millipedes do not have a penis – instead, one of the legs on the seventh segment is a modified sperm-delivering organ.

Here’s a picture of seven men sporting large fake penises, pushing them along in wheelbarrows.

594

45rpm records are 7" circles.

595

The Amazon is the world’s biggest river in terms of the size of its basin, which covers almost seven million square kilometres of land belonging to seven different countries.

596

The seventh day after the Full Moon is believed to be the ideal time for a couple to meet and fall in love. This seems to be curiously linked with another time of inflamed passions: statistical research published in 1968 showed that the seventh day after the New Moon is the most popular day for arsonists (generally male, and generally teenagers) to strike.

597

The association of the number seven with the image of the dove is a profound one in Christian symbolism. In particular, the dove may represent the Holy Ghost, which is why in Church art you often see a dove with seven rays issuing from it (especially in stained glass windows) or a flight of seven doves. Here the seven represents the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost: counsel, fear of the Lord, fortitude, knowledge, piety, understanding and wisdom.

598

Until very recently in the UK the 'period of initiation into adulthood' was a multiple of seven - 21 years.

599

In the early 16th century there were reported from the southwest of North America seven golden cities, the 'Seven Cities of Cibola', and the tales drew many fortune-seeking expeditions, among them that led in 1540 by Coronado, 1300 men strong. The 'golden cities' were never found, and it seems likely that the reports were corrupted accounts of a group of pueblos.

600

For the universe to exist it requires that hydrogen be converted to helium in a precise manner that enables 0.07% of its mass to energy.

601

In 1948, scientist Clair Patterson embarked on a seven-year long experiment to try and determine the age of the Earth – 4550 million years give or take 70 million years, according to the results of the experiment.

602

In 1688 the Seven Bishops - Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishops Ken (of Bath and Wells), Lake (of Chichester), Lloyd (of St Asaph's), Trelawny (of Bristol), Turner (of Ely) and White (of Peterborough) - signed a petition urging that the clergy should not be obliged to read out in church James II's Declaration of Indulgence, which sought to grant religious freedom to Dissenters and Catholics. The Seven Bishops were brought to trial on a charge of seditious libel, but were acquitted.

603

The highest recorded TV audience in Holland was in 1972, when 77% of the public was watching. The broadcast concerned wasn't of any importance, not the Apollo 16 or Apollo 17 landings on the Moon for example: it was a quiz show.

604

On Wednesday, December 27, 2006, at 6.30pm, a helicopter out of Blackpool Airport (a twenty-year-old Eurocopter AS365N) crashed close to an oilrig 24-miles off-shore, killing seven people.
The dead were: pilots Stephen Potton, from Blackpool and Simon Foddering, from Preston; Passengers Robert Warburton, from Heysham, Leslie Ahmed, from South Shields, John Shaw, from Kirkcaldy, Alfred Neasham, from Durham and Keith Smith from Stockton-on-Tees. 

605

According to Thomas Nash (1567-1601) there are seven stages of drunkenness, each having a different bestial characteristic. The seven are: ape-drunk, lion-drunk, swine-drunk, sheep-drunk, Martin-drunk, goat-drunk and fox-drunk.
(To explain Martin-drunk: Nash violently opposed Puritanism, especially as enshrined in the satirical pamphlets written in 1588-89 by "Martin Marprelate". The three authors of these (the three original Martinists), Penry, Throckmorton and Udall (not the author of Ralph Roister Doister and headmaster of Eton) were brought to trial for dissent.
Penry was executed, Udall died in prison, and Throckmorton perjured himself in order to obtain release).

606

607

There are seven Pontin’s holiday camps in the UK.

608

It has been estimated that, through the habits of mankind, the volume of carbon released into the atmosphere of Earth increases by seven billion tonnes each year.

609

The seven Spirits of God are the spirits of counsel, divine awfulness, knowledge, power, righteousness, understanding and wisdom.

610

It has been the invariable habit of number-symbologists to refer the number seven to the seven classical 'planets' known to the ancients, each of which is associated with one of the gods of the Roman pantheon. These are the sun and the moon plus the five 'naked-eye' planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The alchemists associated each of seven metals with the planetary gods:

• Sun - Gold
• Moon - Silver
• Mercury - Quicksilver (now generally called Mercury)
• Venus - Copper
• Mars - Iron
• Jupiter - Tin
• Saturn - Lead

611

Seventy seven million pirate CDs are sold in the UK each year.

612

To the ancients, there seemed to be rather a lot of sets of seven around. Most important of these sets was the week of seven days, especially once it began to be believed that the Lord had created the Universe in seven days.
The reason for the week being seven days long is probably because it was deemed important to have a week-length which could be divided into the length of the lunar month, about 28 days. Seven was the obvious number of days to opt for, since the week then corresponded to one of the phases of the Moon: where we might say "I'll see you on Tuesday the 31st of June" our ancestors probably said something like "I'll see you two days after the next full Moon".
The seven days of the week also relate to the planets:

• Sunday to the Sun
• Monday to the Moon
• Tuesday to Mars
• Wednesday to Mercury
• Thursday to Jupiter
• Friday to Venus
• Saturday to Saturn

613

In the film Tron, Jeff Bridges’ character Flynn fights 'one of his own kind' for the first time on a platform made up of seven concentric circles.

614

615

616

Here’s a picture of seven puppies (all together, now: "Aaaaaaah!").

617

 “. . . the clever little honey bee has about seven thousand nerve cells.”

618

There is a group of physicists who are trying to find out whether the laws of physics can handle the existence of CTLs* in 'a reasonable way', which consists of seven researchers based on two continents.
(*Closed Timelike Loop - a journey through space and time that returns to its starting point in both space and time, and therefore must involve travelling backwards in time for part of the journey. CTLs are not forbidden by the laws of physics).

619

In a Native American myth called The Battle of the Drums, Lone Man steals Hoita the Spotted Eagle's white hide coat by whistling up the wind. The coat was whisked from his back and blown 'through the arch of a rainbow which touched it with seven colours along with a glisten of dew'.

620

The incidence of injuries and deaths for cats falling from high buildings peaks for falls of around seven stories (and decreases for falls from greater heights).

621

In the book In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, the chapter called A Lot Of Goodnights (on page 28, which is seven times four) includes the word 'goodnight' seven times.

622

The average American watches TV for seven hours a day.

623

In the process of farming without pasture and fattening animals for slaughter, it takes seven kilograms of cereal to produce one kilogram of beef.

624

Damon McDonald has worked on the travelling fairground for the last seven years, and when he was showing me a picture of one of the rides he's worked on - the Scream Machine - I was delighted to see which carriage was facing the camera.

625

America's Alert Conditions (LERTCONs) are divided into seven different stages - five Defence Conditions (DEFCONs) and 2 Emergency Conditions (EMERGCONs, which are national level reactions in response to ICBM [missiles in the air] attack. By definition, other forces go to DEFCON 1 during an EMERGCON):

• DEFCON 5 - Normal peacetime readiness
• DEFCON 4 - Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures 
• DEFCON 3 - Increase in force readiness above normal readiness 
• DEFCON 2 - Further increase in force readiness, but less than maximum readiness 
• DEFCON 1 - Maximum force readiness
• DEFENCE EMERGENCY - Major attack upon U.S. forces overseas, or allied forces in any area
• AIR DEFENCE EMERGENCY: Attack upon the continental United States, Canada, or US installations in Greenland by hostile aircraft or missiles is considered probable, is imminent, or is taking place

626

Kofi A. Annan of Ghana is the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations.

627

In a Roman Myth called Cupid and Psyche, Psyche, whilst searching for her lover Cupid, comes to the Temple of Venus, Godess of Love, and asks for help. Venus agrees to help on the condition that Psyche becomes her slave for seven years.

628

My brother's Dualit toaster has seven vertical vents cut into the metal casing (either for ventilation, or simply as a design feature).

629

On the 25th and 27th May, 2007, I moved the entire contents of Mark and Sharon (and Martha and Bede)'s house to their new home across town in Preston, UK. This took seven trips in my van.

630

All UK mobile telephone numbers begin with the digits 07.

631

The Double Deckers was a 1970s children's television show featuring seven children having 'fun and laughter' on a London Double Decker bus. The children were:

• Peter Firth as Scooper
• Brinsley Forde as Spring
• Gillian Bailey as Billie
• Michael Audreson as Brains
• Douglas Simmonds as Doughnut
• Bruce Clark as Sticks
• Debbie Russ as Tiger

632

In Korean mythology there is a figure called Kim Su Ro who was born out of a golden egg and reached adulthood in only seven years. Today, some six million of South Korea's 33.5-million population bear the name Kim and claim direct descent from him.

633

In the song Planet Claire, the B52s tell us that "she came from Mars, or one of the seven stars".

634

The symbolic “Doomsday Clock”, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world (with midnight marking global catastrophe), is currently set at seven minutes to midnight.

635

The Batak people of Sumatra believe that all plants, trees, fish and animals came from seven eggs.

636

In the Sumerian version of the caduceus the serpents have seven 'crossings', including the base, where the two tails are wrapped round each other, and the top, where the two heads face each other, the extended tongues almost touching.

637

There are seven notes in the diatonic scale.

638

In the film Best in Show, the final of the competition (whereby the winners of all categories are judged against each other) consists of seven dogs.

639

I just skim-read a newspaper article at my dad's house where I read that Ian Botham holds a record for being on some cricket leaderboard or other seven times, but I can't remember the exact facts.

640

Jesus Christ was born in 7 BC.

641

John Wilkes, member of Parliament for Aylesbury in 1757, was quite a radical politician who criticized King George III for appointing a crony, the Earl of Bute, as Prime Minister. He made other such attacks on the administration, which eventually lead to a prosecution against him for seditious libel. This prosecution was unsuccessful and he remained free, but the case stirred up public sympathy and made him a champion of liberty. In 1768 he was arrested, and a crowd of 10,000 people turned up to protest at the London prison where he was being held. Troops opened fire and killed seven people.

642

On the seventh of July 2007 (07 / 07 / 07), Japanese artistes The Boredoms assembled seventy-seven drummers for a live performance in New York.

643

Visiting this webpage:
http://dura.cell.free.fr/home/swf/arms12.swf
will allow you to play with a strangely satisfying interactive toy featuring seven bodies (and a ball).
At least it would, had it not disappeared from the web when I just checked.

644

The phrase "in seventh heaven", signifying "ecstatically happy", comes from the geocentric idea that each of the seven classical planets went around the Earth embedded in a separate sphere or "heaven". According to some elements of Judaism and to the Koran, the seventh and highest of these "heavens" was occupied by God and the angels.

645

In the film Hot Fuzz, the character Nick Angel's police number is 777.

646

Question: "A group of seven people arrived at a hotel late one night and asked for seven rooms. The hotelier actually only had six rooms available but said he would try and help. He put the first person in the first room and asked the second to wait a moment. Then he placed the third person in the second room, the fourth in the third room, and the fifth in the fourth room. Finally he placed the sixth in the fifth room and went back for the seventh person, who he placed in the sixth room. Are all the people satisfied?"
(Answer: The second person still doesn't have a room).

647

In a Welsh legend called The Bronze Cauldron, Old White Sow the witch kicks Boy Gwion seven times each day.

648

Gregor Mendel’s first experiments in genealogy used seven varieties of pea plant.

649

In a book of Shakespeare's sonnets published in 1609, there are 154 (7 X 22) sonnets - all Shakespearean sonnets have fourteen lines with seven pairs of rhymes, in the rhyming format ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

650

The Violent Femmes song Country Death Song features the lyric: ". . . close your eyes dear and count to seven . . ."

651

There is a huge sea serpent of Scottish folklore – Cirein Croin – that was so big his meals consisted of seven whales.

652

I received a postcard bearing an image titled 'Seven Keys' on 13th February 2007 from Dan Whaley. This was to accompany a CD-R he had made me containing seven songs:

• Seven and Seven Is - Billy Bragg
• Seventh Veil - The Woggles
• The Seventh Son - Dion
• Party Seven - Big Boss Man
• Seven Days - The Milkshakes
• Seven Heures du Matin - Jacqueline Taieb
• Seven Thunders - Killdozer

Septabulous!

653

The Pumf Records compilation CD godspunk volume five features a track by the Charles Napiers titled Things've Changed Round Here which was written ("well, it was improvised in the studio - do you write an improvisation?") as a piece of incidental music for a screenplay written by a friend of theirs entitled Eight Minus One, which of course equals . . .

654

In the beginning, King John said let there be seven streets [in Liverpool, England] and this was done.

655

The Morphine song Slow Numbers contains the lyric: 'Number seven's lucky in Japan, here we don't give a damn'.

656

In a Kenyan Myth called The Men in the Moon, Murilay takes a trip to the moon and, having introduced fire (and the pleasures of eating cooked food) to the Chief of the Moon, is offered all seven of the Chief's daughters as wives. Later in the story, when Murilay is homesick and travelling back to Earth with his wives and cattle, he sends a mockingbird ahead to tell his parents of his imminent arrival. Upon hearing this announcement, father replies, ". . . My Murilay is dead these seven years!"

657

An illustrator friend of mine, who has been commissioned to produce a series of drawings for a book, told me seven of the reasons that certain of his illustrations had been rejected:
   1) may offend dustbinmen.
   2) too sexually sinister
   3) looks like an alien
   4) may offend people with wooden legs
   5) could you change the lightbulb for a windmill
   6) looks like a sinister clown
   7) we don't understand the relevance of seahorses

658

Legendary soul musician Ray Charles, born in Georgia in 1930, lost his sight from glaucoma at the age of seven.

In the book Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle there is a story titled Stroke of Good Luck. It tells of the experiences of a young boy who has his appendix removed in hospital and, in the after-care service, has a sperm test (taken manually by a female nurse). The chapter ends with the line, ". . . and the whole deal only cost my father seven hundred dollars".

Camels can go seven days without water.

663

It takes seven years for a death certificate to be issued after reporting a missing person if there is no body.

664

The first X-ray astronomy satellite, named Uhuru (the Swahili word for 'freedom'), was launched on 12th December 1970, a date chosen because it marked the seventh anniversary of the independence of Kenya from British Colonial rule.

665

Stars are classified by colour in terms of a system worked out at the Harvard College Observatory in the early 1900s, using the seven labels O, B, A, F, G, K and M. This classification system is made memorable by a mnemonic invented in those days of unthinking male chauvinism, which runs "Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me".

666

In a Myth from Ancient Egypt called A Bloodthirsty Tale, Hathor, the third eye of Re, ruler of the world of people on Earth as well as the family of gods in Heaven, kills many humans as a small punishment toward the whole human race. In order to stop her killing the rest the following day, Re hatches a cunning plan in which he mixes together dusty dye and seven thousand pints of foaming beer, then pours out seven thousand jugs of oozing redness on to the ground.