Did You Know ... ? Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus was the first person to show that the planets move around the sun. To meet public transport needs during communism, the government paid drivers to pick up hitchhikers. Poland was the first country in Europe to adopt a written constitution (1791) and
Did You Know ... ? Ferdinand Magellan was killed in 1521 in the Philippines while leading the world’s first circumnavigation of the globe. The country was named for Spain’s King Philip II. It is likely the Philippines’ first inhabitants, ancestors of today’s Negritos, arrived more than 30,000 years ago. The
Did You Know ... ? Caral, estimated to be 5,000 years old, is the oldest known city in the New World. About a fifth of all Indians in the Americas live in Peru. The desert that abuts Peru’s Pacific coast is drier than the Sahara. Andean farmers devised the first
Did You Know? Explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa was in Panama when he first saw the Pacific (1513). Writer Richard Halliburton swam the Panama Canal (1928), paying its lowest-ever toll (36 cents, based on his “tonnage”). More bird species — 900-plus — have been recorded in Panama than in the
Did You Know...? Telemark, a Norwegian county, gave its name to a ski technique. Norwegians may eat four meals a day, with some farm families eating five. There is evidence that skiing goes back at least 4,000 years in Norway. More than half of Norway’s land is above the timberline.
Did you know ... ? St. Patrick died in Northern Ireland on March 17, in the year 461. Amelia Earhart ended her historic solo Atlantic flight, in 1932, near Londonderry. Bushmills in County Antrim is the world’s oldest licensed distillery (from 1608). Londonderry is the only completely walled city in
Did You Know? The Nicaraguan address system does not use street names or house numbers. Lake Nicaragua is the only freshwater lake where sharks live; they travel upriver from the Caribbean. Nicaragua’s Violeta Barrios Chamorro was the first elected female president in the Americas (1990-1997). The Bosawas Biosphere Reserve protects
Did you know ... ? New Zealanders invented bungee jumping, the jetboat, the Blokart and the Zorb. Wellington is the world’s southernmost capital city. New Zealand claims the world’s longest place name — 92 letters in the longest version. Traditional Maori tattoos are viewed as intellectual property; facial tattoos tell
Did You Know...? The Netherlands counts approximately 1,000 working windmills. The country has more bicycles than residents and twice as many bikes as cars. Amsterdam is built entirely on piles. Schipol Airport is more than 14 feet below sea level, having been built on a lake bed. The Dutch are
Did You Know ... ? The red, flat-topped cap called the fez was named for the city of Fez. “Casablanca,” which put Morocco on the map for many, was shot almost entirely in studios (1942). Mount Toubkal, at 13,665 feet, is North Africa’s highest point. The only U.S. National Historic
