Most of these facts were unknown to me. Clearly I cannot enter any TV quizzes anytime soon.
Main picture: The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4.53 sq. km and a population of 49 people.
Alaska
1917 map of Alaska
Amazon
The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen supply.
The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river that one can skip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
Antarctica
Composite polar day shot
Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world’s ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert; the average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, ice.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
Quintessential Antartica with ice and penguins
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
Raw Brazil nuts
Canada
Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ‘Big Village ‘.
Chicago
Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
Detroit
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.
Damascus, Syria
Damascus Syria
Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
Istanbul, Turkey
Bosphorus, Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles skyline
Los Angeles’ full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula. It can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
New York City
The term ‘The Big Apple’ was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang expression ‘apple’ for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time – The Big Apple.
There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City
than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Ohio
Lake Kelso in Ohio
There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio. Everyone is man made.
Rome
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
Siberia
Chulman River Valley in Eastern Siberia in winter
Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.
S.M.O.M.
Headquarters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts and, as of 2001, has a population of 80 – 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
Sahara Desert
Tidikelt, Algeria
In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically, though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years!
Spain
Spain literally means ‘the land of rabbits’.
St. Paul, Minnesota
Pierre ‘Pig’s Eye’ Parrant
St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig’s Eye after a man named Pierre ‘Pig’s Eye’ Parrant
who set up the first business there.
Roads
Ice roads in Canda
Chances that a road is unpaved:
in the U.S.A. = 1%;
in Canada = .75%
Russia
Kola Superdeep Borehole
The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia. It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles). It was drilled for scientific research. Some unexpected discoveries were made, one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen, so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.
United States
Interstate
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
Waterfalls
Angel Falls
The water of Angel Falls (the world’s highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.
According to you: “There is a city called Rome on every continent.”
This is incorrect as there is no Rome in the Antartica.
Would not even have been able to answer olne of those as a quiz questions! VERY educational – now to floor the kids with my new knowledge!!!!