Geography Factchain
A collection of surprising geography facts that I've shared over the years. Each fact was originally posted as part of a Twitter thread.
Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is larger in land area than the entire state of Deleware.
World War 1 officially ended in my hometown of Bridgewater, NJ. The spot is now a Burger King.
Brigadier Sir Nils Olav, an appointed knight, is colonel-in-chief of the Norwegian Royal Guard. He's also a penguin.
The Great Wall of China is over 5 times longer than the distance from NYC to LA.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Switzerland's official name, Confederatio Helvetica, is in Latin (instead of one of their 4 national languages). It also isn't even a confederation.
There is more fresh water contained in Loch Ness than in all rivers and lakes in England and Wales combined.
The name of the country Timor Leste means "East East" etymologically, from Indonesian and Portuguese respectively.
Antarctica's ice sheets contain 70% of the freshwater on Earth, and 90% of the ice.
You could travel by boat on a perfectly straight line (along a great circle) from Pakistan to Siberia.
There are over 40 wild hippos living in Columbia descended from a group that escaped from Pablo Escobar's personal zoo after his death.
The Gate Tower building in Osaka has a highway offramp going *through* the building.
Australia once lost a prime minister. As in straight up couldn't find him. They never found him.
Costa Rica and Nicaragua almost got into a war because Nicaraguan soldiers accidentally invaded Costa Rica due to a Google Maps error.
Argentina and Chile once had a race to birth as many babies in Antarctica as possible. Out of the 11 born, it had a 0% infant mortality rate.
South Korea blasts KPop music over the DMZ at North Korea as a form of propoganda.
Australia built a 3500 mile long fence to keep dingoes on one side of the continent. It's been reasonably successful.
Australia once undertook a military operation called the Great Emu War to kill the continent's Emus. It was largely unsuccessful.
At its peak, the Kowloon Walled City had 50,000 people living in its 6.4 acres. That's a population density of 5 million /sq mile.
Last year the Singapore government had too large of a budget surplus so they "airdropped" up to $300 SGD back to all adult citizens.
French Polynesia, with a land area of 4,167 km², has territorial waters of 239,390 km² (~57x). It's exclusive economic zone is 4,767,242 km² (~1,144x).
If someone in Stamford, Connecticut, travels a straight line north, east, west, or south, the next state they will encounter will be New York.
Switzerland has nuclear shelters for 114% percent of the population. So it can take in some refugees.
The Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerhoden conducts open air democracy, where citizens gather in the town square annually to vote on issues by raising their hands. You can enter the voting area by presenting either your ID card or your family ancestral sword.
The anthem of St. Helena was written by someone who had only seen the island only through postcards.
Jamaica is the only country whose flag does not contain one of the colors red, white, or blue.
Every main road, bridge, and railway access into Switzerland (over 3000 locations) is lined with explosives and is prepared to blow at a moment’s notice in case of a foreign invasion.
Uzbekistan and Lichtenstein are double landlocked. They're both completely surrounded by landlocked countries.
Hawaii used to be called the Sandwich Islands. In honor of the Earl of Sandwich.
Due to a constitutional loophole, there's a 50 sq mile region in Yellowstone National Park in which you can theoretically get away with any crime, including murder.
The country of Nieu has legal tender coins that feature characters from Disney, Star Wars, Pokemon, Dr. Who, etc
The state with the highest percentage of walking/biking commuters is Alaska.
In France, posthumous marriage is legal. You can marry your partner after they are dead if you can prove that they'd intended to marry before death.
The first Olympic flag went missing for 77 years after the 1920 games until a 1920 olympian revealed he’d had it in his suitcase the whole time.
The town of Centralia, PA has been on fire for over 50 years. 7 people still refuse to leave.
Papua New Guinea, a country with a population of ~8.25 million people, has over 820 spoken languages.
Even today, the sun doesn't set on the British empire (its 14 Overseas Territories).
Lake Baikal in Russia contains over 20% of the world's surface freshwater.
The President and Vice President of Nicaragua are married to each other.
Even though it is spoken in a region completely dominated by Romance languages (between France and Spain), Basque is a complete language isolate — it is not related to any known living language.
Washington D.C. has a population higher than two states but still has no congressional or electoral representation.
Finland has more saunas than cars. Approx 2 million saunas for a population of 5.3 million.
Quebec has an official "International Strategic Reserve" of Maple Syrup.
Japan is aging so rapidly, that its adult diaper sales are higher than baby diaper sales.
The name of the Six Flags amusement park refers to the 6 different nations that have governed Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States and the Confederate States of America
The Everglades are technically a river, not a swamp. The slowest in the world, with a flow of about 1 meter / hour.
Four colours can be used to colour all the countries on a world map so that no two adjacent countries share the same colour.
The Chicago River was reversed in 1900 by the Sanitary District of Chicago to stop pollution and waste from flowing into Lake Michigan, the city's primary water supply.
Lichtenstein and Haiti had identical national flags and no one realized until the two countries competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Afterwards, Lichtenstein added a gold crown to differentiate.
There is not enough space in the Vatican City, so the Italian embassy to the Holy See is in Italy.
Pakistan is the only UN State that doesn't recognize Armenia. It refuses to do so because it aligns with Turkey & Azerbaijan on issues of Armenian genocide denial and border conflicts. But Turkey and Azerbaijan both recognize Armenia.
The shortest regularly scheduled commercial flight is between the Scottish islands of Westray and Papa Westray. It’s in air for 53 seconds and travels 1.7 miles.
Until 2002 there was an agreement between Monaco and France that if the principality doesn’t have a male heir, Monaco would lose its independence and would be annexed by France.
Alaska was bought by the US as part of a larger plan which included also buying Greenland and Iceland in order to surround Canada and pressure it into joining the US.
France and the Netherlands share a border...in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Martin.
China used more cement in three years — between 2011 and 2013 — than the US did in the entire 20th century.
In 2012, Hurricane Isaac caused the Mississippi River to run backwards for 24 hours at a rate of 5,200 cubic meters per second in the wrong direction. That's more than the normal flow of about 3,540 cubic meters per second in the right direction.
The four US states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet at a single quadripoint known as the Four Corners. You can stand in all four states at the same time.
In Italy, the borders of ten municipalities meet on the summit of Mount Etna making this a decipoint border. The territory of one of the municipalities touches the summit from two sides, giving it an "11-complexity".
A quadripoint border used to exist between the countries of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, & Zimbabwe. However, due to numerous international incidents around a ferry b/w Botswana & Zambia, it was converted into 2 separate tripoints about 150 meters apart to allow the ferry to cross.
There are stockpiles of nuclear weapons in Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.
The Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam is so large that it contains its own vegetation, fast flowing river, and weather system inside.
In Denmark, it is legal to burn the Danish flag, but illegal to burn foreign flags. Parliament decided that burning or desecrating these is a matter of foreign relations, as it could be construed as a threat.
Only 1% of waste produced in Sweden ever reaches landfill. The remaining 99% is recycled, reused, or converted into energy (through incineration). Their program is so effective that they even import garbage from other countries.
There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America to a depth of one foot.
Greenland can't join FIFA because they cannot sustain a grass pitch to make a regulation-size field due to the permafrost which envelops the country.
Melbourne was originally called Batmania, after one of its founders, John Batman.
The residents of Tanna, an island of Vanuatu, believe that Prince Philip, husband to the British Queen, descended from one of their spirit ancestors. Followers of the Prince Philip Movement believe their god, Prince Philip, will one day visit them and stay with them.
The Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona has been under construction since 1882. It still isn't finished.
Only one-third of all US $100 bills are actually inside the United States.
The country of Nauru has the most overweight population in the world with 95% of its population overweight and over 70% obese.
Burying dead bodies is banned in Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost city. The town’s graveyard stopped accepting bodies around 70 years ago because the bodies wouldn’t decompose due to the permafrost. The terminally ill are flown to Oslo for their final days.
The current United States flag was designed by then 17 years old Robert G. Heft, as part of a school project. He received a grade of B-
Over 25% of humans live in a country directly bordering China. (44% including China itself).
The Ugandan national anthem is only 8 bars long. It's often performed twice, in order to lengthen it.
St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who was the first settler of the town.
Kansas City blatantly ignored The Prohibition. You could even openly buy booze at a store a few blocks down from the police station. They got away with it scot-free for all 13 years (1920 to 1933).
San Francisco banned burials within city limits since 1900. Most dead are instead buried in the small town of Colma, neighboring SF. Colma has roughly 1600 living residents and over 1.5 million dead bodies.
By law, every high school in New Zealand is permitted to hold one pound of uranium and one pound of thorium, for conducting nuclear experiments. But, they will be fined $1,000,000 should there be a nuclear explosion.
The largest city in Missouri is Kansas City. It's larger than the Kansas City in Kansas.
In 2005, Australian Parliament security staff were banned from using the word "mate". The ban was removed within 24 hours.
The full ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand is Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit.
The timezone shift at the border between Afghanistan and China is 3.5 hours.
Brevard County, Florida was given the area code 321 as a homage to the countdown sequence of rockets taking off from Cape Canaveral.
The name of the Canary Islands has nothing to do with the bird. It's from the Latin, "canis" for dog, after Roman soldiers discovered it overrun by wild dogs. The bird was named after the island.
New Zealand is listed as a state of Australia in the Australian constitution. They could still join as a state today if they choose to.
Dahala Khagrabari was a piece of India within a piece of Bangladesh within a piece of India within Bangladesh — a third-order exclave.
According the US Flag Code, the American Flag should never be used for advertisement purposes in any manner whatsoever.
Hans Island is internationally disputed 1/2 sq mile barren island between Canada & Greenland (Denmark). Every couple of months, one side's military will come and replace the other's flag with their own and leave a bottle of schnapps or Canadian Club for the other.
The official name of the South American country of Uruguay is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.
Cleveland, Ohio was originally spelled Cleaveland, named after the city's founder, General Moses Cleaveland. A few decades later, a newspaper called itself the "Cleveland Advertiser", dropping the first "a" from the name in order to fit in the header. The new spelling stuck.
North Carolina has designated the official state red berry as the strawberry, and the official state blue berry as the ... blueberry.
The California University of Pennsylvania is located in California, Pennsylvania.
The summit point of Mount Everest is exactly on the border between China and Nepal.
France's EEZ (exclusive economic zone) is larger than the area of Canada.
The Pacific Ocean is so large that there are antipodes (two points on diametrically opposite sides of the Earth) that are both still in the Pacific Ocean.
The name of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, has nothing to do with Frankfurt, Germany. It's built near the river ford (crossing) where a frontiersman Stephen Frank died, hence "Frank's Ford". Eventually Frankfort.
The most common street name in the US is Second Street. Towns will often name their first street either First Street or Main Street — but they’ll usually always name their second street Second Street.
Häagen-Dazs was founded by a couple from Brooklyn. The name was a marketing technique meant to sound Danish, but doesn’t actually mean anything. There's not even an ä character nor the zs letter combination in Danish.
US President Rutherford B Hayes is a folk hero in Paraguay. There's a city, Villa Hayes, named after him. The national soccer team is called Club Presidente Hayes. There’s statues, stamps, a museum and even a national holiday in his honor.
Any US citizen can legally claim any unclaimed island on behalf of the United States if it has guano (seabird poop) on it.
Budapest is a compound noun. The city was formed by the merger of the separate cities of Buda and Pest.
Of the 28 US states that have an official state drink, 21 of them have it as milk.
In Germany, its not illegal to try to escape prison. As long as you don't break any additional laws while escaping, no extra time will be added to your sentence when/if you are recaptured. The law recognizes human nature won't adhere to being held captive & desires freedom.
When Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China it 1997, it made up around 20% of China's GDP. Today it makes up less than 3%.
Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is 3255 sq miles. The city is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
In 2010, the city council of Topeka, Kansas voted to change the unofficial name of the capital city to Google for 1 month in hopes of being chosen as the launch city for Google Fiber. It wasn't chosen, but Google did change its name to Topeka for its annual April Fool's Day joke.
Until 2011, Libya's flag was just a plain green rectangle. No insignias, design or other details.
In Armenia, chess is a mandatory subject in all elementary school curriculums.
China is wide enough that it should spread across 5 separate time zones, but instead it just uses one national time zone (China Standard Time).
Despite being next to Africa, the cradle of humanity, Madagascar was discovered by humans after Eurasia, the New World, and even Australia. Earliest verifiable evidence is from 490 AD.
Amsterdam is officially the capital of the Netherlands, but basically the entire government is based out of The Hague.
Tsar Simeon II was the Tsar of Bulgaria until he was exiled in 1946 and the monarchy was abolished. 55 years later, he was democratically elected Prime Minister in 2001.
The Eiffel Tower is only the 4th most popular tourist attraction in Paris.
In the 2001 New Zealand census, ~1.5% of the population listed "Jedi" as their religion, making it the second largest religion after Christianity.
Due to the draining of its aquifers for drinking water, Mexico City has sunk over 32 feet in the last 60 years. And some areas sink faster than others. The Palace of Fine Arts's (a pretty heavy building) original ground floor is now a basement.
Since 2011, China has consumed more coal than the rest of the world combined.
The drug Khat is so popular in Yemen that its cultivation accounts for ~40% of the desert nation’s potable water use.
~50% of all the gold ever mined on Earth was from the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa.
Luxembourg is bigger than Singapore, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican combined.
South Asians (Indians, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc) make up ~60% of the United Arab Emirates's population. Meanwhile, Emirati Nationals make up only ~11%.
In Iran, homosexuality is a crime, punishable by death. However, it allows trans citizens to have their preferred gender identity recognized by the law, the only Muslim country in the Persian Gulf to do so. In fact, it not only allows sex reassignment, but also subsidizes it.
The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that in the wet season, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.
Seattle was originally called New York. Later a word from the local Chinook jargon was added, becoming New York-Alki. It means "New York someday..."
Bats are the only native land mammals in New Zealand. The rest were introduced by Maoris and Europeans.
Australia's first police force was called the Night Watch and was made up of the 12 most well behaved convicts.
There are over 70 streets in Atlanta with a variant of “Peachtree” in their name.
Delaware has no commercial flights. It's the only US state with no commercial air service.
When Turkey protested Armenia including the symbolically important Mount Ararat, which is located on Turkish territory, in its coat of arms, Nikita Khrushchev retorted by asking "Why do you have a moon depicted on your flag? After all, the moon doesn't belong to Turkey..."
The city of Sialkot, Pakistan produces ~40% of the world's soccer balls, over 30 million annually.
Even at its territorial peak, the Roman Empire was only the 25th largest empire in history.
In 1943, neither the Philadelphia Eagles or Pittsburgh Steelers had enough men to fill both teams because so many people were fighting in WWII. Thus, the two Pennsylvania NFL teams merged for the season to compete as the Steagles.
The Foreign Legion is a branch of the French army open to foreign recruits. It doesn't swear allegiance to France, but to the legion itself. A soldier can apply for French citizenship after 3 years of service or after getting wounded during a battle ("Français par le sang versé")
In 2017, a member of Texas's House of Representatives submitted a resolution to urge Texans to stop using the Chilean flag emoji, "although it is a nice flag", as a substitute for the state flag of Texas (which doesn't have its own emoji). 🇨🇱
Google Maps provides walking or driving directions for every country in the world, except South Korea. Including North Korea.
Graca Machel is the widow of both former Mozambique president Samora Machel and former South African president Nelson Mandela, making her the only "double first lady".
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is worth ~$1.16 trillion, more than $220,000 per resident. The fund holds about 1.4% of all of the world’s listed companies.
In Mar 1944, chunks of ice in the Yellowstone River jammed up, creating a natural dam & flooded the nearby town of Miles City, Montana with freezing water. At the request of town officials, the US Army sent a B-17 bomber & dropped sixteen 250-lb bombs to clear the jam. It worked.
In many East Asian countries, on Valentines Day (Feb 14) women give gifts to men, but theres a 2nd holiday called White Day on Mar 14 for men to gift women In South Korea, on Apr 14 is an additional holiday called Black Day for singles to wear black & commiserate over black food
Hawaii is the only US state without a straight line border. The entirety of its border is naturally defined (by the coastline).
On the California side of the US-Mexico border, there's a town named Calexico, and on the opposite side, is the city of Mexicali.
Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time. But the Navajo Nation territory within Arizona does observe DST. But the Hopi Nation, an enclave within Navajo land, doesn't observe DST. But an enclave of Navajo territory inside the Hopi territory does.
The Spratly Islands in the South China Sea have overlapping and conflicting territorial claims from six different countries.
Nebraska's highest honor, awarded by the governor, is being made Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. Nebraska is also the US's only triply-landlocked state. The Nebraska Admiral has been awarded to numerous presidents, Bill Gates, Queen Elizabeth II, among others
At any given moment, there must be at least 2 antipodal (diametrically opposite) points on Earth that share the same temperature and atmospheric pressure.
Due to practically no human inhabitation, the DMZ between North & South Korea has become a refuge for multiple endangered species. The natural isolation created an involuntary park which is now recognized as one of the most well-preserved areas of temperate habitat in the world.
“Arctic” means “the land of bears” and "Antarctic" means "opposite the land of bears". The bears refer to the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, not polar bears.
The Spanish Flu affected the entire world, killing ~50M people. The outbreak was during WWI and to keep morale high, wartime censors in many countries censored it. But papers in neutral Spain were free to report its effects, causing many to think it was largely confined there.
The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics will hold its surfing competitions in Teahupo'o, Tahiti - over 9700 miles from Paris.
In mid-Nov 2008, Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation rate reached 89.7 sextillion percent.
In Britain, the War of 1812 is just seen as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars.
Less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in the Middle East or North Africa.
The country of Madagascar got its name when Marco Polo mistook it for the Somali port of Mogadishu and then transliterated it as Madageiscar.
American time zones don't follow state borders. 13 states have multiple time zones.
Nathan Kirsh, the richest person in Eswatini (previously known as Swaziland), has a higher net worth than the country's annual GDP.
The public display of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany and Austria but not in Israel.
The Great Wall of China is not one continuous wall. It's a collection of many disjoint walls built by different Chinese dynasties over many centuries.
Al Gore Sr (the VP's father) proposed in Congress that “something cataclysmic” be done to end the Korean War. His suggestion involved creating a radiation belt on the 38th parallel using atomic bombs to turn the border of North and South Korea into a permanent toxic wasteland.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was a military conflict fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted 38 minutes, marking it as the shortest recorded war in history.
Many states have official state foods, but only Oklahoma has an official state meal: Squash, cornbread, fried okra, barbecued pork, grits, biscuits, sausage and gravy, corn, strawberries, chicken-fried steak, black-eyed peas, and pecan pie.
Cyprus is the only country in the world without its own national anthem. In 1966, the Council of Ministers unilaterally decided to adopt the Greek national anthem, “Hymn to Liberty,” as their own.
Minnesota has more shoreline than California, Hawaii, and Florida combined.
The Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire 13 times between 1868 and 1969.
New Mexico has an official state question: "Red or green?" It refers to the question always asked whether one prefers red or green chile when ordering New Mexican cuisine.
The current US flag was designed by a seventeen-year-old named Bob Heft for a class project. He got a B- for the design. His teacher told him, “If you don’t like your grade, get it accepted into Washington, then come back…and I might consider changing your grade.” He did.
No one knows whether North or South Dakota was the 39th or the 40th state to enter the Union. In 1889, President Harrison signed identical statehood proclamation documents blind and declared, “They were born together; they are one and I will make them twins."
Former Liberian President, Charles D. B. King, earned a Guinness World Record for the most fraudulent election reported in history. He won Liberia's 1927 election with 243,000 votes. Liberia only had 15,000 registered voters.
There are more native Polish speakers than native Irish speakers in Ireland.
On election day in 1980, five South Jersey counties voted to secede from New Jersey in a non-binding referendum.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain made a joint bid to host the Olympics with the mens' events in Saudi Arabia and the womens' events in Bahrain as women are not allowed to play sports in Saudi Arabia. The IOC vetoed the bid.
Haiti had to financially recompensate France for lost colonial profits after gaining independence through its successful slave rebellion. This "independence debt" wasn't paid back in full until 1947.
Poland, without changing its own borders, no longer borders any of the same countries it did in 1989.
In 2015, France used EU law to veto Belgium's design for a €2 coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of the French defeat at Waterloo. So Belgium got around the veto by issuing it as a "non standard denomination" €2.5 coin instead.
In 1980, Nauru was the wealthiest nation on the planet by GDP per capita. Today, it is 76th. (and the 5th smallest GDP in the world).
The Belgium province of Luxembourg is ~1.75x as big as the actual country of Luxembourg.
In the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War, it defines the American-Canadian (then British) border as running "through Lake Superior northward of the Isles Royal and Phelipeaux to the Long Lake. The island Phelipeaux has never existed.
Indonesia's government doesn't know how many islands the country is made up of.
The Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria share a border that's 85 meters long. It's Tasmania's only land border.
Jigsaw puzzles were invented in 1767 by a mapmaker in order to teach kids geography.
The US has an average of ~1250 tornadoes per year. This is at least 12x more than the next highest country, Canada.
Brazzaville and Kinshasa, the capitals of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, are directly next to each on opposite banks of the Congo River. However, there are currently no bridges connecting the capital cities.
Singapore unwillingly became an independent country after it was kicked out of Malaysia by a 126-0 vote in the Malaysian Parliament (the Singaporean members were not present).
A meter was originally defined in 1793 as one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole.
The Belgian city of Bruges has an underground beer pipeline. It runs 3.2 km connecting Halve Maan brewery in the city's historic center with a bottling plant in the suburbs and transports ~400 liters per hour.
Tuvalu, whose TLD is .tv, is the only country without a native television broadcast station.
Only five countries have participated in every Summer Olympic Games – Australia, France, Great Britain, Greece & Switzerland.
In 1893, Congressman Lucas Miller proposed a Constitutional amendment to rename the country to "United States of the Earth". He argued ''it is possible for the Republic to grow through the admission of new States into the Union until every Nation on Earth has become part of it."
Many places have laws outlawing public intoxication. However, in Nevada, not only is public intoxication not a public offense, but state law explicitly prohibits any town, city, or county from making it illegal either.
Marble Hill is the only part of Burrough of Manhattan on the mainland. The neighborhood was severed from Manhattan island in 1895 by the new Harlem Ship Canal. Then in 1914, the Harlem River was filled in on the north side of Marble Hill, connecting it to the Bronx.
Hawaii is the only US state to never have had a recorded temperature of 100°F or higher.
In 2017, Norway considered gifting Finland a mountain for its 100 year anniversary. It would've been Finlands highest point However, Article 1 of Norwegian constitution declares Norway an "indivisible & inalienable realm" thus ceding territory (even 0.015km²) is unconstitutional
Switzerland has no direct head of state. Instead the executive is a Federal Council made of 7 members. There is a "Federal President" position that rotates among the 7 councillors each year but the president has virtually no additional power and is largely a ceremonial position.
In 2009, Antigua renamed their highest point from Boggy Peak to Mount Obama to honor him as a symbol of black achievement.
At any spot in the contiguous United States, you will always be within 120 miles of a McDonalds.
There are more tigers living in captivity in the US (and possibly even Texas alone) than there are living in the wild.
Minnesota is the only state in which Starbucks or Dunkin isn't the most common coffee chain.
There's a computer font called @UglyGerry whose letters are made up of the shapes of gerrymandered US Congressional districts. It's reasonably legible.
The lyrics of the Dutch national anthem is an acrostic. It consists of 15 verses and the first letter of each verse spells out "Willem Van Nassov", a revolutionary hero of the Dutch revolt against Spain.
The oldest river in the western hemisphere is the "New River". The origins of the name are unclear.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (i.e. the Knights Hospitaller from the crusades) is a UN-recognized sovereign state. It has no sovereign land of its own, but has many embassies throughout the world. It maintains diplomatic relations w/ 110 states & issues its own passports
The "Parting of the Waters" is a landmark in Wyoming at which a creek splits into two, one which eventually drains to the Atlantic Ocean, and the other which eventually drains to the Pacific. Thus theres a singular waterway that bisects North America (other than the Panama Canal)
The source of the River Seine is legally owned by the City of Paris. The city bought the spot, over 225 km away, in 1864.
The region of New Mexico was called that long before the present-day nation of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821.
In Alaska, plants can grow freakishly large due to the 20 hours of sunshine they receive per day during the summer - which gives them a photosynthesis bonus. Examples include 138 lb cabbage, 65 lb cantaloupe, & 35 lb broccoli. It also seems to make them much sweeter.
In 1659, the Treaty of Pyrenees required Spain cede all villages north of Pyrenees to France. However, one town, Llívia argued that technically it was a "villa", not a village bc it was an ancient regional capital in Roman era. Thus it remains a Spanish exclave 1.6 km into France
New Zealand isn't named after the Danish province of Zealand. It's named after the Dutch province of Zeeland,
The International Space station is closer to the earth than San Francisco is to L.A.
Dogs are banned from Antarctica due to concerns that they might transfer diseases to the seal population.
Each of New York City's boroughs is its own county. So it's a single city made up of five separate counties.
New York has two teams in all 5 major US sports leagues. NFL - Giants and Jets NBA - Knicks and Nets MLB - Yankees and Mets NHL - Rangers and Islanders MLS - NYC FC and Red Bulls
American Sign Language and British Sign Language are not mutually intelligible. While English speakers can understand each other across the Anglosphere, deaf people from different English speaking countries are unable to understand each other.
In 1859, an SF resident Joshua Norton declared himself Emperor of the United States. The people of SF sorta just went along with it, accepting his currency, printing his declarations in newspapers, and even had police salute him in the streets. Over 10000 ppl attended his funeral
Brazil has more homicides per year than the US, China, Russia, all of Europe, Northern Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand combined.
All maps of China are inaccurate because the government requires that all mapping companines use a wonky projection that skews all points by random amounts ranging from 50-500 meters in random directions.
Pheasant Island is an uninhabited island on the boarder b/w France and Spain that was used to negotiate treaties in the 17th century. To keep it a neutral ground, it alternates sovereignty between the two every 6 months. It's had over 700 biannual handoff ceremonies since 1659.
Colorado is not a perfect rectangle. It has hundreds of minor deviations due to surveying errors.
No horses have been imported to Iceland in over 1000 years. If an Icelandic horse leaves the country, it is banished and never allowed to return.
When Syphilis first spread through Europe in 1500s, it was called the "French disease" in Italy, Poland & Germany. But in France, it was called the "Italian disease". To the Dutch it was "Spanish disease", for Russians the "Polish disease", and to Turks the "Christian disease".
Nepal is the only country with a non-rectangular flag. Instead it's a "double-pennon". A precise geometrical construction for how to draw it is specified in the country's Constitution.
The largest stadium in the world is in North Korea. It has a seating capacity of 114,000 people (although the government officially claims 150,000).
Despite being California's state animal and the primary feature on its flag, there are no Grizzly Bears in California.
The Grand Duke's Official Birthday is Luxembourg's national holiday & is celebrated on Jun 23. However, its not the actual birthday of the Duke or any past leader. It was set in 1961 b/c the Grand Duchess at the time's bday was Jan 23, but they moved it to June for better weather
Canada only got its own national flag 98 years after becoming an independent country.
In the mid 19th century, the Mexican state of Yucatán declared independence from Mexico and petitioned the US to annex them. The US House of Representatives voted to approve the annexation, but the Senate rejected it.
In 2019, Costa Rica generated almost all of its electricity (99.15%) from renewable resources.
1209 North Orange St, Wilmington, Delaware is the legal address of over 285,000 companies, including Google, Apple, Walmart, J.P. Morgan Chase, Coca-Cola, and General Motors.
Disney World isn't in Orlando, but rather in the municipality of Bay Lake, Florida which is functionally owned by the Walt Disney Company. The company provides all the electricity, sewage, waste treatment, utilities, roads, fire protection, and medical services.
The oldest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the US is not in New York or San Francisco, but in Butte, Montana.
More land is used for growing opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca (the basis of cocaine) cultivation in all of Latin America.
The turkey bird is native to North America. But it is named as such because it was mistaken to similar guinea fowl imported to Europe by Turkish merchants. But in Turkish the bird is called Hindi, because of an independent mistake of thinking the bird comes from India.
From 2006-2007, Poland's prime minister and president were a pair of identical twin brothers.
Lichtenstein's national anthem, "Oben am jungen Rhein", is set to the same melody as the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen".
Lesotho is the only country that lies entirely above 1000 meters in elevation. It's lowest point is at 1400m above sea level.
China is the country most hit by hurricanes. It's had over twice as many hurricanes make landfall since 1970 as the US.
It's a law in New Mexico that Pluto is still classified as a planet when it passes overhead the state.
The English word "state" shares the same Proto Indo-European root as the Persian suffix "-stan" (i.e. Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc)
Indonesia is the only country to withdraw from the UN. It requested to rejoin less than a year later.
Montpelier, Vermont is the least populous state capital in the USA. It has a population of less that 8000.
The pronunciation of Arkansas didn't get formalized until 45 years after the state's creation. In 1881, a heated debate b/w the state’s 2 senators (one said “arKANzis” and the other said “ARkansaw”) led the state legislature to make law declaring “ARkansaw” pronunciation official
Europe's highest railway station is underground. It's 3454m above sea level but in the Swiss Alps.
There is both a UTC +12:00 and a UTC -12:00 timezone. The latter one is uninhabited though.
The US Navy submarine SSN-705 was originally called the "USS Corpus Christi" after the city in Texas. But after objections from the National Council of Catholic Bishops, it was renamed to "USS City of Corpus Christi"
Íslendinga is app in Iceland which is a genealogical database of >720000 residents (living & deceased) dating back 1000 years One of its most popular features is Sifjaspellsspillir or "Incest Spoiler". It lets users know if their date is a little-known cousin or long-lost aunt.
Ottawa was chosen as the capital of Canada as a compromise between the English and French communities because it was centrally located between Montreal and Toronto. It was also a bit further from the American border, making it safer from attacks.
Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in its parliament at 61.3%. 10 out of the top 12 countries on this measure are in Africa or Latin America.
The "Southern Pole of Inaccessibility" is the point on Antarctica furthest from the Southern Ocean. At that spot is a sole bust of Lenin staring north towards Moscow. Its all that remains visible of a 1958 Soviet research station, rest of which is entirely buried under the ice.
The country with the highest percentage of Catholics (other than Vatican City) is the Southeast Asian country of Timor-Leste at 97.57%
After the town of Naco was split in two in 1979 by border patrol, the residents of Naco, Arizona, and Naco, Mexico started an annual tradition of having a volleyball match over the dividing fence. This took place until 2007 when a taller fence was put in place.
The small city of Springdale, Arkansas has the largest community of Marshall Islanders in the US, dating back to 1980s when 1 Marshall Islander moved there to work for Tyson Foods & spread word back home of plentiful jobs. The Marshal Islands even opened a consulate there in 2008
The Soviet Union demanded that all 15 of its Republics be member states in the UN. The US counter-demanded then that all 48 states be similarly recognized. Ultimately 2 Soviet Republics (Ukraine & Byelorussia) were admitted, so USSR was actually represented by 3 seats in the UN.
On the Liberty Bell and in one spot in the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania is misspelled “Pensylvania” with one N. This spelling was one of several acceptable spellings of the name at that time.
In 2010, Snoop Dogg submitted a request to the Liechtenstein government to rent the entire country to use as a set for a music video, but the deal fell through. The following year, Airbnb partnered with Liechtenstein to allow you to rent the entire country for $70,000 a night.
The city of Freiberg, Germany is closer to 10 foreign capitals than it is to the German capital of Berlin. Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg City, Amsterdam, Bern, Ljubljana, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, and Prague.
The Dead Sea is 1412 ft below sea level, the lowest on-land elevation in the world. And the surface level is still currently dropping at more than 3 feet per year.
Iwo Jima is officially part of the Tokyo prefecture despite being over 1200 km away.
US Representatives do not have to live in the districts they represent/are elected by. They just have to live in the same state.
The Falkland Islands has a human population of ~3000 people but has a sheep population of ~500,000.
Although Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level, Mr. Chimbarazo in Ecuador is the furthest from the center of the Earth due to a bulge in Earth’s non-spherical shape around the equator.
The official name of Rhode Island is "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations". "Rhode Island" is the island where the city of Newport sits today; however, the state also occupies mainland and three other major islands.
The Catholic Bishop of Orlando is the Bishop of the Moon. According to Canon Law at the time, any newly discovered territory would fall under the diocese from whence the discovering expedition departed. Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral which was under the Diocese of Orlando
Alaska is the Easternmost state in the US (by longitude) as its Aleutian Islands cross over the 180th meridian and are in the Eastern hemisphere.
Lobster War was a 3-year dispute b/w Brazil & France over French ships catching spiny lobsters 100 mi off Brazil's coast France claimed that lobsters swim & thus treated as fish. Brazil claimed they "crawl along the continental shelf" and are thus a natural resource in their EEZ
In 1926, Poland gave the United States a 150th birthday card, signed by over 5.5 million people, about 1/6 of its population. It takes up 111 volumes.
Estadio Milton Correa is a football stadium in Brazil that has the nickname Zerao (meaning “Big Zero” in Portuguese). The stadium is located right on the Equator, and the shtick is that the two teams who are playing are defending the two different hemispheres.
As of 2019, only one known Jew, Zablon Simintov, lives in Afghanistan. He cares for a synagogue in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
Out of the ~42 sovereign countries named after people, St. Lucia is the only one named after a real woman. (Although including fictional as well, Ireland is named after the Celtic goddess Éiru)
New Jersey and Pennsylvania have virtually no land borders due to the Delaware river making up their entire border. The only land borders the 2 states have are some shared islands in the middle of the river.
So many African country flags have green, yellow, and red because they draw inspiration from the Ethiopian flag. Ethiopia was one of the few independent African nations that resisted European colonialism, so many new countries of Africa looked to them for inspiration
Puerto Rico was originally named "San Juan Bautista" and its capital, San Juan, was named "Ciudad de Puerto Rico". But eventually people started referring to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while calling the capital city San Juan. Until the two essentially switched names.
In 1803, Ohio was the 17th state to declare US statehood. However, the Federal Congress accidentally never got around to actually ratifying it The oversight was discovered 150 yrs later in 1953 & a bill was passed ratifiying Ohio's statehood, technically making it the 48th state
Even though most Indians don't eat beef as cows are considered sacred to many Hindus, India is the second largest exporter of bovine meat.
The Australian capital of Canberra's name means "woman's beasts" deriving from the indigenous Ngunnawal language. It refers to the two mountains, Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie, lying opposite each other.
The Yamato dynasty of Japan traces its origins to 660 A.D., making them the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world. The current emperor, Emperor Naruhito, is the 126th ruler and is a ceremonial monarch.
Only one US State is named after a US President but 7 are named after foreign monarchs.
Rome was not the only capital of the Western Roman Empire. The capital was moved to Mediolanum (Milan) and then Ravenna in the last couple centuries before its fall.
Paris Syndrome refers to a state of extreme shock at discovering that Paris is not as beautiful as one expected it to be, particularly common among Japanese visitors. Symptoms may include acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution, dizziness, and vomiting.
Main St. in San Francisco is named after Charles Main, a wealthy ship chandler and harnessmaker.
Belgium went 541 days without a government after the elections in June 2010. Finally, after 541 days, an official 6-party coalition government was put together.
The Pacific Ocean is so big that at some places in it, you could drill through the core of the earth to the other side, and still be in the Pacific Ocean (antipodes).
Sioux City is in Iowa. But South Sioux City is Nebraska and North Sioux City is in South Dakota.
Denver, Colorado is closer to both Chicago and the Gulf of Mexico than to San Francisco.
The Dominican Republic flag has itself on it. It has the country's Coat of Arms on it, but the Coat of Arms itself depicts the flag.
Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest mountain in the world. It's only 4,207 m above sea level, but from its base at the bottom of the Pacific, it's 10,200m tall, over 1352 m taller than Everest.
If every UN member got an equally big part of the worlds land area, each would be roughly the size of Kazakhstan (currently the 9th largest country).
The flag of the Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan is a "minimalist map" of its geography.
Almost 10% of all US land was given away for free to 1.6 million homesteaders.
The term "Third World country" doesn't refer to economic development, but rather means any country that was non-aligned during the Cold War. The First World was countries aligned with the US, and second world with USSR. 3rd world includes likes of Switzerland, Sweden, & Finland
The Amazon Rainforest depends on nutrient replenishment from 182 millions tons/year of phosphate laden dust blown across the Atlantic from the Sahara desert.
The Supreme Court legally declared Long Island a peninsula (despite it being geographically an island) b/c of a dispute over who controls the water b/w it & Rhode Island. If it were legally an island, the water would be regulated by the fed govt, but as a penninsula, its under NY
Providence is the only US City to have an entire state inside its Metropolitan Statistical Area. It's metropolitan area includes all of Rhode Island plus parts of Massachusetts.
There are 11 Johnson Counties in the US. None were named after President Johnson. But two were named after Vice President Robert Johnson (served with Van Buren).
The largest French speaking city in the world is in Africa. Kinshasa with a population of ~11.86 million.
Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world. At 979 meters, its over 15x taller than Niagara Falls.
In 2011, Samoa changed time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 to be more aligned w/ Australia & New Zealand, who overtook the US as main trading partners. This shifted Samoa over the International Date Line, making the date go from Dec 29 to Dec 31. There was no Dec 30, 2011 in Samoa.
The Australian flag's Union Jack uses a brighter shade of red than the UK's flag.
Argentina contains both Mount Aconcagua (6,962 metres) and Laguna del Carbón (-105 metres), which are respectively the highest and lowest points in both the Southern and Western Hemispheres.
To bring attention to rising sea levels, the island country of the Maldives (whose 80% of land lies < 1 meter above sea level) held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in 2009.
The Desert of Maine is a 40-acre tract of sand dunes near the town of Freeport, Maine. While technically not a real desert (it receives an abundance of precipitation), it looks like one due to soil erosion caused by decades of over-farming and over-grazing.
More people lived in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) than in West Pakistan when they split.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil means 'January River'. However there's no river there. The Portuguese explorers who first visited it in January 1502 mistook the bay for the mouth of a river.
Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo all mean 'capital' in their respective languages. Beijing - Northern capital Tokyo - East capital Seoul - Capital city
In 2012, Dull, Scotland became sister cities with Boring, Oregon. They were then joined by Bland Shire, Australia and formed the League of Extraordinary Communities.
The word island and Isle have completely different roots. Island comes from the old English ‘iglund’ while isle comes from the Latin "insula". In the 16th century, English scholars mistakenly thought the word island came from Latin, and so "added back" the silent s.
Washington wasn't always the only city in the District of Columbia. DC used to contain three cities: Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria. Alexandria eventually left to rejoin Virginia, and Georgetown was merged with Washington.
Until 2015, Dubai never developed a standard address system. Instead of an address line on a mailing label, there was a space where residents could draw a map or write out specific instructions like: “After you pass the white mosque, it’s the first street to the left, blue door.”
After Norman conquest of England, French was language of aristocrats, while poorer Anglo-Saxons spoke English. B/c the rich could afford more expensive meats like from cows & pigs, today they're called beef & pork ('bouef' & 'porc') but the cheaper chicken meat is just 'chicken'.
'Hess Triangle' is the smallest piece of private property in NYC (10ft²). A bregudged landlord realized surveyors missed a small piece of his property that was seized by eminent domain & inscribed it "Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated For Public Purposes"
People in Maine are called Downeasters because it's Downwind (and east) when sailing from Boston.
Until 1985, Japanese didn't usually use salmon in sushi b/c Pacific salmon endemic to Japan is prone to parasites (mainly used tuna & bream). Salmon sushi only became popular after Project Japan, a 10-year campaign mounted by the Norwegian government to sell more Atlantic salmon
In Italian, the German city of Munich is called Monaco. This means that in Italy, "Monaco" refers to both the sovereign country near its northwestern border as well as Germany’s third-largest city.
Sweden has the most islands of any country in the world at ~267,570. It's followed by Norway and Finland. It has more than 10x as many as the next non-Nordic country, Indonesia at ~17,500.
Canada hypothetically has its own 4 corners point. The Nunavut Act says Nunavut's border "commence at 60°00' N, 102°00' W, being the intersection of Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan borders". However, said intersection isn't actually at those exact coordinates.
In 1820s, Scottish conman Gregor MacGregor claimed to be the ruler of "Poyais", a fictional Central American country, and made a fortune selling fake Poyaisian government bonds & land certificates. 250 ppl even emigrated there to find only untouched jungle; over half of them died
The Peanut Hole was an area of international waters, ~34x300 mi, completely surrounded by Russia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but not part of it b/c it is more than 200 nautical miles from any coast. In 2014, Russia finally successfully petitioned the UN to add it to its EEZ
The State of Franklin was an unrecognized territory from 1784-1789 in what's today Eastern Tennessee. It was founded with intent of becoming the 14th state of the new United States and was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin hoping to get him to support their cause. He declined.
In 2018, the country of Swaziland officially changed its name to eSwatini, meaning "land of the Swazis" in the local language (essentially keeping the same meaning). The change was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named Switzerland.
The two lowest ranked countries on the Democracy Index are the Democratic Republic of the Congo and The Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone. Anyone may live & work there indefinitely regardless of country of citizenship Immigrants who've been refused visa for mainland Norway have moved & lived there for 7 years and been awarded Norwegian citizenship
The Sargasso Sea is the only sea that has no land boundaries. It is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and calm blue water.
Montreal is about the exact same distance from the Gulf of Mexico as it from the northern tip of Quebec.
In Georgia, exile's used to punish crimes. But state constitution forbids banishment from the entire state. Instead youre exiled from 158/159 counties leaving Echols County w/ a pop. of 4000 & no incorporated municipalities. Most "voluntarily" choose to leave the state altogether
The highest mountain in the Dominican Republic is higher than the highest mountain in the eastern half of the US.
Angaur, a tiny state of Palau, is the only place in the world where Japanese is a de jure official language (only de facto official in Japan) – alongside English and Palauan. However, the results of the 2005 census suggest there are no actual Japanese speakers on the island.
In Continental Europe, there are 11 countries that have coastlines but with no islands. Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine, and Monaco
Russia first tried to sell Alaska to the Liechtenstein, who declined the offer, before selling it to the United States.
The Knights Hospitaller of Malta had its own colonial project in the Americas from 1651-1665, during which it possessed four Caribbean islands: Saint Christopher, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, and Saint Croix.
New York City paid more for the land to build Central Park ($7.39 million in 1855) than the US paid to buy Alaska ($7.2 million in 1867).
Dalgety was originally chosen to be the capital city of Australia, until the choice was switched to Canberra 4 years later. Today, Dalgety has a population of 205.
The Confederados are the ~10-20 thousand Confederates who emigrated from the Southern United States to Brazil (which still had slavery) after the US Civil War. The city of Americana, São Paulo was founded by Confederados, and their descendents are found today throughout Brazil.
China has formal or informal border disputes with at least 17 countries.
The Mexico City Metro has a different minimalist logo for each of its 195 stations. The tradition originates from when the Metro was first opened in 1968. At the time, Mexico's illiteracy rate was high at 38%, & so visual logos allowed patrons to more easily navigate the system.
The city of Venice is actually mostly on the mainland. While the historic old town is in "the Lagoon", 2/3 of the city's 260K residents live on the Mainland where there are normal streets, etc.
After Southern states started seceding from the Union, the Mayor of NYC proposed that NYC also secede to create a new sovereign city-state called the Free City of Tri-Insula, as much of NYC's wealth was dependent on the extraordinarily lucrative cotton trade with the Confederacy.
Poznań, Poland monitors its water quality using 8 mussels that react to pollutants by clamping their shells thus closing a circuit via a spring hot-glued to its shell & alerting a computer. If 4 mussels close at the same time, the entire city water supply shuts off automatically.
The Atchafalaya River is a distributary(opposite tributary) of the Mississippi Ever since locals removed a 1000 y.o. log jam (Great Raft) in 1830s, it started capturing increasing flow. In 1963, US Army built a dam to prevent it overtaking the Mississippi & stranding New Orleans
Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) is antipodal to the province of Formosa in Argentina.
In 1908, Minnesota District Attorney tried to bar Finnish immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens, as the process was only for whites & blacks, arguing Finns were Asian & of Mongolian descent evidenced by the Finnish language belonging to Uralic & not Indo-European family.
The Universal Postal Union requires all international stamps include the country's name printed in Latin letters, with the exception of the UK, as it was the first country to use postage stamps, before international adoption. Instead, it may use a profile of the reigning monarch.
When a wide meander (curve) of a river erodes its banks to the point that it pinches in on itself, the river straightens up again, leaving behind a free-standing horseshoe-shaped lake called an Oxbow lake.
The term "Holland" is often incorrectly used to refer to the Netherlands, when it really means 2 of Netherlands' 12 provinces: Noord-Holland & Zuid-Holland. Instead of trying to fight the misconception, the official tourism website just leans in and is
The Kentucky Bend is a ~27 sq mi exclave of Kentucky, encircled by Tennessee & Missouri When creating the border, surveyors messed up & didn't realize the latitudinal border they used for KY & TN ran through an oxbow meander of the Mississippi River, defining the peninsula as KY
On the roof of a building clearly visible from the landing flight path into the Milwaukee Airport is a giant "WELCOME TO CLEVELAND" sign Its been up since 1978. Its owner explained it wasn't for publicity or anything – "It was just plain madness. You need that in the world."
Brasília, the capital of Brazil, was designed to look like an airplane from a birds eye view, as part of its modernist architectural plan. The shape is even more obvious at night.
The Luxembourg flag is nearly identical to its neighbor, the Netherlands' flag, except that it is longer and its blue & red stripes are a lighter shade. However, the flags were developed completely independently and there is no documented relationship between their origins.
TV Pickup a phenomenon in the UK the synchronized use of millions of electric tea kettles during commercial breaks of popular TV shows cause sudden surges in electricity demand. Particularly popular episodes can create 700–800 MW surges, which the National Grid needs to plan for.
The 27 stars on the Brazilian flag, much like the ones on the American flag, reflect the current number of states Brazil has. It originally had 21 stars when first adopted and the positions are based on the sky over Rio de Janeiro on Nov 15, 1889, Proclamation Of Republic day.
While many states recently changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, Hawaii has since 1971 celebrated Discoverers’ Day instead of Columbus Day to honor all discoverers, including Pacific & Polynesian navigators, and the adventurous spirit of mankind.
Rjukan, Norway is an industrial town at the bottom of a deep valley, and so gets little sunlight for most of the year, being in the shadow of its southern mountains. So in 2013 they built 3 giant mirrors high on the northern mountains to reflect sunlight down into the town square
Cancun, Mexico is closer to Nova Scotia, Canada than it is to Tijuana, Mexico.
Liberia, Myanmar and the United States of America are the only 3 countries not officially using the metric system.
The origin of the name Idaho is unknown. The politician who created it, George Willing, claimed it came from a Shoshone tribe word meaning "sun coming down the mountain." However, no such word exists. Regardless the fake etymology is repeated in many textbooks.
The name California comes from the fictional Queen Calafia, a pagan warrior queen who ruled a kingdom of black women, in a 16th-century Spanish romance novel. This name likely came from the word "caliph" – the leader of an Islamic community.
The first capital of Illinois, Kaskaskia is the only piece of IL on the west bank of the Mississippi. In 1800s, it was originally on the east bank until the river started moving. By 1900s, repeated floods & rebuilding left it on the opp. side of the river as the rest of the state
In the last ice age, when Britain was still physically connected to Continental Europe (~8500 BC), River Thames was a tributary of the River Rhine. When sea levels rose, Britain got separated & Thames began depositing into the sea instead, & Rhine shifted South to curr. position
The city of Reykjavík, Iceland, uses excess hot water from geothermal power generation to heat a section of its downtown pond so the birds living there always have a corner in which to swim, even in winter.
The US-Canadian Border along the 49th parallel was known by the Plains Indians (who lived on both sides) as "The Medicine Line" for its seemingly magical ability to keep US troops from crossing it in pursuit.
Mount Saint Elias lies exactly on the border of Alaska and Yukon and so is it is the second highest mountain in both the United States and Canada.
Märket is a island divided by the Finnish-Swedish border. It was originally meant to promote specific views, but the Finns accidentally built a lighthouse on wrong side of the border, so Sweden agreed to trade it for an equal spot of land on the other side, causing current border
The virtual ghost town of Bridal Veil, Oregon maintains a functional post office despite not having any permanent residents in 3 decades. This is because several thousand couples a year go out of their way to mail their wedding invitations from Bridal Veil for the unique postmark
In 1956, the Soviet Union designed a plan to build a 55-mile dam across the Bering Strait to keep icebergs and arctic currents out of the Pacific. They'd then pump warm water into the Arctic Ocean, and thaw Siberia to transform the once-frozen region into a “blossoming landscape”
Article 6 of NATO Treaty states that it only covers member states' territory in 1. Europe & North America 2. Atlantic islands north of Tropic of Cancer 3. French Algeria The US Govt confirmed in 1965 that an attack on the state of Hawaii would technically not trigger the treaty
Many Muslim countries temporarily pause Daylight Savings during Ramadan b/c fasting is harder due to a later sunset However b/c Ramadan's based on physical verification of lunar calendar, exact dates for switching on/off DST often aren't official/known until weeks to days before
The Uru are a native tribe in Peru that live on a fleet of >120 floating islands made of reeds on Lake Titicaca. The island rafts were originally created centuries ago for defense; if a threat arose they could just be moved away. Today they even have soccer fields on the islands
The etymology of Lake Semerwater in Yorkshire, England comes from Old English where sæ = lake and mere = lake Therefore, Lake Semerwater means lake lake lake water
Queen Victoria was upset that as a mere Queen, she was "notionally inferior" to the Emperors of Russia, Prussia & Austria including her own daughter, who was wife of the German Emperor and thus an Empress. So the British government created for her the title Empress of India.
Zambia declared independence during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, only nation to do so during an Olympics It was the British colony of North Rhodesia at start of the games & ended as the independent nation of Zambia. For the closing ceremony they had to use a placard for the new name
American Samoa is a U.S. Territory. However, unlike all other territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, etc, it does not have Birthright Citizenship. People born in American Samoa are "U.S. Nationals" but not citizens.
"Peking" was the Romanization of the Chinese city 北京 by 17th/18th century French missionaries. However today, after pinyin was adopted, we spell/pronounce it "Beijing". This is the origin of names like "Peking duck" and "Peking University".
The entire coastline of California is designated as a US national monument. This was done to help ensure reef conservation efforts & prevent new oil drilling within 12 naut mi of shore Its the most-visited national monument, although most "visitors" are usually unaware of this.
London black cab drivers must first pass The Knowledge, a sequence of at least 12 oral exams requiring memorization of 25,000 street names, landmarks, and points-of-interest in a 6 mile radius from London center.
The Ténéré Tree was considered the most isolated tree on Earth for centuries. It was a solitary Acacia in the Sahara Desert, the only tree for over 400 km in any direction However, in 1973 a drunk driver ran into it & knocked it over, despite it being the only obstacle for miles
Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than New York, Chicago, and Mexico City combined.
Wright County, Missouri is the mean population center of the US (the average location of all US residents). This is why the "superhubs" of FedEx and UPS are in Memphis, Tennessee (~200 mi away) and Louisville, Kentucky (~400 mi away) respectively.
The entire Rhone River is consecrated as holy ground by the Catholic Church because during the black death, Europe's cemeteries were at capacity and so Pope Clement VI consecrated it in order to allow people to dump bodies into it.
Technically, Lake Superior is only the 2nd largest lake in the world. Lakes Huron & Michigan are hydrologically a single lake, Lake Michigan-Huron, b/c its two lobes are connected by the 120-ft-deep Mackinac Strait, not a river. Their elevations are equal & water flows both ways.
One of the lakes at the Carbrook Golf Club in Queensland, Australia is home to several bull sharks, one of the most dangerous species. 6 sharks got there during a flood of the Logan & Albert Rivers in 1996 and were trapped once the waters receded. Since then they've been breeding
The Old Man of the Mountain was a cliff rock formation in New Hampshire that looks like a face and is one of the main icons of the state In 2000 it was featured on the NH state quarter and on all passenger car license plates However, just three years later in 2003 it collapsed
The USA is the 3rd most populated country in the world, but has more than 1 Billion less people than the 2nd most populated (India).
The Arctic Winter Games is a biennial circumpolar sports celebration feat 9 teams: Alaska (US) Northern Alberta 🇨🇦 Northwest Territories 🇨🇦 Nunavik Quebec 🇨🇦 Nunavut, Yukon 🇨🇦 Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Russia) Sami people (Arctic Nordic countries & Kola Peninsula) Greenland
The tallest known living tree in the world is named Hyperion at 115.85 m tall. It is somewhere in the California Redwood National Forest, but it's exact location is kept secret from the public in order to protect the tree from damage.
The Arctic circle's defined as where the sun doesn’t set on the summer solstice. While its ~66.5°N, it is shrinking by ~15m/yr due to fluctuations in the Earth's tilt Grímsey, the northernmost town in Iceland, has a 9-ton stone ball they roll around annually to mark the new edge
Pakistan has the 5th largest population in the world, beating out both Brazil and Nigeria.
Nevada was rushed to become a state just days before the 1864 election to help Lincoln's reelection B/c there wasn't enough time to send the state constitution by mail, it was sent to Congress via telegram Transmitting the 16543 words took 2 full days & cost $4303 (~$70k today)
Prior to 1937, the Netherland's official time zone was UTC +0h 19m 32.13s (to the hundredth of a second) as it was based on mean solar time of the Westerkerk church in Amsterdam (4° 53' 01.95" E). Often for practicality, UTC +0:20 was informally used instead.
The first Native Americans who met the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony greeted them in English (and asked them for beer). European fishermen had been frequenting the waters around New England for over 100 years by this point.
When Alexander the Great wanted to conquer the island city of Tyre in modern Lebanon, a naval attack was determined to be too risky. So the Macedonian army spent months building a km-long causeway out of sand so they could march on the city. Tyre remains a peninsula to this day.
Te Urewera is a former National Park in New Zealand. Former b/c in 2014 it was granted "legal personhood" (like corporations). Ownership of the land was transferred from the govt to the "freehold inalienable land" itself In 2017 it was joined in personhood by the Whanganui River
France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Spain all use Central European Time (GMT +1) instead of GMT because they were switched to it during Nazi Occupation and never switched back (neutral but fascist Spain switched voluntarily to be closer aligned to Germany).
The country of Suriname is the only independent country in the Americas with Dutch as the official language. It was given the Netherlands by the British in 1667 in exchange for New Amsterdam (which became New York City) as part of the Treaty of Breda.
In 2014, the government of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati bought a 20 sq km tract of land in Fiji (~2000 km away) as an emergency backup plan to migrate its population of ~115k to in case its own country submerges underwater in coming years due to rising sea levels.
In 2013, the Falkland Islands held a referendum on their status as British Overseas Territory in response to Argentina's continued calls for negotiations on sovereignty. 99.8% voted to remain a British territory with a voter turnout of 92%. Only 3 people voted against.
The South Korean govt claims sovereignty over all of Korea & still requires the president to appoint a governor for each of the 5 claimed provinces entirely in North Korea However in event of NK collapse, the 5 governors would resign & the Ministry of Unification would take over
Bermeja is a phantom island north of Mexico. It's been depicted on maps since 1539 but an extensive study in 2009 showed no evidence of the island existing One conspiracy theory claims the US govt destroyed it in order to reduce Meixco's EEZ & access nearby offshore oil fields
Morocco was the first foreign nation to recognize the United States as an independent country. Relations between the USA and Morocco date back to Dec 20, 1777, less than 1.5 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Russia is one of the only 2 official Jewish jurisdictions in the world (other being Israel) It was created by the Soviets as a place where Jews were "strongly encouraged" to relocate to. Today Jews make up less than 1% of the population of the JAO
The Greek island of Lesbos is the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho whose love poems inspired the term lesbian In 2008, residents of Lesbos filed a lawsuit in Greek courts requesting to ban the word lesbian to describe gay women as it was "appropriating their identity"
The city of Topeka, Kansas officially changed its name to "Topikachu" for a day, not once, but twice - first in 1998 in honor of the North America release of Pokemon Red and Blue, and then again more than 20 years later in 2018 for the release of Pokemon Let's Go.
Zheleznogorsk was a secret city in the USSR w/ a pop >100k that produced >1/3 of its nuclear weapons. All the nuclear facilities were built inside a hollowed out mountain, to hide from satellites & to be able to survive a nuclear attack Its flag was a bear tearing apart an atom.
The US and China are both bigger than Canada if you only count land area.
The name Hungary is an exonym for the country (the name outsiders call it). However, the country's endonym (the name people within the country call it) is Magyarország.
"Non plus ultra" means "nothing further beyond". The warning was inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at Strait of Gibraltar, the edge of the known world in antiquity Spain adopted "plus ultra" as its official motto after Columbus discover the New World (still on the flag today)
The Traverse Gap is a oddly flat valley on the continental divide separating Arctic & Atlantic watersheds. When it floods, it connects the Red River of the North system to Mississippi River system, forming a continuous body of water ~3500mi long from Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico
The gulf b/w Arabian Penninsula & Iran has been known as the Persian Gulf since antiquity. In 60s, many Arab nations pushed renaming it to "Arabian Gulf" Iran takes this affront so seriously they threaten to deny airspace to foreign airlines that dont refer to it as Persian Gulf
The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are a 25 sq mi area of sand dunes that can tower up to 100 ft high ... in Alaska, 35 miles North of the Arctic Circle. Summer temperatures there can soar up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
From 1962 to 2001, Rwanda's flag was a red-yellow-green tricolour. But in order to distinguish it from the otherwise identical flag of Guinea, it had a large black letter "R" in the center.
In 2005, the Republic of Fiji lost it's declaration of independence from Britain. After five long years of searching, for the country's 40th independence day in 2010, Fiji's government finally turned to Britain, who provided them with a photocopy.
In 1972, Fidel Castro promised Cuba would donate an island to fellow communist East Germany. During a televised state visit, Cuba renamed an island off its coast to Ernst Thälmann Island. However, after German reunification, Cuban govt now insists the transfer was only symbolic
Illinois has two counties named after the same person – Clinton County and DeWitt County. Both named after DeWitt Clinton, the Governor who got the Erie Canal built.
In 1976 Argentina invaded Southern Thule, an uninhabited British island so remote that the news wasnt announced in the press until a yr later. The UK took back the island but 6mo later an Argentine flag reappeared. The UK decided to just go in & destroy all the island's buildings
The Mongol conquests stretched as far west as Austria. They were even about to take Vienna, but the invasion was halted due to the death of the Khan back in Mongolia and so they had to return to Mongolia to elect the new Khan.
The Danish city Aarhus changed its name to Århus in 1948 because it was thought to be more progressive. But in 2010, it was changed back to Aarhus to strengthen the international profile of the city.
There is a town called North Pole in Alaska. However, it's a suburb of Fairbanks and is pretty far from the North Pole (relatively for Alaska). It's ~125 mi south of the Arctic Circle. Their post office receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa Claus per year though
In 1818, the US began building a fort near the New York - Quebec border to defend against invasions from Canada. After 2 years of construction, they realized they accidental built the fort on the Canadian side.They abandoned it and nicknamed it Fort Blunder.
After London Bridge was replaced in 1967, the city sold the original bridge to an American entrepreneur for $2.5M He paid $3M to have each stone disassembled, shipped via Panama Canal to California, and trucked to Lake Havasu City, Arizona where it was reassembled & still stands
The Aral Sea in Central Asia used to be the 4th largest lake in the world. However, Soviet irrigation projects diverting its source rivers caused it to dry up to < 10% of its original size. Now it is mostly desert and home to toxic salt storms.
To promote the Smurfs movie, in 2011, Sony temporarily painted the traditional "pueblo blanco" town of Juzcar, Spain to a bright blue. The residents were so happy with the increase in tourism afterwards that they elected to keep the change permanently.
If you took the volume of water from Lake Tahoe and distributed it evenly over the entire land area of California, it would still be 36cm deep
Russia didn't switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar until 1917 So when Alaska was bought by the US in 1867, it skipped forward 11 days. At the time, the Julian was actually 12 days behind the Gregorian, but Alaska also flipped over the International Date Line
The Westernmost and Easternmost points of the US are both named Point Udall. Point Udall, Guam (west) and Point Udall, US Virgin Islands (east) are respectively named after brothers Morris Udall and Stewart Udall, both Congressmen.
River deltas are named as such because to the ancient Greeks, the Nile River Delta resembled the Greek letter Delta.
In Sumerian mythology, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were believed to be created by the god Enki masturbating and ejaculating into their empty riverbeds.
Parque Amigos de Jose Marti is a tiny park in Tampa, Florida thats legally owned by Cuba. It was donated in 1956, 3yr before the communist revolution. The Batista administration officially accepted the property, and the American consul in Havana certified the transaction.
In Virginia, the Mat River and Ta River join to form the Matta River. Meanwhile, the Po River and the Ni River join to form the Poni River. Then the Matta and Poni Rivers join to form the Mattaponi River.
Saturn has a nearly perfectly hexagonal storm at its north pole. We're still not sure the cause of the shape.
Lake Wendouree in Australia is named as such, because when a settler asked a local indigenous woman what its name was, she replied "wendaaree". In the local language, "wendaaree" means "go away".
There's a town in Texas named Earth, TX and it's the only place on Earth officially named Earth.
More people live in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) than the combined population of Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania.
During WW2, American supply ships to Europe needed weight for the journey back & so filled themselves with rubble from the city of Bristol after German bombing. Upon return they dumped it in East River, creating the foundation for a small outcrop of Manhattan called Bristol Basin
When Washington applied for statehood, they wanted to be called Columbia, after the Columbia River, matching British Columbia across the border. Congress decided to change the state's name to Washington instead to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia.
The longest scheduled commercial passenger flight in the world was a domestic flight – b/w Paris and Papeete in French Polynesia, at 15715 km Normally, this route had a stopover in LA for refueling, but in Mar-Apr 2020 it was temporarily made nonstop due to Covid-19 restrictions
Babies born on planes flying in US airspace are granted American citizenship at birth. Canada offers the same, but also guarantees citizenship to babies born on a Canadian-registered aircraft anywhere in the world.
Kennedy Island in the Solomon Islands is named after President John F Kennedy who swam there after his boat was sunk by the Japanese in WWII. It was purchased in 2009 for less than a thousand US dollars by someone coincidentally named Kennedy. Today it's a tourist attraction.
The Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton is the northernmost Level 1 trauma center in Canada. They're the closest trauma centre for most of Alberta, northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and NWT, giving it a total catchment area of ~1/3 of Canada's land mass.
In 1962, Lake Karla in Greece was drained to provide more land for agriculture. However, it turned out the resulting land was too saline for anything to grow, and they'd rather have back the fishing industry that was displaced. So in 2018, they partially restored the lake again.
The Danube River flows not only through the most number of countries at 10 (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine) but also the most capital cities at 4 (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade).
Mainland France is often reffered to as l'Hexagone ("the Hexagon") because of its approximate shape. The adjective "hexagonal" can even be used as a casual synonym for French.
Niʻihau is Hawaii's 7th largest inhabited island, with a population of ~170. It was bought in 1864 by a Scottish woman for $10,000. Access to the island for non-residents requires special permission from the woman's great-great grandsons, who still own and control the island.
The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is the location of President FDR's summer house. While physically located in New Brunswick, Canada, it is jointly owned by the US & Canadian govts. Its equally staffed, managed & funded by Parks Canada and the U.S. National Park Service
Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake that does not touch the Canadian province of Ontario, and Lake Ontario is the only Great Lake that does not touch the US state of Michigan.
Hawaii has no incorporated cities and no municipal governments. All local governments are administered at the county level, of which there are 5.
Bratislava, Slovakia is the only national capital in the world to border two foreign countries – Austria in the west and Hungary to the south.
4 elements are all named after Ytterby, a small village in Sweden: Yttrium (Y), terbium (Tb), erbium (Er), and ytterbium (Yb). Ytterby's local quarry is the single richest source of elemental discoveries in the world, with 8 elements being discovered there.
Wall Street is named as such because it was the site of a literal wall built to defend the Dutch settlement New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan against Native American and British forces to the north.
The lowest toll ever paid for crossing Panama Canal was by Richard Halliburton in 1928 who swam the 80km through the canal. His toll, like any of the other ships, was based on his tonnage. Since he weighed ~140 pounds, he was charged 36 cents.
During the 1983 US military invasion of Grenada, the American invading force lacked any accurate maps of their own, and so instead relied on tourist maps of the island.
Oklahoma City manhole covers have a city map on them, with a blue dot to show where you are.
Kiritimati (Christmas) Island is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean that is part of the Republic of Kiribati. It has five villages, named Tabwakea, London, Paris, Poland, and Banana.
In 1998, the 3 year construction project to build a bridge over the Choluteca river in Honduras was completed. Later that same year, Hurricane Mitch rerouted the river, completely bypassing the bridge.
Mt. Tenpō is the shortest "mountain" in Japan, at 4.53m above sea level. It's classified as a mountain by the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan for some unknown reason At a nearby cafe you can get a certificate from the "Mount Tenpō expedition society" for summiting the Mtn
The word "meander" originates from the Meander River in present-day Turkey, characterized by its very convoluted path along the lower reach. In Ancient Greece, the name of the river had become a common noun meaning anything convoluted and winding.
There was never a formal declaration officially ending the Peloponnesian War until 1996, when the mayors of Athens and Sparta signed a peace treaty – about 2500 years after the fighting ceased.
The Gambia is one of only two countries with the article "the" prefixing its official short name. This was chosen just prior to independence in order to reduce confusion with the also newly independent Zambia.
No known hurricane has ever crossed the equator. Hurricanes get their spin due to the Coriolis force, which is 0 at the equator.
~46% of the world population depends on water from rivers originating in Tibet.
A person from Niger is called a Nigerien, but a person from Nigeria is called a Nigerian.
Qatar's royal family owns more property in London than the British monarchy.
In 1987, Morocco applied to join the European Communities (the precursor to the European Union). However, their application was rejected on the grounds that Morocco was not a "European country".
From 1795-1818, the U.S. flag had 15 stripes. When the first 2 new states joined the union, they increased both the stars and stripes to 15. However, by 1818, they had added another 5 states, and decided that reverting to 13 stripes and only adding stars was more reasonable.
At the height of their conquests, the Mongol Empire fought a battle against the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt in what is present-day Israel.
The Thousand Island in Thousand Island Dressing refers to an actual place called The Thousand Islands. It's an archipelago of 1,864 islands located at the point where Lake Ontario discharges into the Saint Lawrence River.
In 2012, the English town of Staines changed its name to "Staines-upon-Thames" to stop association with Sacha Baron Cohen's character Ali G.
The contiguous US has 4 different electric grids: the Western grid, the Eastern grid, the Texas grid, and a small part of Vermont runs on the Quebec grid.
Lake Tahoe is so deep and its water so cold, that when the body of Donald Christopher Windecker was found 17 years after he went missing, it was preserved enough to conduct an autopsy and determine his cause of death.
IN 1996, Canada's Northwest Territories launched a process to find a new name. They dropped the matter when "Bob" emerged as a frontrunner.
Nine days after gaining independence from Portugal, East Timor was invaded and taken over by Indonesia, which occupied it for another 2 decades.
The name "Tanzania" is a compound of the two states that merged to create the country: Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
The US govt recognizes the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. However, 10 individual US states have passed bills "recognizing" the territory's claim to independence, contradicting the federal government's stance.
There's almost twice as many ethnic Mongols living in China as in Mongolia
Constantinople was the name of the city that is today Istanbul until as recently as the 1930s. It was only officially changed by the Republic of Turkey, not by the Ottomans after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Sudan's name comes from the Arabic, "bilād as-sūdān", which translates to "land of the blacks."
The entire population of Gibraltar was evacuated during WW2 and relocated to Britain and other areas like Jamaica and Madeira.
Brazil's northernmost point is closer to every country in the Americas than to Brazil's southernmost point.
The 2014 Romanian presidential election's regional results line up nearly perfectly with the old Austro-Hungarian imperial border.
Until 1993, Andorra paid in odd-numbered years a tribute of approximately $460 to the French President (one of its co-princes), while on even-numbered years, it paid a tribute of approximately $12 to the Spanish bishop co-prince, plus six hams, six cheeses, and six live chickens.
The official name of the British Virgin Islands is just the "Virgin Islands". The prefix "British" is commonly tacked on to distinguish from the US Virgin Islands, but this usage is discouraged by the islands' government.
Long Island in NY has a higher population than the cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco combined.
On a clear day, you can see six states from the top of the Empire State Building: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Delaware.
North Korea strongly condemned apartheid in South Africa and refused to establish any diplomatic relations with the apartheid regime. They even banning South American citizens from entry and helped train anti-Apartheid guerilla fighters.
The Darvaza gas crater is a natural gas field that collapsed into an underground cavern in 1971. To prevent spread of methane gas, Soviet geologists set it on fire expecting it to burn out in a few weeks. It's still burning today after 4 decades. Locals call it the "Door to Hell"
Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. "Tsʼilʔos" is the official spelling and the "ʔ" in the name represents a glottal stop.
Canada has a single area code (867) for everything north of 60°N . 867 was chosen because it spells "TOP", as in TOP of Canada, on the standard keypad. Also, when combined with the North American dialing code +1, it spells 1867, which is the year of Canadian Confederation.
As Britons from Britannia sailed south & settled areas of NW France, people began referring to the new region as Britannia as well So the original island was named "Britannia Major" to differentiate it, which is why today its Great Britain while "Britannia Minor" became Brittany
Even though he died in 1994, Kim Il-sung remains president of North Korea, it's highest political office. The constitution was revised in 1998, declaring him 'Eternal President of the Republic', making North Korea the only necrocracy in the world - a govt ruled by a dead person.
Instead of street addresses, the town Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA uses "geographical addresses" which list the street, cross street, & # of houses from intersection The address "Monte Verde 4SW of 8th" means the house on West side Monte Verde St 4 houses south of 8th Ave intersection
There's a lake in Russia nicknamed the "Siberian Maldives" and has been a popular destination for people to pose for photos due to its bright turquoise colour. However, the color is not natural, it's caused by toxic waste runoff from a local power plant and is very hazardous.
During WWII, London became the base for at least 9 governments-in-exile including the govts of Belgium, Holland, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia, Czechslovakia, Poland, Luxembourg, and the Free France movement under Charles de Gaulle.
Similar to how the UK has four constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland), the Kingdom of the Netherlands has four constituent countries as well (The Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten).
Napoleon's planned invasion of the UK was financed by Louisiana Purchase, where France sold its North American land to the US for 50M Francs. The US partly funded the purchase via a loan from Baring Brothers, a British bank, meaning the Brits helped fund an invasion of themselves
The top 35 tallest volcanoes in the world are all in South America. The next highest at 36th is Kilmanjaro in Tanzania.
The Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians are parts of the same mountain range, once connected as the Central Pangean Mountains, formed during the creation of Pangea.
During WW2, Ireland put up over eighty giant signs of the word EIRE (Ireland in the Irish language) around its coast to warn bombers they were flying over a neutral country.
Most of Venice does not have a modern sewage system. Instead, waste is dumped into its canals which double as its sewers. Sewage is washed out into the ocean twice a day because of the tides as the old water is replaced by new fresh water.
The Magyarab are a community living along the Nile River in Egypt and Sudan. They are of Hungarian (Magyar) ancestry, who probably migrated during the late 16th century, when parts of both Hungary and Egypt were part of the Ottoman Empire.
Less than 3% of the world's population lives south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
Portland, Oregon got its name in 1845 after its founders did a best 2 out of 3 coin flip to choose between naming it after Boston, Massachusetts or Portland, Maine, the hometowns of the two founders.
The Indian states of Punjab and Haryana share the same capital city, Chandigarh. They used to be a single state but split in 1966. The capital, Chandigarh, was right on the border, but rather than fight over it, it was made independent and serves as the capital of both states.
The name of the country Montenegro means "Black Mountain" (monte negro). This originated from the Venetian language. The pine forests on Mount Lovćen were so dense that from far away the mountain looked black to the Venetians approaching by sea.
During the early 1780s, Vermont tried to join Quebec & the British agreed, even offering generous terms. However by the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, American independence became inevitable. Now bordered on three sides by the US, Vermont opted instead to join as the 14th state.
A Roman soothsayer once prophesied that Caligula had "no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae". Once emperor, Caligula ordered construction of a 3mi long floating bridge using ships as pontoons, and rode his horse across the Bay of Baiae
In 1993, Staten Island voted to secede from the rest of New York City via a referendum with 65% voting for secession. However, the efforts were then blocked by the NY State Assembly.
North Ronaldsay sheep is a breed of sheep that survives almost entirely on seaweed. The island of North Ronaldsay in scotland built a wall around the island to protect crops from sheep grazing, limiting them to the shoreline where they adapted to survive.
Saudi Arabia technically has a prime minister. That post, however, is held by the king.
For years, there's been a movement in Kazakhstan to ditching the -stan suffix & rename the country to something like "Kazakh Republic" or "Kazak Eli", b/c "stan" countries get easily confused and Kazakhstan gets lumped with perceived hotspots like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The city of Thunder Bay, Ontario had its name chosen via a referendum in 1969. The results were: "Thunder Bay" - 15,870 "Lakehead" - 15,302 "The Lakehead" - 8,377 Thunder Bay's narrow win due to vote splitting caused much controversy.
New York City was briefly named New Orange (in honor of William III of Orange) after the Dutch re-captured the city from the English in 1673, ~10 years after first losing New Amsterdam. The British changed the name back to New York for the 2nd time after capturing it back again.
Iguanas are non-native to Puerto Rico but were brought to the island in the 1970s as pets. However, they became an invasive species and now outnumber humans. The government of Puerto Rico has started to promote the consumption of iguana meat to help address the issue.
Brazil is the only country that passes through both the equator and a tropic.
Even decades after reunification, the former border between East and West Berlin is still visible from space at night. In the eastern part, they still use sodium vapour lamps with a yellower colour, while the western parts use fluorescent lamps which produce a whiter colour.
The country of Ghana has only one natural lake, which was created by a meteorite impact ~1 million years ago.
In 1859, Southern California almost broke off to become a new pro-slavery state named "Territory of Colorado". The plan was approved by the California state legislature, governor & 75% of residents. However, the start of the Civil War prevented the motion from reaching Congress.
Official title of former Uganda president Idi Amin: "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth & Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General & Uganda in Particular"
Lima is 2nd largest desert city after Cairo & has growing water shortage issues, especially in underdeveloped neighborhoods While rainfall is very low (<4cm ann.), humidity can reach 98% so locals use meshed fog catchers from bamboo frames to harvest water from the thick sea fog
Over 70% of Icelanders has a Costco membership and there's only one Costco in the entire country.
For nearly a century, "mongoloid" was the medical term to describe someone with Down Syndrome, until 1965, when the World Health Organisation deprecated the term at the request of country of Mongolia
There's a highway in Manitoba, Canada named "Tom Cochrane's Life Is a Highway" in honor of local @TomCochraneMUS and his hit song.
There's a street split down the middle by the USA-Canadian border, aptly named Canusa street. Houses on the south side of the street are in Beebe Plain, Vermont & those on north side are in Stanstead, Quebec. Crossing the street requires reporting to a border crossing office.
European Starlings, a super invasive species, were introduced to the US by Eugene Schieffelin b/c he was convinced the US needed every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s works He had 160 starlings released in NYC in 1890. They now number ~200M & are one of most abundant birds in NA
The flag of the Philippines is officially to be flown upside down with the red side up during times of war, and right side up with blue on top when the country is at peace.
The US Navy has been sustainably managing over 50,000 acres of forest in Indiana for over 6 decades w/ the expressed purpose of having enough 150+ yr old white oak trees to be able to replace wood on the still afloat USS Constitution, 1 of the first 6 US Navy ships, built in 1797
There are 6 airports on the US-Canada border. They were built during WWII, before the US officially joined the war in order to transfer aircraft to Canada without legally breaking neutrality. Planes were flown up to the border, and then towed to Canada overnight, on the runway.
Beverly Hills, California is named after Beverly, Massachusetts, which was named after the town Beverley in England, which evolved from its original name, "Beverlac" in the 10th century, meaning "beaver lake," because of all the beavers in the nearby river.
The people staying at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station over the winter have an annual tradition of watching “The Thing from Another World (1951)”, “The Thing (1982)”, and “The Thing (2011)” back-to-back after the last plane leaves for the season.
Poland declined to participate in the crusades. The High Duke of Poland explained in letter to the Pope that "neither he nor any self-respecting Polish knight could be induced to go to the Holy Land, where, they had been informed, there was no wine, mead, or even beer to be had"
Ethiopia was one of the first places in the world to officially adopt Christianity as its state religion in 330 AD, 50 years before the Roman Empire.
The most "north-westerly" point in mainland Britain is called Cape Wrath, Scotland. However, isn't named for it's treacherous conditions or ship-smashing waves, but for the Old Norse word 'Hvarf', meaning 'Turning Point'.
San Marino is prohibited from coining it's own currency and producing goods subject to Italy's government monopoly like tobacco. In exchange, Italy provides San Marino with an annual stipend of 250 tonnes of sea salt, 40 tons of tobacco, 20 tons of cigarettes & unlimited matches
A section of Mount Everest is known as the Rainbow Valley. It is named not because there are rainbows there, but because of the brightly-colored jackets on the frozen corpses that litter the valley.
One technique Genghis Khan used to expand his empire was to marry off his daughters to the king of an allied nation. Then he would assign his new son-in-law to military duty and b/c most of the sons-in-law died in combat, his daughters would gain complete control of these nations
India's independence day is Aug 15th because Lord Mountbatten chose August 15, 1947, the second anniversary of Japan's surrender in WW2 as the date to transfer power to an independent India.
Aboriginal Australians had been trading with south-east Asia long before first contact with Europeans. When British explorers first visited inland Australia they met an Aboriginal man who had already learned English from a past visit to Singapore.
There's a conference for all towns and cities in the world named Newcastle, held every 2 years. Members meet up at a Newcastle and discuss how to foster links of friendship, culture, education and tourism between them. They even published a book called "Newcastles of the World".
The Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona was named by white settlers who assumed that any archeological site was built by the Aztecs. However, it has nothing to do with the Aztecs (it was built by Sinagua tribe) and was abandoned 40 yrs before Montezuma was born.
Harvard University (founded in 1636) temporarily lost the title of "oldest university in the United States" when the US colonized the Philippines (1899-1946), as Manila's Universidad de Santo Tomas (founded in 1611) predated Harvard by 25 years.
Not only do Malaysia & Singapore have the busiest international land border crossing in the world with over 350,000 travellers daily, but Kuala Lumpur <> Singapore is also the busiest international air route by # of flights flown (~30,000 per year).
Basically, all speed skating world records are set in either Salt Lake City out Calgary because the high altitude results in lower air resistance. Skating statisticians keep separate "sea-level" records in order kept to account for this.
The Pacific Ocean is bigger than all the land in the world combined. Pacific Ocean: ~165 million km2. All land on Earth: ~148 million km2
In the Denmark Strait, there is a 2 mile tall underwater waterfall (4x as tall as tallest waterfall on land). A warm sea collides with a cold sea, and because cold, dense water sinks below warmer water, it creates a waterfall when it flows over a huge drop in the ocean.
The Great Green Wall of Africa is a project by the African Union to combat desertification in the Sahel region and hold back expansion of the Sahara, by planting a wall of trees stretching across the entire width of the continent. So far, it's ~15% completed.
Canada has a two separate national anthems, a French one and English one. They're both to the same tune, but their lyrics mean completely different things.
Henry Ford created a town in the Brazili rainforest named "Fordlandia" to harvest rubber. Locals were forced to live a Midwestern lifestyle incl. mandatory square dancing (w/ each other b/c no women allowed). Eventually the workers grew tired of burgers & canned food and rebelled
After the fall of the Western-Roman Empire, the population of the city of Rome dropped from 1 Million in 330AD to <50k by 700AD. It then remained basically stagnant until the 1800s. Poluation plot:
Modern Ghana was originally a British colony called the Gold Coast, but after independence, named itself after the Ghana Empire which was around from 300-1100 AD. However, they have no affiliation with each other and their territories don't even overlap at all.
In the 1690s, the then independent Scotland tried to make a colony in Central America called New Caledonia The plan, named Darién Project, failed resulting in 1000s of deaths, Scottish nobility being nearly bankrupted, & ultimately forcing the Union of England & Scotland in 1707
The Pyramids of Giza aren't in the middle of nowhere in the desert. They're only a few hundred yards away from Cairo.
In 1869, a group of Samurai fled Japan due to a civil war and founded a colony in California called The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony. It is believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America and the only settlement by samurai outside of Japan.
The top 3 densest cities in the world are all in the Philippines. Manila, Pateros, and Mandaluyong
Pittsburgh is closer to Washington DC and Baltimore than it is to Philadelphia.
A raindrop falling in Waterford Township, Erie County, PA will travel 2,147 miles to the Gulf of Mexico rather than 15 miles to Lake Erie.
Alaska is bigger than the next three biggest states, Texas, California, and Montana, combined.
Pope Francis is the first non-European pope in over 1,272 years, since the reign of Pope Gregory III, born in Syria, ended in 741.
Alberta, Canada is largest inhabited area on Earth that is basically rat-free. The province essentially exterminated them all in the 1950s & has maintained a program till today to keep it that way. It's common for the discovery of a rat today to receive full media coverage.
The US sends annual $4,085 checks to Cuba for the lease of Guantanamo Bay. However, the post-revolution Cuban govt doesn't recognize the legitimacy of the claim, so only one check has been cashed since 1959 (by accident). Fidel Castro kept the rest locked in his desk drawer
In 1802, Napoleon forced a Polish legion to help quell the slave rebellion in Haiti. However, the Polish army ended up joining the Haitian slaves in the fight for independence Haiti's 1st head of state called Polish people "the White Negroes of Europe", regarded as a great honor
At the 35th G8 summit in 2009, Gaddafi publicly called for the dissolution of Switzerland, its territory to be divided among France, Italy and Germany. This was in response to Switzerland arresting his son the previous year for allegedly beating his servants at a hotel.
All men's Olympic gold medal winners in water polo since 2000 were born within this area
Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi. And it's only the 21st largest state overall.
On July 9, 1958, an earthquake caused 40 million cubic yards of rock to fall 3000 ft into the waters of the Gilbert Inlet in Alaska, causing a 1720 ft tall tsunami, the tallest ever known. The wave moved at over 120 mph, and its force uprooted and swept away millions of trees.
The CONIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by CONIFA, an umbrella association for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA, which has been held every two years since 2014. So far, 27 teams have participated.
There's a popular legend that Gibraltar will stay under British rule as long as the Barbary macaque monkeys are still there. In 1942, after the population dwindled to just 7 monkeys, Winston Churchill ordered more be immediately shipped from Morocco and Algeria.
There are more skyscrapers (taller than 150m) in New York City than all of Europe combined. NYC has ~290, Europe has ~218.
Gibraltar has been under British control now (306 years) for longer than it was ever under the Spanish crown (242 years)
For many year, Alcatraz was one of the only federal prisons in the US to offer hot showers to prisoners. The prison staff reasoned that prisoners acclimated to hot water would not be able to withstand the freezing waters of the San Francisco bay during an escape attempt.
There are multiple elements named after countries (Americium, Francium, Germanium, Polonium, Nihonium) but only one country named after an element. 'Argentina' is derived from 'Argentum' the latin name for Silver (Ag).
Nobel Laureate Glenn Seaborg could plausibly use chemical symbols to describe his office mailing address: Sg,Lr,Bk,Cf,Am Seaborgium (named for him) Lawrencium (his workplace, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) Berkelium (City of Berkeley) Californium (California) Americium (America)
The Austrian Empire had a shortlived colony in India, on the island of Nancowry, in the Nicobar islands chain.
The country Seychelles offers visa-free access, free of charge, to all foreign nationals, from every UN-recognized country in the world. The visitor's permit is valid for 3 months, and can be extended for up to 12 months
Gibraltar is a Spanish corruption of "Jabal Ṭāriq", meaning Mountain of Ṭāriq. The Rock is named in honor of Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, who conquered it for the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century.
The first Roman city outside of Italy was all the way on the far side of today's Spain. Was founded in 206 BC during Second Carthage War.
In 1856, the US Army Corp imported 75 camels in order to test them for use in the Wild West due to their known adaptability to harsh climates. If successful, they would have begun a program to populate the region. However, the experiment was cut short by the Civil War.
In 1939, the US Department of the Interior created a report on The Problem of Alaskan Development. It proposed allowing European refugees, especially Jews from Nazi Germany and Austria, to quickly immigrate Alaska and bypass normal immigration quotas.
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania & Uganda are in the process of trying to merge into a single federated sovereign state called The East African Federation. They are planning to have draft regional constitution written by 2021, with its implementation by 2023.
Even if successful, the East African Federation would still only be the second most populous country in Africa, after Nigeria.
The UK extends further north than Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki & St. Petersburg.
On Google Maps satellite view, if you zoom out far enough, it shows real time cloud coverage.
In 1922, to honor Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel's career as a naval official, the King of Italy gave him the noble title "Duke of the Sea".
For millennia, Europeans didnt know for sure where many birds went in Winter. Theories included hibernating underground & transformin into other birds Until 1822, when a German hunter shot a stork w/ 80cm Central African spear impaling its neck, first evidence of migration South
Only 5 US States have none of their borders defined by rivers: Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and Hawaii.
The Rhodesian Liberty Bell is replica of the American Liberty Bell that was created in 1966, and funded by anonymous, likely American, donors. It was to celebrate Rhodesia's 1yr anniversary of in 1965 becoming the first colony to break away from the UK since the US 13 Colonies
In 1990, self-proclaimed climatologist Ibn Browning predicted a massive earthquake would strike New Madrid, Missouri on Dec 3, 1990. The media covered it non-stop, ppl hoarded food, schools in multiple states closed. Browning had no seismology background. No earthquake occurred
San Marino's national football team has only won one official match in its entire history: in 2004 they managed to beat Liechtenstein 1-0.
The name “Delaware”, including the river, the state, and even the Native American tribe is not a native indigenous word, but comes from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British politician and early governor of Virginia Colony. *De La Warr*
At the end of the Mexican-American War, there was a popular movement in the US to annex All of Mexico. It ended up not happening due to opposition, by virtue of the fact that Mexico wasn't white enough.
Mount Athos is a 335 sq km peninsula in Greece that is constitutionally recognized as self-governed by 20 Orthodox monasteries All women (including even female animals) are legally banned from the entire region. Greece even got the ban an official exemption from Schengen rules
The island of Borneo is the only island in the world to be split between three UN countries: Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The official name of the Republic of Venice was Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, meaning "Most Serene Republic of Venice"
From 1674 till 1702, the English colony of New Jersey was split into two provinces: East and West Jersey. The dividing line between these two provinces can still clearly be seen today in a map of modern municipal boundaries
The Westlake District of Los Angeles is named after a person, Henricus Wallace Westlake.