Over the ages, people have attributed many facts to numbers.
Numerology, superstition, important dates, and so many other things cling to various numbers, which in some cases gives them great significance!
Today let’s take a look at 15 fun facts about the number 15.
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar himself is warned to beware the 15th of March.
Because it was written by Shakespeare, it was actually “Beware the ides of March.”
What are the Ides, and what has this got to do with the number 15?
Well, the Ides are the last day of the second week in the Roman calendar.
In many months, this was actually the 13th day, but in March, it was the 15th.
This is because the Roman calendar actually had weeks of seven and eight days!
Andy Warhol thought that all people in the future would be famous for 15 minutes.
Famed Pop Artist Andy Warhol released an exhibition in 1968 at the Moderna Museet Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden.
While there, he was quoted saying, “In the future, everybody will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.”
With the rise of social media platforms such as TikTok, this couldn’t be more true these days!
The chemical element phosphorous has the atomic number 15.
In its pure form, phosphorous is highly reactive, but not to worry, as it’s not actually found in this form on Earth.
It also belongs to the 15th group of the periodic table of elements known as pnictogens.
When people talk of something glowing, they often call it phosphorescent; even though, in most cases, it doesn’t actually involve phosphorous!
A fifteenth wedding anniversary is called a crystal anniversary.
Many people celebrate wedding anniversaries, and some follow a guideline on how to celebrate it.
A one-year anniversary is a cotton anniversary, while a tenth anniversary is a tin anniversary.
Why the number fifteen is connected to crystal is anyone’s guess!
In Hebrew, the number 15 is spelled out a little differently.
This is because the two words, which normally make up fifteen, ten (yodh) and five (heh), when joined together, make up one of the Jewish words for God!
To avoid this, the number fifteen is actually made up of the words for nine (teth) and six (vav).
The number to call emergency services in Pakistan is 15.
In the US, you would call 911 if you had an emergency, but that wouldn’t work in Pakistan.
I’m not sure if dialing one less number would really aid you in an emergency, but the good news is that you can dial that number from a mobile phone even if it doesn’t have a sim card in it or it’s locked.
The Cook Islands’ flag has fifteen stars on it.
This flag will be a bit of a familiar sight if you’ve come across the flags of Australia and New Zealand.
However, what stands out are the fifteen stars that make up the shape of a circle on the flag.
The Cook Islands are a group of fifteen islands, and each star represents each island.
However, the blue background is said to represent both the peaceable nature of those who live there and the ocean itself.
Players in backgammon each start with fifteen checkers.
Backgammon is one of the oldest known board games in the world.
The game has been traced back about 5,000 years to Mesopotamia (a region that today includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and a few other countries).
Scrabble also has a connection to the number 15.
You don’t start with 15 pieces each, but play the game on a board with a grid of 15×15 squares.
This allows for 225 spaces on which players can place their letters, of which there are just 100.
No matter how long you play, a game of Scrabble for you can’t fill up even half the board, no matter how messy it looks!
A birthday party that celebrates a girl turning 15 is not actually called a quinceañera.
Not in Mexico, anyway!
It’s traditional in Mexico and a few other Latin American countries to hold a festival to celebrate young girls’ coming of age.
While this celebration is often called a quinceañera in the US, this isn’t exactly correct.
The celebration itself is actually called the fiesta de quince años.
When celebrated in Mexico, or other Latin American countries, the title quinceañera is usually reserved for the birthday girl herself.
It was traditionally a coming-of-age ceremony, after which point the girl would be old enough and educated enough to be presented to suitors.
The fifteenth president of the USA was James Buchanan, who served for one term from 1857 to 1861.
He represented the Democrat party and is actually listed as one of the worst US Presidents of all time due to ignoring the pressing issue of slavery at the time.
The following US President was Abraham Lincoln.
In 2008 Taylor Swift released a song titled Fifteen.
She released it in her second studio album, Fearless, which was released on November 11, 2008, by Big Machine Records.
In Fifteen, Taylor Swift sang about life for her at the age of 15 and even included some words of wisdom for girls of a similar age who were going into their first year of high school.
In the UK, people aged 15 can be sent to prison to await their trial.
While this sounds extreme, it’s only ever actually enforced in special circumstances.
While we’re on the topic of extremes, in Ethiopia, one is legally allowed to consume alcohol from the age of fifteen.
In Indonesia, Myanmar, and Yemen, 15 is the age at which one is considered a legal adult!
Several Gaelic sports from Ireland are played in teams of fifteen.
These include the more commonly known men’s and women’s leagues of Gaelic football, as well as hurling and camogie.
Rugby Union is another game that is played in teams of fifteen.
On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to join the United States of America.
Commonly nicknamed the Bluegrass State, most people these days from around the world would know it for one thing, and one thing alone – Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
Ironically, the first KFC restaurant wasn’t even in Kentucky but in Utah!
The number 15 is a pretty cool number, really.
Not only does it hold special significance as a sort of coming of age (beat that Sweet Sixteen!), but it’s got ties to many pretty classic board games – one of which is more than 5,000 years old!
Whatever the reason, we sure are fans of this fun number!
