Interesting Facts - Page 107

531

A man named James Shields once challenged Abraham Lincoln to a duel. Lincoln accepted, but chose broadswords as the method of combat. On the day of the duel, Shields saw Lincoln's enormous wingspan and strength and decided to call the whole thing off.

532

James Monroe was going to have a duel with Alexander Hamilton, but Aaron Burr intervened.

533

The leader of Turkmenistan recently built a 19 foot tall gilded statue of his favorite dog breed. Its base includes a wrap-around LED display with videos of the dog in action.

534

There was once a city in Philippines named Sexmoan. It changed its name to Sasmuan in 1991.

535

There are parts of the Netherlands inside of Belgium inside of the Netherlands.

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Level ∞

Dec 5, 2020

Credit to @NeilVedwan for #532 and @sammyasf for #533.

+12

Level 73

Dec 1, 2020

The city of Bizerte, Tunisia, is slightly further north than Syracuse, Italy. Here are the co-ordinates to prove it. Bizerte: 37°16'36.5"N vs. Syracuse: 37°04'31.5"N.

It's interesting because one is a former Phoenician colony, founded ca. 1100 BCE, and the other is a former Greek one, founded 400 years later. These two cities were probably fighting for dominance over the Mediterranean trade in antiquity, yet today they are rather forgotten parts of their respective countries, who have assumed two totally different, somewhat clashing, identities (not unlike the past either), for more recent historical reasons. These are the tidbits that make me fascinated with History!

Level 51

Dec 1, 2020

James Monroe was going to have a duel with Alexander Hamilton, but Aaron Burr intervened. He ended up dueling (and killing) Hamilton later.

Level 51

Feb 12, 2024

This would make a great musical.

Level 42

Dec 1, 2020

The fastest time to travel around the world was just under three days

Level 52

Dec 1, 2020

Who? How? Why? When? Source?

Level 44

Dec 3, 2020

Here

Level 44

Dec 3, 2020

I think you mean on scheduled commercial flights

Level 51

Dec 3, 2020

China has built a engine that can go around the world in 2 hours. Source: https://weather.com/news/trending/video/china-tests-engine-that-can-go-anyplace-on-earth-in-2-hours

Level 68

Oct 5, 2021

The ISS can go around Earth in 90 minutes.

Level 42

Dec 5, 2020

Another fact the River Nile came from the Greek name Neilos

Level 74

Dec 9, 2020

about 535: these are known as Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau and are basically unresolved territorial complexities dating back to 1198.

coordinates: 51.44128382158952, 4.9325510746230465

Level 75

Dec 16, 2020

535: there is also Nahwa - which is a UAE exclave in the Omani territory of Madha, itself an enclave in the UAE

Level 78

Dec 20, 2020

#532 was not in the musical.

Level 59

Jan 20, 2023

MINOR HISTORICAL INACCURACY SPOTTED

Level 78

Mar 3, 2021

535 - at one point there was a part of India inside Bangladesh inside India inside Bangladesh, but it was ceded to Bangladesh in 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_enclaves#Notable_enclaves

Level 84

Mar 16, 2021

535 is the city of Baarle, or more precisely, Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) and Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands).

There are houses were you could be sleeping in Belgium and cooking in Netherlands. In public ways, the borders are marked so you can tell in which country you are.

Of course, they're blessed by being in two close-allied countries (generally speaking), within the same economic and customs zone, and using the same currency. Something the intricated system of enclaves of India and Bangladesh can't say.

Level 28

May 7, 2021

Ah yes, number 534. The epicest funny.

Level 45

Feb 3, 2022

A man named James Shields also gave up a home run to Bartolo Colon

Level 85

Feb 15, 2022

531: Your claimed reason for the cancellation of the Lincoln-Shields duel is in dispute.

Level 76

Jun 27, 2023

For 535, I read "Netherlands" as "Neanderthals" and was subsequently very confused.