Here are 50 facts from FunFact's “World & countries” topic, all checked. Each one cites its source (en.wikipedia.org, fr.wikipedia.org, rts.ch…) and the date it was checked. This topic is part of FunFact Premium.
Born in Paris in 1982, the Fête de la Musique (World Music Day) is now celebrated in over 120 countries.
Every June 21, free concerts take place in the streets, from Brazil to Japan, based on an idea from France's Ministry of Culture.
It was launched by Minister Jack Lang and Maurice Fleuret, director of Music. June 21 is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
In 2011, Samoa dropped December 30 from its calendar by switching sides of the date line.
The country went straight from December 29 to December 31, 2011, to line up with Australia and New Zealand, its main partners.
Before, their Friday was their neighbors' Saturday, which cut the number of shared working days. The country went from UTC−11 to UTC+13. Tokelau, a neighboring territory, made the same choice.
Mexico City is built on an ancient lake and sinks in places by more than 30 cm (12 in) a year.
The capital sits on the dried-up bed of Lake Texcoco, where the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan once stood, on clay about 100 m (330 ft) thick.
The ground settles as groundwater is pumped out. The sinking is uneven: buildings tilt, and the cathedral had to be stabilized. This settling is expected to continue for decades.
In New Zealand, a hill bears the longest place name in the world, according to Guinness.
This hill on the North Island, in the Hawke’s Bay region, bears a Māori place name of eighty-five letters.
About 305 meters (1,001 ft) high, the hill stands near Pōrangahau. Its full name evokes Tamatea, a Māori ancestor said to have played his flute (kōauau) there for his beloved.
The Amazon alone pours roughly 15 to 20% of the fresh water that rivers deliver to the world's oceans.
The colossal flow of this South American river surpasses that of every other river on Earth.
The amount of fresh water the Amazon releases into the Atlantic is so enormous that it dilutes the ocean's salinity for hundreds of kilometers (well over 100 miles) offshore.
Spain keeps Paris and Berlin time, even though Madrid lies farther west than London.
Madrid is at about 3.7° west, London at 0.1° west: by the Sun, Spain should follow London time.
The change dates from March 1940, under Franco, often presented as an alignment with Nazi Germany. As a result, the sun sets late in Spain, which is often cited to explain late meals.
The pound sterling is often described as the oldest currency still in use: more than 1,200 years.
Its origins go back to Anglo-Saxon silver coins of the 8th century; the Bank of England dates from 1694.
The word “sterling” refers to silver of good quality. The £ symbol comes from the letter L of the Latin “libra,” the pound. The United Kingdom never adopted the euro and kept its currency.
Canberra was built from scratch to end the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne.
The site was chosen in 1908; an international competition was won in 1912 by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin.
Neither of the two big cities would agree to give up the title to the other. The compromise: create a brand-new capital between the two. The Australian Parliament left Melbourne for it in 1927. Canberra remains a modest-sized city (about 450,000 residents).
Norway has a road tunnel more than 24 kilometers (15 miles) long through solid rock.
The Lærdal Tunnel runs through the mountain to link isolated fjords without a ferry.
To keep drivers from feeling claustrophobic while crossing this immense underground passage, special bright areas with changing colors have been built in.
In Mexico, the marigold, or “cempasúchil,” is the “flower of the dead” of the Day of the Dead.
It decorates altars and graves; its name comes from the Nahuatl “cempohualxochitl,” the “twenty flower.”
The Day of the Dead is celebrated in early November. The plant has also long been used in cooking and traditional medicine; its orange pigments are rich in lutein.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the most mountainous countries on Earth, with over 90% of its territory at high altitude.
The “Celestial Mountains” of the Tian Shan dominate the landscape of this Central Asian nation.
Landlocked between larger neighbors, the country is crossed by dizzying peaks above 7,000 m (about 23,000 ft), shaping an ancient nomadic culture built around horse breeding.
The highest point on Earth's dry land (Everest) and the lowest (the Dead Sea) are both in Asia.
Everest rises to 8,849 m (29,032 ft); the Dead Sea shores are at about −430 m (−1,411 ft).
Mount Everest rises to more than 8,848 m (29,029 ft) on the Nepal–Tibet border, while the Dead Sea depression sinks more than 400 m (1,312 ft) below sea level.
Mongolia is home to the largest number of wild Przewalski’s horses in the world.
These sturdy equines roam freely across the steppes of Central Asia.
Saved from total extinction just in time by international breeding programs, Przewalski’s horses have been successfully reintroduced into their original habitats.
Along with the Vatican, Switzerland is the only country in the world with a square national flag.
The cross has been set by law since 1889. But clear rules, including the square shape, only came in 2017.
The shape comes from the war flags of the past, which were square. Another advantage over the Vatican's flag: whichever side is taken as the base, the Swiss flag always looks right side up.
The Battle of Waterloo did not take place within the municipality of Waterloo.
On June 18, 1815, the fighting took place a little farther south, at Braine-l’Alleud, Lasne and Genappe, about 20 km (12 miles) from Brussels.
Wellington dated his victory dispatch from his headquarters, based in Waterloo, and the name stuck. The French first spoke of “Mont-Saint-Jean,” the Germans of “Belle-Alliance.”
Every five years, Estonia holds a huge song festival, born in 1869 and listed by UNESCO
Born in Tartu in 1869, it is now held about every five years in Tallinn, at a site dedicated to it since 1928. UNESCO listed it in 2008.
Under Soviet occupation, singing the national anthem and flying the Estonian flag were banned at the festivals from 1947 to 1985. Since 1990, almost every festival has had the crowd sing the country’s most symbolic songs, including the anthem.
Valletta, the capital of Malta, is the smallest capital in the European Union: under 1 km² (0.4 sq mi).
About 0.6 km² (0.2 sq mi) and fewer than 6,000 residents: an entire city fits inside a single Paris neighborhood.
It was founded in 1566 and bears the name of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, the Frenchman Jean Parisot de Valette, victor of the Great Siege of 1565 against the Ottomans. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980.
Until 2020, the Italian enclave of Campione, in Ticino, was part of Switzerland’s customs territory.
This town of about 2,000 people, on Lake Lugano, joined the customs territory of the European Union on January 1, 2020.
This enclave of one square kilometer (0.4 sq mi), 23 km (14 miles) from Italy, had a very special status. Its return to the European Union’s customs fold worried its residents.
The Kingdom of Bhutan measures its development by Gross National Happiness.
This small Himalayan country favors alternatives to GDP as indicators of progress.
Instead of relying solely on financial economic growth, Bhutan judges the success of its public policy by the spiritual and social well-being of its citizens.
Russia's “October Revolution” took place in November by our calendar.
The storming of the Winter Palace took place on October 25, 1917 on the Julian calendar, which is November 7 on the Gregorian calendar.
Russia only adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918: the day after January 31 was February 14. The Russian Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar, which is why Christmas is celebrated there on January 7.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you can legally buy beer and wine from age 16.
Spirits remain off-limits before age 18. In Germany, the age even drops to 14 if a parent accompanies the minor.
The rule varies in Europe: Portugal, which allowed beer and wine from 16, set the minimum age at 18 for all drinks in December 2015. In France, selling alcohol to minors is prohibited.
The “Christmas pickle,” supposedly a German tradition, is unknown to 91% of Germans.
According to a YouGov poll reported by the New York Times, 91% of 2,057 Germans surveyed had never heard of it.
A glass pickle is hidden in the tree, and whoever finds it gets a present. The legend more likely comes from the German-American community in the 1890s. Americans believe it's German.
In Switzerland, altitudes are measured from a rock in Geneva's harbor: the Pierre du Niton.
Its benchmark is set at 373.6 m (1,226 ft), calculated relative to the Mediterranean sea level measured at Marseille.
In the 19th century, this benchmark in Geneva's harbor (the Rade de Genève) became the starting point of Swiss surveying of heights. All other elevation points were measured from it, then plotted on the national maps.
In Tibet, people drink salted tea churned with yak butter, called “po cha.”
Strong black tea is whipped with yak butter and salt; it is drunk every day and served to guests.
Tea reached Tibet around the 7th century, but butter tea became widespread around the 13th. Very high in calories, it suits the cold at high altitude; it is often mixed with tsampa, a roasted barley flour.
The world record for rainfall in 24 hours was measured on Réunion Island, a French département.
1,825 mm (72 in) of rain fell at Foc-Foc on January 7–8, 1966, during Cyclone Denise: nearly three years' worth of Paris rainfall in a single day.
The island's steep terrain forces the humid air of cyclones to rise quickly, which causes extreme rainfall. Réunion also holds world records for other durations, such as 12 hours (1,144 mm, or 45 in).
Mont Blanc has no fixed height: it lost 2.22 m (7.3 ft) in 2021–2023, then regained 1.88 m (6.2 ft) in 2026.
Surveyors measured 4,807.81 m (15,774 ft) in 2021, 4,805.59 m (15,766 ft) in 2023, then 4,807.47 m (15,773 ft) in September 2026: the summit is topped by a cap of snow and ice.
This cap changes with snowfall and summer heat. Professional surveyors therefore remeasure the summit about every two years. The bedrock itself lies about fifteen meters lower, around 4,792 m (15,722 ft).
The famous reflection of Bali's Lempuyang temple in photos is made with a mirror held under the camera.
In front of the “Gate of Heaven,” there's no lake or puddle: the reflection “on the water” is created by a mirror placed just under the phone's lens.
The trick was revealed in 2019 by a journalist's tweet, which mentioned a “piece of glass under an iPhone.” Visitors, some of whom had traveled far, were disappointed to discover the trickery.
The Belgian ship Belgica was the first to spend a winter in Antarctica, in 1898.
Setting out in 1897 under Adrien de Gerlache, it had Roald Amundsen aboard as a lieutenant and Frederick Cook as doctor.
The crew numbered 19 men. Two died: Karl-August Wiencke, swept away by a storm in January 1898, then Émile Danco, of a heart condition during the winter stay.
In Luxembourg, nearly half of the residents are not Luxembourg citizens.
About 47% of the population is foreign (versus about 8% in France), notably Portuguese, French and Italian nationals.
The country has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French and German. More than 200,000 cross-border commuters (French, Belgians, Germans) also come to work there every day without living there.
Belgium has a German-speaking community of nearly 80,000 people, with its own parliament.
It has nine municipalities, including Eupen, Raeren and Saint-Vith, covering 854 km² (330 sq mi); its parliament has 25 members and sits in Eupen.
The German-speaking Community was created in 1970 in the first state reform. German is its only official language; standard German took hold there mainly in the 19th century, through the clergy.
Switzerland's “CH” comes from Latin, the only way to have an abbreviation shared by all the Swiss.
CH stands for Confoederatio Helvetica. The 10-centime coin, unchanged since 1879, already bears this Latin name.
French, German and Italian speakers could not have agreed on an abbreviation in any one of their languages. Neutral Latin settled the problem. The country now has four national languages.
The first railway on the European continent opened in Belgium, between Brussels and Mechelen, in 1835.
The line was inaugurated on May 5, 1835, between the Allée Verte in Brussels and Mechelen, with Stephenson-type locomotives.
The first trains pulled open bench cars and stagecoach-style carriages mounted on rails. Almost 190 years later, in 2022, the Belgian network had 3,733 km (2,320 mi) of lines.
Australia's Highway 1, which circles the whole country, is the longest national highway in the world
It is about 14,500 km (9,000 mi) long, longer than the Trans-Siberian Highway (over 11,000 km, 6,800 mi) or the Trans-Canada Highway (8,030 km, 4,990 mi).
A caveat: it is the longest national highway, not the longest continuous stretch. The Pan-American Highway, despite the break at the Darién Gap, and the Asian Highway AH1, interrupted by the Sea of Japan, have longer continuous sections.
Ireland was the first country in the world to make all its workplaces smoke-free, bars included
The ban took effect on March 29, 2004, and also applied to bars and restaurants.
Italy had passed a comparable law in 2003, enforced only on January 10, 2005. The title of “first” depends on the definition: other countries had already taken more partial measures.
Greenland is the largest non-continental island in the world.
Despite a name that evokes greenery, this northern territory is mostly covered in ice.
Covered by an immense ice sheet over more than 80% of its surface, Greenland has an area of more than two million square kilometers (over 772,000 sq mi), under Danish administration.
In Estonia, more than half of voters cast their ballots online in the 2023 parliamentary election.
The Baltic country has allowed online voting in every election since 2005, a world first at the national level.
Voters identify themselves with an electronic ID card or a mobile app, and can change their online vote before election day. Estonia has also moved almost all of its administrative procedures online.
In Spain, people eat twelve grapes at the twelve strokes of midnight on December 31 for good luck
One grape with each stroke of the bell. The tradition is documented as early as 1895 and well established by 1909.
It is done at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, in front of the TV, and has spread to Mexico, Peru, Chile and beyond. Two origins are suggested: a grape surplus in Alicante in 1909, or a mockery of the Madrid upper class.
On Lake Titicaca, entire islands made of reeds float on the water.
The Uru people build these islands, as well as their boats, from dried totora reeds, at about 3,810 m (12,500 ft) of altitude, 5 km (3 miles) from the port of Puno.
The base is a block of roots 1 to 2 m (3 to 7 ft) thick that keeps it afloat, covered with layers of reeds. New reeds must be added regularly because the bottom rots. An island lasts about 25 years.
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