Author: Travel Fun

B. Bavarian Army

Adolf Hitler was 25 years old in August 1914, when Austria-Hungary and the German Empire entered the First World War. Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army despite his Austrian citizenship.  Hitler claimed he did not wish to serve in the Austria-Hungary (Habsburg Empire) army because of its mixture of "races." Renowned for the rewriting of his personal narrative, he actually did attempt to enlist in the Austrian Army, but was turned away due to failing his physical examination. In the Bavarian Army, Hitler continued to put forth his German nationalist ideas which he developed from a young age.

During the war, Hitler served in France and Belgium in the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment). He was an infantryman in the 1st Company during the First Battle of Ypres (October 1914), which Germans remember as the Kindermord bei Ypern (Ypres Massacre of the Innocents) because approximately 40,000 men (between a third and a half) of nine newly-enlisted infantry divisions became casualties in 20 days. Hitler's regiment entered the battle with 3,600 men and at its end mustered 611. By December Hitler's own company of 250 was reduced to 42. Biographer John Keegan claims that this experience drove Hitler to become aloof and withdrawn for the remaining years of war. After the battle, Hitler  was assigned to be a regimental message-runner.



In early 1915 Lance Corporal Hitler adopted a stray dog he named Fuchsl (little fox), who was taught many tricks and became his beloved companion. Hitler's circle of army friends, laughed at "Adi" for his aversion to smutty stories, and traded their jam rations for his tobacco.

The List Regiment fought in many battles, including the First Battle of Ypres (1914), the Battle of the Somme (1916), the Battle of Arras (1917), and the Battle of Passchendaele (1917). During the Battle of Fromelles on 19–20 July 1916 the Australians, mounting their first attack in France, assaulted the Bavarian positions. The Bavarians repulsed the attackers, but suffered  the second-highest losses they had on any day on the Western Front, about 7,000 men. The history of the List Regiment hailed this brilliant defense as the "personification of the German Army on the Western Front."

During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916 Hitler received a wound in his left thigh. He begged not to be evacuated, but was sent for two months to the Red Cross hospital in Brandenburg.

On 15 October 1918, he and several comrades were temporarily blinded — due to British mustard-gas attack. He also lost his elaborate long handlebar moustache which had prevented a tight seal on his oxygen mask – which he then transitioned to a small toothbrush moustache as ordered by his commanders.

Hitler was hospitalized in Pomerania. While there, her learned of Germany's defeat, and — by his own account — upon hearing the news suffered a second bout of blindness. Hitler was outraged by the subsequent Treaty of Versailles (1919), which forced Germany to admit to starting the war, deprived Germany of various territories, demilitarized the Rhineland (which the Allies occupied), and imposed economically damaging sanctions. Hitler later wrote: "When I was confined to bed, the idea came to me that I would liberate Germany, that I would make it great. I knew immediately that it would be realized."

Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the relatively common Iron Cross Second Class in 1914 and the Iron Cross First Class in 1918.

D. 80%

The Marquesas Islands were one of the last areas contacted by European explorers for colonization. Due to European diseases, lethal infectious epidemics began to spread; despite the outsiders often having no obvious illness. Four major epidemic diseases (TB, typhoid, influenza, and smallpox) devastated the Marquesas from 1791 to 1863/64; approximately 80% of the population died.

E. Pete Townshend – The Who

In the mid 1960s, guitarist Pete Townshend of the Who was the first guitar-smashing rock artist. Rolling Stone Magazine included his smashing of a Rickenbacker guitar at the Railway Tavern Harrow and Wealdstone in September 1964 in their list of "50 Moments That Changed Rock & Roll.” Jeff Beck, then a member of the Yardbirds, reluctantly destroyed a guitar in the 1966 film ‘Blowup’ (original title) after being told to emulate the Who by director Michelangelo Antonioni. Jimi Hendrix was also known for destroying his guitars and amps. He famously burned two guitars at three shows, most notably the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. In an effort to out-do the Who's destruction of their instruments earlier at the same event, Hendrix poured lighter fluid over his guitar and set it on fire, even though "I'd just finished painting it that day" as he would later remark.

A. John Adams

President John Adams was morally opposed to slavery and refused to employ slaves. His wife, Abigail Adams, went so far as to employ free blacks for labor. A letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, written in 1776, gives her views: "I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be equally strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs." Their advocacy helped lay the groundwork for the abolition movement.

Leading American Founders – Most notably Thomas Jefferson (600+ slaves, with only one freed at his death), George Washington (200 + slaves, all freed at his death), and James Madison (100+ slaves, none freed at his death) – owned slaves, but many did not. Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils." James Monroe (with 75 slaves) supported sending freed slaves to the new country of Liberia; its capital, Monrovia, is named after him. Andrew Jackson owned many slaves and faced several controversies related to slavery during his presidency. At his campaign for the presidency, he faced criticism for being a slave trader. He did not free his slaves in his will.

D. Constantine

Constantine the Great (272 AD – 337 AD), also known as Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between 306 and 337 AD. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Although he lived much of his life as a pagan, and later as a catechumen, he joined the Christian faith on his deathbed, baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia. He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared religious tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced the statement of Christian belief known as the Nicene Creed. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on his orders at the purported site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem and became the holiest place in Christendom. He has historically been referred to as the "First Christian Emperor," but some modern scholars debate his beliefs and even his comprehension of the Christian faith itself.

Augustus: Great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar; became de facto emperor as a result of the 'first settlement' between himself and the Roman Senate.

He ruled for 40 years, 7 months & 3 days; death at 75 from natural causes.

Caligula: Great-nephew and adoptive grandson of Tiberius; natural son of Germanicus; great-grandson of Augustus. He ruled 3 years, 10 months and 6 days; death at 28 from assassination in a conspiracy involving senators and Praetorian Guards.

Claudius: Uncle of Caligula; brother of Germanicus; nephew of Tiberius; great-nephew and step-grandson of Augustus; proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard. He ruled 13 years, 8 months and 18/19 days; death at 63 from possible poisoning by his wife Agrippina the Younger, in favor of her son, Nero.

Hadrian: Father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. He was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus in Italica, Hispania Baetica, into a Hispano-Italic family that settled in Spain from the Italian city of Atri in Picenum. He ruled 20 years, 10 months and 30 days; death at 62 from natural causes.

Nero: Great-nephew, stepson, son-in-law and adopted son of Claudius; nephew of Caligula; great-great-nephew of Tiberius; grandson of Germanicus; great-great-grandson of Augustus. He ruled 13 years, 7 months and 27 days; death at 30 due to suicide after being declared a public enemy by the Senate.

B. Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (1840 – 1877;  Standard Lakota Orthography: Tȟašúŋke Witkó) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on American Indian territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His most famous battle was the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 where he led a war party to victory over George Armstrong Custer and US federal army. The victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people. In September 1877, four months after surrendering to US troops, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Amerindian warriors and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp. The popular bumper sticker ‘Custer had it coming’ illustrates the respect he still command to this very day.

C. The Hittites

Scotland's national instrument, the Bagpipe or in Gaelic "piob-mhor" (the great pipe) is not, contrary to popular belief, an instrument which has its origins in and has diffused from Scotland. The bagpipe is an instrument of great antiquity, an instrument which has its origins in the Middle East and traveled through and evolved in Europe alongside the diffusion of early civilization. The "Oxford History of Music" makes mention of the first documented bagpipe being found on a Hittite slab at Eyuk. This sculptured bagpipe has been dated to 1,000 B.C. Biblical mention is made of the bagpipe in Genesis and in the third Chapter of Daniel where the "symphonia" in Nebuchadnezzar's band is believed to have been a bagpipe. The Hittites were an Anatolian people living in what is now Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. The empire started in the 18th century BCE, peaking in the 14th century BCE and finally trailing off around 1180 BCE with the collapse of the Bronze Age. Author Sayce traces the history of the Hittite people, attempting to demonstrate that this was an empire of significance that is not afforded the credit it deserves.

C. Peter Green

Peter Green (born Peter Greenbaum; October 1946) is a legendary English blues rock lead guitarist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. He vanished decades ago in a blur of drugs and mental illness, proclaiming he left the music business "for my freedom." Previous he had played lead guitarist for John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, replacing Eric Clapton, then preceding Mick Taylor.

Green was a major figure in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement. B.B. King commented, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats. Eric Clapton has praised his guitar playing, noting his use of string bending, vibrato, and economy of style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Rolling Stone ranked Green at number 58 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the instrumental "The Supernatural" was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player.  In June 1996, Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.

C. Maryland

Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019), born and raised in Baltimore, was a popular American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019. The district includes just over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates. Cummings was the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of that year. Before his funeral service at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church, Cummings lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Building's Statuary Hall, the first African American lawmaker to achieve that honor. Following a state funeral, the official funeral for Cummings was held at the New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore and was attended by members of his family, various political figures — including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — and thousands of Baltimore residents. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama spoke at the widely attended memorial, along with countless others who considered Cummings a mentor. A man of strong principles, he never hesitated to reach across the aisle to Republicans, making life-long friends.

His parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina and left the state after they had Cummings’ eldest sibling. While Cummings was born and raised in Baltimore, South Carolina never stopped being home for the late congressman, according to relatives who still lives in the state.

B. No

Alexander the great was King of Macedon and created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty. He was never defeated in battle, and only stopped expanding his Empire because his men wanted to go home. It’s likely he could have expanded his empire even further if they had kept going. His army stretched from Greece to Northwestern India. Ambitiously he sought to conquer until he reached the end of the world. Alexander the great was taught by the philosopher Aristotle at a young, about politics, and philosophy. This might be why he was such an inspiring ruler. Alexander not only conquered over 2 million square miles of land, but created the biggest library of all time, the library of Alexandria. Alexander III of Macedon is one of the most famous conquerors of all time. One of the lesser known facts about Alexander the Great, was that he had different colored eyes, one was dark brown, and the other was sky blue.

E. Washington State



The Hoh Rainforest is located on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington State, and is the largest temperate rainforests in the Continental US.  Within Olympic National Park, the park is now protected from commercial exploitation, but for much of the 20th century, the forest was heavily logged and ruthlessly damaged by the predator, Weyerhaeuser Company. To witness cleat cut forests, situated just a few feet from the entrance to the Hoh Rainforest, is an assault to one’s senses.

Looking up at the massive trees in awe, it is easy to understand why the trees were so heavily prized.. Fortunately many pockets of forest remain. Twenty-four  miles (39 km) of low elevation forest, 394 to 2,493, feet run along the Hoh River. The Hoh River valley was formed thousands of years ago by glaciers.

The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side. Within the park there are three distinct ecosystems which are subalpine forest and wildflower meadow, temperate forest, and the rugged Pacific coast.

President Theodore Roosevelt originally designated Mount Olympus National Monument on 2 March 1909. The monument was redesignated as a national park by Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt on June 29, 1938. In 1976, Olympic National Park was designated by UNESCO as an International Biosphere Reserve, and in 1981 as a World Heritage Site. In 1988, Congress designated 95 percent of the park as the Olympic Wilderness.

Other U.S. rainforest:

Hamakua Coast - Nestled along the coast of the Big Island in Hawaii, the Hamakua Coast rainforest is filled with incredible waterfalls and lush vegitation. A bonus is that while you trek through the rainforest, you’ll be flanked by two volcanoes, Mauna Kea and Kohala.

Appalachian rainforest - Occupying the southern Appalachian mountains and stretching from southern Virginia through North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, the Appalachian temperate rainforest receives over 60 inches of rain per year.

Mount Hood Wilderness - While most of Mount Hood in Oregon is full of pine trees and snow, a temperate Douglas-fir rainforest slopes along the west side of Mount Hood. At springtime, absolutely everything is covered in a breathtaking thick coat of moss after the rains.

E. The Searchers

Brian Epstein (1934 –1967) was an English music entrepreneur who discovered and managed the Beatles. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him in charge of their music shop. Here he displayed a remarkable gift for talent-spotting, and got a strong intuition about the potential of an unknown four-man group, The Beatles, at a lunchtime concert at Liverpool's Cavern Club in 1961. Although he had no experience of artist management, Epstein put them under contract and insisted that they abandon their scruff-image in favor of a new clean-cut style, with identical suits and haircuts. He then persuaded George Martin of the prestigious EMI group to produce their records. In August 1962, drummer Pete Best was replaced with Ringo Starr, and the group's familiar line-up was established.

Within months, the Beatles' fame had swept the world, and Epstein accompanied them to America, where he was besieged by merchandising offers, but had signed away 90 per cent of the rights in advance. This is viewed as his one miscalculation. Some of Epstein's other young discoveries had also prospered at this time under his management. They included Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, Tommy Quickly, and Cilla Black, his only female client.

As a gay man, Epstein had to observe great discretion in public, since homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, although he tolerated a certain amount of banter about it in private. (John Lennon quipped that his memoirs A Cellarful of Noise should have been titled A Cellarful of Boys.) On the day of his death, a group of rent boys had failed to arrive by appointment at his country house, and he returned to London, where he died of a drug overdose, ruled as accidental.

The Searchers were an English Merseybeat group who emerged in the 1960s along with the Beatles, the Hollies, the Fourmost, the Merseybeats, the Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry and the Pacemakers.

The band was founded  as a skiffle group in Liverpool in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender, the band took their name from the 1956 John Ford western film The Searchers.

The band's hits include a remake of the Drifters' 1961 hit, "Sweets for My Sweet"; "Sugar and Spice" (written by their producer Tony Hatch); remakes of Jackie DeShannon's "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room"; a cover of the Orlons' "Don't Throw Your Love Away"; and a cover of the Clovers' "Love Potion No. 9". With the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Searchers tied for being the second group from Liverpool, after the Beatles, to have a hit in the US when their "Needles and Pins" and the Swinging Blue Jeans' "Hippy Hippy Shake" both reached the Hot 100 on 7 March 1964.

C. Great Britain

1. Great Britain: The British Empire was the largest empire in human history whose greatest extent during its zenith was in the 1920s CE. The empire consisted of mandates, protectorates, colonies, dominions, and other territories administered and controlled by the UK and its forerunner states. The British Empire ruled over 23% of the total population in the world equivalent to 412 million by 1913 and covered about 24% of the Earth's total land area equivalent to about 13,000,000 square miles by 1920. As a result, the Empire’s linguistics, political, cultural and legal legacy became widespread, and it is still felt in different parts of the world.

Presently, Britain retains sovereignty of more than 14 territories outside of British Isle, and they have been renamed the British Overseas. Some of the territories are not inhabited and are used only for military and scientific personnel, and the others are independent but rely on the UK for defense and foreign relations. The British government has indicated willingness to assist any of the overseas territories willing to pursue independence. However, three territories chose to remain under the British sovereignty, and they include Bermuda, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands.

2. Mongols: The Mongol Empire was history's largest contiguous land empire, reigning throughout the 13th and 14th centuries. The empire whose greatest extent was during the 1280 CE emerged from the amalgamation of nomadic tribes found in Northeast Asia. The vast empire extended from the steppes of Central Asia covering all the way to central Europe and as far as to the Sea of Japan. To the northern part, it extended as far as Siberia, while to the southwards and eastwards into Iranian plateau, Indochina, and the Indian subcontinent. To the westwards, it stretched as far as Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. The empire rose to prominence under the leadership of Genghis Khan who was declared ruler in 1206. The empire covered an area of 12,750,000 square miles the Mongol Empire is the second largest in human history.

3.  Russia: The Russian Empire experienced their greatest extent during the 1860s CE although a state that was also known as Russia existed between 1721 and 1917 when it was overthrown by the February Revolution. With about 8,833,000 square miles the empire stretched to more than three continents. The Empire played a significant role in defeating Napoleon's aspirations of taking over Europe.

4. Spain: With 7,500,000 square miles, the Spanish Empire was one of the history's largest empires whose greatest extent was during the 1790s CE. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, under the leadership of the Spanish Habsburgs, the empire's economic, political and military power reached its heights. During the 18th century, under the leadership of the House of Bourbon, it became the world's largest empire. The empire's legacy features cultural and linguistic influences making Spanish the world's second most spoken language. Also, the long era of Spanish colonization resulted in the mixing of some people such as the Hispanics who are a mixture of indigenous and European ancestry.

5.  Umayyad: The Umayyad Caliphate was among the four great caliphates founded after Mohammad's death. The Umayyad Caliphate was concentrated on the Umayyad dynasty originating from Mecca. During the caliphates greatest extent in 700 CE, it covered an area of about 5,800,000 square miles and swayed over 29% of the population in the world equivalent to 62 million people. The caliphate's legacy was marked by mass conversions into Islam, the use of Arabic as the administrative language and the construction of popular buildings.

– World Atlas

A. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

George (who is Elizabeth II’s paternal grandfather) was Queen Victoria’s grandson through her son King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra of Denmark. Alexandra’s younger sister was Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, whose oldest child was Emperor Nicholas II. Since George and Nicholas’ mothers were sisters, they were first cousins. During the Russian Revolution, Nicholas II pleaded for refuge in England, but was denied by King George, out of the fear of the spread of Bolshevism, despite Nicholas II’s stance against it.

Edward VII’s oldest sister was Empress Victoria of Germany and her oldest child was the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Since George’s father and Wilhelm’s mother were also siblings, they were first cousins. Nicholas II was a more distant cousin of Wilhelm’s. He was the great grandson of Emperor Nicholas I and a Prussian Princess.

A. Albania

The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused bitter inter-ethnic Yugoslav wars. The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighboring parts of Croatia and some years later, Kosovo.

After the Allied victory in World War II, Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Socialist Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. In addition, two autonomous provinces were established within Serbia: Vojvodina and Kosovo. Each of the republics had its own branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia party and a ruling elite, and any tensions were solved on the federal level. The Yugoslav model of state organisation, as well as a "middle way" between planned and liberal economy, had been a relative success, and the country experienced a period of strong economic growth and relative political stability up to the 1980s, under the rule of president-for-life Josip Broz Tito. After his death in 1980, the weakened system of federal government was left unable to cope with rising economic and political challenges.

B. Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park averages 11,421,200 visitors per year

America's 10 Most Popular National Parks, ranked

1. Great Smokey Mountains

2. Grand Canyon

3. Rocky Mountain

4. Zion

5. Yellowstone

6. Yosemite

7. Acadia

8. Grand Teton

9. Olympics

10. Glacier

— National Geographic

C. George Martin

McCartney said producer George Martin was "the fifth Beatle" in a 2016 memorial post. "If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle, it was George."

"I’m so sad to hear the news of the passing of dear George Martin. I have so many wonderful memories of this great man that will be with me forever. He was a true gentleman and like a second father to me. He guided the career of the Beatles with such skill and good humour that he became a true friend to me and my family," McCartney wrote on his site.

He continued, "I am proud to have known such a fine gentleman with such a keen sense of humour, who had the ability to poke fun at himself. Even when he was Knighted by the Queen there was never the slightest trace of snobbery about him ... The world has lost a truly great man who left an indelible mark on my soul and the history of British music."

Sir George Henry Martin (1926 – 2016) produced nearly all of the Beatles' recordings (except for the Let It Be album, produced by Phil Spector, and the songs "Real Love" and "Free as a Bird," (produced by Jeff Lynne) and wrote the instrumental score for the Yellow Submarine film and soundtrack album, and the string and horn (and even some vocal) arrangements for almost all of their songs (with the famous exception of Spector's re-production on Let It Be, and "She's Leaving Home", which was arranged by Mike Leander). His arrangement of the string octet backing for "Eleanor Rigby" was widely noted.

Martin's extensive musical training (which he received at the Guildhall School of Music) and sophisticated guidance in the studio are often credited as fundamental contributions to the work of the Beatles. Writer Ian MacDonald noted that Martin was one of the few record producers in the UK at the time who possessed the sensitivity the Beatles needed to develop their songwriting and recording talent. Martin's piano playing also appears on several of their tracks, including "Misery" and "In My Life". Martin himself deflected claims of being the "fifth Beatle" to Beatles' manager Brian Epstein.

A. Hawaii

Hawaii’s plantation era is over, but Spam’s still a local darling, a reminder of a different time. On the islands, there’s no shame in eating Spam. On the contrary, you’re kind of weird if you don’t like it. Hawaii consumes more Spam per capita than any other state, with five cans eaten per person per year — about 7 million cans total — according to Nicole L. Behne, a Spam senior product manager.

Hawaii is the only part of the country that fully appreciates Spam’s, where the canned meat is served and loved everywhere from fast-food restaurants to an annual “Spam Jam” street festival. Spam might not seem like a traditional island food, but Hawaiians know a good thing when they see it, and Spam has been a Hawaiian favorite for almost as long as the iconic canned meat has existed.

After the war, Spam remained a practical source of nourishment for Hawaii’s mid-20^th-century sugar and pineapple plantation workers because it didn’t need to be refrigerated and could sit out in the sun in a lunch pail without rotting. It was a common food among Hawaii’s Japanese, Chinese, Korean Filipino, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican workers — an edible analog to Hawaiian Creole English, the shared dialect that had developed decades earlier. Plus, salty Spam was the perfect complement to rice, a staple of the Hawaiian diet, and a cheap way to get meat on the table in a state with a high cost of living.

Spam hit grocery shelves in 1937, distinguishing itself from other brands of ready-to-eat canned ham with a clutchable can size and relatively short ingredient list. (Ironically, given its current reputation, Spam was intended to be a higher-quality alternative to the other tinned mystery meats on the market.) When war broke out a few years later, the U.S. military distributed it to GIs since it was inexpensive and filling, didn’t spoil, and shipped easily. “For every soldier who swore he would never eat Spam again and stuck to it, there seemed to be two who became Spam customers as a result of being introduced to it during the war,” writes Carol Wyman in Spam: A Biography. Meanwhile, on the home front, consumers, otherwise mostly meat-deprived, could use their ration stamps to buy Spam on a limited basis. In a Hawaii, which was geographically isolated and faced food shipping interruptions during the war, Spam was a godsend, says Arnold Hiura, a food historian and author of Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands.

E. Mao Zedong (China)

The main Axis powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, also known as "Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis" (also acronymized as "Roberto"), were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allies. The Axis powers agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity.

The Axis grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany, Italy and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. The first step was the treaty signed by Germany and Italy in October 1936. Benito Mussolini declared on 1 November that all other European countries would from then on rotate on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term "Axis". The almost simultaneous second step was the signing in November 1936 of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist treaty between Germany and Japan. Italy joined the Pact in 1937. The "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the so-called "Pact of Steel", with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 leading to the integration of the military aims of Germany, Italy and Japan.

At its zenith during World War II, the Axis presided over territories that occupied large parts of Europe, North Africa, and East Asia. There were no three-way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal, with slightly more between Germany and Italy. The war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance. As in the case of the Allies, membership of the Axis was fluid, with some nations switching sides or changing their degree of military involvement over the course of the war.

B. Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard was born on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of Switzerland.

New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French film movement which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a form of European art cinema, and is often referred to as one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. New Wave filmmakers were linked by their rejection of the traditional film conventions then dominating France, and by a spirit of iconoclasm. Common features of the New Wave included radical experimentation with editing, visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era.

The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s and 1960s, who rejected the Tradition de qualité ("Tradition of Quality") of mainstream French cinema, which "emphasized craft over innovation, privileged established directors over new directors, and preferred the great works of the past to experimentation." This was apparent in a manifesto-like essay written by François Truffaut in 1954, Une certaine tendance du cinéma français, where he denounced the adaptation of safe literary works into unimaginative films.

Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette, began as critics for the famous film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent source of influence for the movement. By means of criticism and editorialization, they laid the groundwork for a set of concepts, revolutionary at the time, which the American film critic Andrew Sarris called auteur theory. (The original French La politique des auteurs, translated literally as "The policy of authors".) Bazin and Henri Langlois, founder and curator of the Cinémathèque Française, were the dual father figures of the movement. These men of cinema valued the expression of the director's personal vision in both the film's style and script.

Apart from the role that films by Jean Rouch have played in the movement, Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958) is traditionally (but debatably) credited as the first New Wave feature. Truffaut, with The 400 Blows (1959), Alain Resnais with Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959; part of the Left Bank branch of the New Wave) and Godard, with Breathless (1960) had unexpected international successes, both critical and financial, that turned the world's attention to the activities of the New Wave and enabled the movement to flourish. Part of their technique was to portray characters not readily labeled as protagonists in the classic sense of audience identification.

C. La Rinconada – Puno, Peru

1. La Rinconada, Peru — 16,732 feet:  The highest permanently inhabited settlement in the world, is home to some of the most brutal living conditions known to man. About 50,000 people live in the settlement, perched atop Mount Ananea in the Peruvian Andes. It spends much of the year in sub-zero temperatures. The settlement lies in the shadow of Bella Durmiente — or Sleeping Beauty — an enormous glacier that lurks over the town, which has no hotels or hospitals, and the government has little to no presence in the town. What brought the majority of individuals this high up the mountain is a nearby gold mine. Here, men (women are not allowed in the mines) work for 30 days without salary. On the 31st day, they fill bags with as much earth and rock as they can carry and proceed to sift through the materials looking for gold. They keep what they can find and, if there is no gold, they earn nothing for the month. Women are permitted to work in the dump sites where earth movers discard extra earth and rock from the mining site. They sift through what has been dumped looking for gold. After such hard work, women and men go home to houses without plumbing.



2. Wenquan, China — 15,980 feet: The small city of Wenquan in Qinghai, China is located north of the Tanggula mountains in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The few tourists who have visited here claim it is not much of a town. The Tanggula Pass is nearby which is the route to reach the Tibet Autonomous Area.

3. Korzok, India — 15,000 feet:   Korzok, in Ladakh, Jammu, and Kashmir, India is home to Changpa nomads. The major economic activity is herding sheep that produce pashmina wool. This wool has increased in value over the last few years which has significantly boosted the economy. Agriculture, mainly barley and oats, also plays a big role in daily life of the residents. Horses plow the crops. Of note is the Korzok monastery located nearby which is around 500 years old.

4. Parinacota, Chile — 14,435 feet: Located in the Arica-Parinacota region of Chile, the town of 29 inhabitants is surrounded by the Lauca National Park. There is a small, 17th Century church here with watercolor painted murals.

5. Other Towns and Cities in the Sky: Other high altitude settlements above 14,000 feet are Dolpa in the Karnali Zone of Nepal (14,301 feet) and Mina Pirquitas in the Jujuy Province of Argentina (14,240 feet). After these communities, those still located in the greater than 13,000-foot altitude range are Colquechaca in the Potosi Department of Bolivia (13680 feet), Qarabolaq in the Wakhan District of Afghanistan (13,579 feet), and Chatyndy in the Ohh Province of Kyrgyzstan (13,166 feet). Finally, the last place on this list of high settlements is Laya in the Gasa District of Bhutan at 12,533 feet above sea level.

— World Atlas

B. Seoul, Korea

Although Starbucks Corporation was founded in the US, only three of its cities rank among the top ten cities with the most Starbucks. Seattle, the founding place of Starbucks has 142 stores, ranking it in position eighth. New York City has the highest number of stores in the US (277), only second to Seoul that has 284 stores. The prominence of coffee shops in Seoul does not come as much of a surprise, as coffee is a popular drink in Korean culture. Starbuck Coffee Korea Corporation which operates the Starbuck stores in Seoul is a joint venture between Starbucks Corporation and Shinsegae.

B. Brian Jones



Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones (1942 – 1969) was an English musician, best known as the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, Jones would go on to play a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts, such as rhythm and lead guitar, sitar, dulcimer, drums, various keyboard and wind instruments such as harmonica, recorder and saxophone.

Jones and fellow guitarist Keith Richards developed a unique style of guitar play that Richards refers to as the "ancient art of weaving" where both players would play rhythm and lead parts together (Richards would carry the style on with later Stones’ guitarist’s Ron Wood, but prior to that with the replacement of Jones, virtuoso  Mick Taylor played lead guitar, and Richards would generally handle rhythm guitar.

After Jones founded the Rolling Stones as a British blues outfit in 1962, and gave the band its name, Jones' fellow band members Richards and Mick Jagger began to take over the band's musical direction, especially after they became a successful songwriting team. Jones also did not get along with the band's manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, who pushed the band into a musical direction at odds with Jones' blues background. At the same time, Jones developed alcohol and drug problems, and his performance in the studio became increasingly unreliable, leading to a diminished role within the band he had founded. In June 1969, the Rolling Stones asked Jones to leave the band,  and he died less than a month later, drowning in the swimming pool at his home. The final event it is still clouded in mystery.

Long-time Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman said of Jones, "He formed the band. He chose the members. He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs. ... he was very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it – highly intelligent – and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away."

Ian Andrew Robert Stewart (July 1938 – December 1985) was a Scottish keyboardist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones. He was removed from the line-up in May 1963 by manager Andrew Loog Oldham who felt that the older, burly, and square-jawed Stewart did not fit the band's image. He said Stewart could stay as road manager and play piano on recordings. Stewart accepted this demotion. Richards said: "[Stu] might have realized that in the way we were going to be marketed, he would be out of sync, but that he could still be a vital part. I'd probably have said, 'Well, fuck you', but he said 'OK, I'll just drive you around.' That takes a big heart, but Stu had one of the largest hearts around."

Stewart loaded gear into his van, drove the group to gigs, replaced guitar strings and set up Watts' drums the way he himself would play them. "I never ever swore at him," Watts says, with rueful amazement. He also played piano and occasionally organ on most of the band's albums in the first decades, as well as providing criticism. Shortly after Stewart's death Mick Jagger said: "He really helped this band swing, on numbers like 'Honky Tonk Women' and loads of others. Stu was the one guy we tried to please. We wanted his approval when we were writing or rehearsing a song. We'd want him to like it.” Ian Stewart was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the band in 1989.

E. Vancouver, BC

Vancouver was originally a small saw milling settlement, called Granville in the 1870s. It was incorporated as a city in April 1886 (just before it became the western terminus of the first trans-Canada railway and was renamed Vancouver by Pacific Railway president, William Van Horne in  honor the British  captain, explorer and navigator George Vancouver.

Also named in honor of Captain George Vancouver: Vancouver Island, Vancouver, Washington. Mount Vancouver of Yukon and Alaska (on the Canadian-American border) and New Zealand's sixth highest mountain.

Captain Vancouver named the following:

• Mount Baker – after Discovery's 3rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker, the first on the expedition to spot it
• Mount St. Helens – after his friend, Alleyne Fitzherbert, 1st Baron St Helens
• Puget Sound – after Discovery's 2nd lieutenant Peter Puget, who explored its southern reaches.
• Mount Rainier – after his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier.

A. Are they going somewhere?

Francisco Franco Bahamonde (1892 – 1975) was a Spanish general and politician who ruled over Spain as head of state and dictator under the title Caudillo from 1939, after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain or the Francoist dictatorship.

Born in Ferrol, Spain, the son of upper-class parents with strong connections to the Spanish Navy,  Franco however joined the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy in 1907, graduating in 1910. He would go on to have a successful military career in Morocco and advanced through the ranks at a very young age. As a conservative and a monarchist, Franco opposed the leftist Popular Front which had won the 1936 elections. Franco joined other Generals who launched a coup the same year, intending to overthrow the republic. The coup failed to take control of most of the country and precipitated the Spanish Civil War. The left side, known as the Republicans, consisted of the Spanish government together with unions, communists, anarchists, workers, peasants, international brigades – including Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell – and support of the Soviet Union. On the other side were the Nationalists, the rebel part of the army, the bourgeoisie, the landlords, the upper classes along with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The war played out the in the international press as battle between freedom and autocratic rule.  Important writings include Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia.’

In 1939 Franco won the war, which had claimed almost half a million lives. The victory extended his dictatorship to the whole country and was followed by a period of repression of political opponents and dissenters, with the result that between 30,000 and 50,000 died through the use of forced labor and executions in concentration camps. Combined with the Nationalist executions during the war, the death toll of the White Terror lies at around 100,000 and 200,000.

Franco continued to rule Spain alone, with more power than any Spanish leader before or since, ruling almost exclusively by decree. He nurtured a cult of personality and the Movimiento Nacional became the only channel of participation in Spanish public life. Franco remains a controversial figure in Spanish history and the nature of his dictatorship changed over time. His reign was marked by both brutal repression, with thousands killed, and economic prosperity, which greatly improved the quality of life in Spain. His dictatorial style proved very adaptable, which could introduce social and economic reform, and the only consistent points in Franco's long rule were above all authoritarianism, Spanish nationalism, national Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, and anti-communism.

D: The Netherlands

One of the most distinctive features of a classic NYC brownstones is its stoop — a word appropriated from “stoep,” the Dutch word for “stair.” The Dutch built stoops to raise their parlor floor above flood waters; some posit that the New York City stoops were built to raise the parlor floor above a “sea of horse manure.”

— Traveling Boy

E: Tico

Tico is a colloquial term for a native of Costa Rica. Costa Ricans are usually called ticos by themselves and persons of other Spanish-speaking countries, in place of the more formal costarricenses.

— Traveling Boy

C: “Salvator Mundi” attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

1. Leonardo da Vinci’s "Salvator Mundi" — $450.3 million



2. Willem de Kooning's "Interchange" — $300 million

3. Paul Cézanne's "The Card Players" — $250 million

4. Paul Gauguin's "Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)" — $210 million

5. Jackson Pollock's "Number 17A" — $200 million

— Business Insider

B: Finland

1 – Finland: 12 kg per person, per year

If you’ve ever met a Finn you know that the national average of 12 kg per capita is probably on the low end for most in Finland. If you were to take children out of the calculation, the national average would rise even higher!

Coffee is typically consumed all day, every day, and coffee breaks are required by most workers' unions. Special occasions and post-church luncheons are celebrated with a coffee table - a buffet of cold sandwiches, breads, cookies and cakes, and of course endless "khavi". The most popular coffees in Finland are very light roasts, much lighter than anywhere else in the world. This probably originated early on when Finns would purchase green coffee berries to roast themselves at home. The traditional Finn way of brewing coffee is a variation on Turkish coffee where water and coffee grounds are brought just barely to a boil repeatedly.

2 – Norway: 9.9 kg per person, per year

Like most European countries, coffee in Norway was first made popular among the wealthy in the early 18th century. Even though Norway was a relatively poor country, being ruled by Denmark at the time had its benefits; in this case, lots of cheap java.

Kaffe is typically served black at breakfast, and with dessert after dinner. Norwegians also commonly invite people over specifically for coffee, served with cakes and pastries. The average Norwegian drinks nearly 2 cups of coffee a day, which means the roughly 5 million people of the nation consumed a combined 36,472,000 kg in 2012. If you are ever in rural Norway don’t forget to try "karsk", a cocktail made with weakly brewed coffee and a hefty helping of vodka or moonshine. Don’t worry, if it's too strong you can always light it aflame to burn off some of the alcohol!

3 – Iceland: 9 kg per per person, per year

There must be some correlation between cold climates and a cup of coffee – perhaps it adds a perfect touch of coziness to staying inside on a cold, dark day. Like its other northern European counterparts, the island country of Iceland enjoys, on average, 5 cups of coffee a day per person!

In the capital city of Reykjavik, you won't find coffee giants like Starbucks or Second Cup. However, there is no shortage of smaller, independent coffee shops scattered across the city, many in close radius to one another. In case there was any question whether or not Iceland takes its coffee drinking seriously, the country hosts competitions which place baristas and roasters against one another, in a quest to find the country's highest quality brew.

4 – Denmark: 8.7 kg per person, per year

If the Nordic nations are the kings of Coffee, this nation is appropriately the Danish Prince of the hot brown drink. Residents of the kingdom sip about 1.46 cups of coffee per day.

Like other Scandinavians, coffee in Denmark traditionally is served at each meal and becomes the central focus during special occasions, served with cookies, cakes, and small sandwiches. Danes rank slightly better on another statistic, having the 6th most expensive coffee in the world, so each of those 1.46 cups cost them a pretty krone. So grab a Danish-made Bodum coffee press and some aptly named danishes, and dream about spring in Copenhagen.

5 – Netherlands: 8.4 kg per person, per year

In 1616, the Dutch were the first Europeans to obtain live coffee trees, brought back from Mocha, Yemen by Pieter van der Broecke. The beans from these coffee bushes were then used to begin Dutch coffee cultivation, with the colonies of Java and Suriname eventually becoming major suppliers of coffee to Europe.

Nowadays coffee houses in Amsterdam are well known for serving coffee alongside another specialty item, marijuana, but don’t let that cloud your vision, coffee culture is still strong and rich in the Netherlands. On average the Dutch drink 1.84 cups per day.

Coffee is served in the home for "Koffietijd" (Coffee Time), usually with cookies and cakes. Interestingly the coffee culture is somewhat split between the north and south and along religious lines. The north was traditionally populated with Protestants who prefer to serve coffee with only one cookie, seen as a gesture of modesty. In the south, traditionally populated by Roman Catholics, Koffietijd typically includes "vlaai," a large sweet pie.

The U.S. ranks 25th in coffee consumption at 4.2 kg of coffee consumed per person, per year. The National Coffee Association produced a study this year and found that 64% of Americans drink coffee. Furthermore, 79% of people drinking coffee within the past day brewed coffee at home, compared to 75% in 2017 and 84% in 2012. It seems as though more people are starting to move towards making their coffee at home as opposed to going and purchasing it at a coffee shop (sorry Starbucks, but people are starting to opt for being their own baristas at home.

— World Atlas

A: Having dogs and cats as pets

Having Dogs and cats as pets is not illegal in Singapore unless you are staying at a public place like a hotel, HDB or condo.

Singapore is incredibly sleek, clean, and cosmopolitan but this is mainly down to the strict rules it has governing its environment.

Selling Chewing Gum: According to Singapore Statutes Online, the first-time penalty for the selling of gum can be as high as $100,000 or a prison sentence of up to two years. Penalties are subject to rise with each conviction, but certain chewing gums that have medical benefits will be allowed.

Not Flushing a Public Toilet: While flushing a public toilet is common courtesy, in Singapore, there is an actual law against it. If you're caught leaving without flushing the toilet, you're looking at a fine of around $150.

Spitting on the street may happen a lot in mainland China but don't think you can do the same in Singapore. Not only will you be openly berated by locals but you'll be fined $500.

— Business Insider

D. Polynesian third-gendered person

Māhū is a name that originated in ancient Polynesia for a third-gendered person, that is, not male nor female, but both or neither.

C. Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump was directed by Robert Zemeckis for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

C. Great Britain

Gibraltar’s two square miles of limestone rock is a British Overseas Territory on the Southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Famous for its Barbary monkeys (not apes), Winston Churchill once said “As long as they remain, so will the British.” Churchill was determined to prevent the monkeys from disappearing from the Rock. He knew that the monkeys had become symbolically important to British morale; their disappearance might demoralize the populace, many of whom had been evacuated with possibility of an attack by Germany during WW II.

E. Tourism

Over 50% of Costa Rica’s annual income is derived from tourism.

D. La Traviata

Giuseppe Verdi was born in Italy in 1813, prior to Italian unification. Verdi produced many successful operas, including La Traviata, Falstaff and Aida, and became known for his skill in creating melody and his profound use of theatrical effect.

A. China

Gunpowder was invented in 9th-century China, attributed to experimentation in Chinese alchemy by Taoists in the pursuit of immortality, and is listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China. Gunpowder was first used for warfare about 904 A.D. by the reigning Sung dynasty against the Mongols, whose constant invasions into the country plagued the Chinese. The Mongols were the first to be subjected to flying fire — an arrow fixed with a tube of gunpowder that ignited and would propel itself across enemy lines. More gunpowder-based weapons were invented by the Chinese in the next centuries, including the first cannons and grenades. Chinese innovation actually included a rife made of bamboo. Gunpowder spread via the Silk Road and eventually to Europe where it changed warfare forever.

B. Kiribati

Kiribati tops the list with about 52.2% of the population identifying them as smokers. In this small country in the South Pacific, laws regulating tobacco are not strict and smoking is not prohibited in many public places. It is said that two-thirds of all men in Kiribati are smokers. The World Health Organization calls tobacco use in Kiribati an "epidemic."

Rank	Country	Prevelence of Smoking (%)
1	Kiribati	52.2%
2	Nauru	47.5%
3	Greece	42.4%
4	Serbia	41.6%
5	Jordan	41.0%
6	Indonesia	39.8%
7	Russia	39.1%

A. Los Cabos, Mexico

Los Cabos, Mexico is the most dangerous city in the world with a murder rate of 111.33 per 100,000 people. This city's position on the list of the world's most dangerous cities is indicative of the increase in crime that Mexico has experienced over the last year. In 2017 and 2018, the resort town made headlines news for a string of alarming murders. The majority of the violence in Los Cabos has mostly been related to the drug trade, and tourists have not been the target. Nonetheless, the instances of violence are still drastic, and have earned the popular vacation destination first-place of the world's most dangerous cities.

Rank	City	Country	Homicide Rate (Per 100,000)
1	Los Cabos	Mexico	111.33
2	Caracas	Venezuela	111.19
3	Acapulco	Mexico	106.63
4	Natal	Brazil	102.56
5	Tijuana	Mexico	100.77

The World Health Organization

B. India

India has 22 official languages, with Hindi by far the most spoken language in the country. The other major languages of the country are English, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and Tamil.

Zimbabwe has 16 official which are Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and sign language.

The United States technically had no official language at the federal level. America's Founding Fathers did not wish to establish an official language, and were happy to distribute documents like the Declaration of Independence in non-English languages (which at that time meant primarily French and German) to speakers of those languages, in order to win their support for the revolutionary cause. English today is the primary written language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties and federal court rulings. Recently, 32 U.S. states, as part of what has been called the English-only movement, have adopted legislation granting official status to English. Nonetheless, laws require documents such as ballots to be printed in multiple languages when there are large numbers of non-English speakers in the respective state. For example, Hawaii recognizes both English and Hawaiian as official languages, and Louisiana both English and French. English and twenty native languages are official in Alaska, and in New Mexico, although the state constitution does not specify an official language, laws are published in English and Spanish, and government materials and services are legally required (by Act) to be made accessible to speakers of both languages as well as Navajo and various Pueblo languages. New Mexico also has its own dialect of Spanish, which differs from Spanish spoken in the rest of Latin America.

The World Atlas

E. Tomatoes

• Tomatoes (170.75 million metric tons).
• Bananas (114.13 m.m.t.)
• Watermelons (111 m.m.t.)
• Apples (84.63 m.m.t.)
• Grapefruit (83.97 m.m.t.)

The Tomato has origins tracing back to around 700 A.D.  The word tomato is derived from the Aztec word xitomatl. The tomato most likely originated in the Andes mountains of Peru and spread to most parts of South and Central America and eventually to Mexico. The tomato was discovered by the Spanish Conquistadors while conquering the Americas, who brought it back to Spain in the mid-sixteenth century. The fruit was called “tomatl.” The first written account of the tomato in Italy dates to 1548 in Tuscany. The cuisine of Southern Italian peasants, who often lacked meats and other proteins, developed a diet in which tomatoes, olive oil, spices and vegetables were eaten with rice, polenta or on top of bread – creating something very close to the modern pizza. In Naples around 1800, a recipe was written about – pasta al pomodoro, which is the very first mention of tomatoes being married to pasta.

The odd thing is that the tomato became popular in Europe long before it came to be used in North America. Colonial America thought the tomato was a poisonous plant, a close cousin of Nightshade.

A. China

First paper, then paper money. This is pure logic. It is hardly surprising that the first notes or better, the first paper money, appeared in China. With the invention of paper and printing on its account, this country was almost destined to produce the first paper money.

For centuries the mulberry tree has been cultivated in the Valley of the Yellow River (Shang period, 18th to 12th century BC). The first traces of paper date back to the 2nd half of the 1st century BC but then it was not used as writing material. For their traditional calligraphy with brushes they used linen, hemp, bamboo (cane) and bark of the mulberry tree. Important progress has been made between the 2nd and 4th century AD: Thanks to the use of soaked bast of the mulberry the quality of the pulp significantly improved and paper became less heavy. The improvement was such that paper gradually replaced the former bamboomats. Clerical texts and reports for the Court were henceforth written on paper but still in a vertical direction. This centuries-old way of writing is probably a result of writing on strips of bamboo which were tied together.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) there was a growing need of metallic currency, but thanks to the familiarity with the idea of credit the Chinese were ready to accept pieces of paper or paper drafts. This practice is derived from the credit notes used by merchants for their long-distance trade.

— Museum of the National Bank of Belgium

B. Corn

Indigenous populations in present-day Mexico first domesticated corn around 10,000 years ago. Its long history there explains why it continues to be a staple food today. Nearly every typical Mexican dish revolves around corn in some way, and it is the main ingredient in maize tortillas, for example. With international trade, corn has been spread throughout the world and now makes up a major source of food in Africa, Europe, and the US. People boil and eat it whole, dry and pulverize it to make flour, and cook it in sweetened milk for dessert. It can be processed for other uses that include as ingredients in sweeteners (corn syrup), alcohol (whiskey), and cooking oil. Globally, humans get 19.5% of their calorie intake from corn.

Rank	Staple Food	Share of Global Caloric Intake From All Sources
1	Maize Corn	19.5%
2	Rice	16.5%
3	Wheat	15%
4	Cassava	2.6%
5	Soybeans	2.1%
6	Potatoes	1.7%

D. Thailand

According to the Credit Suisse report, the bottom 10% of Thais hold 0% of the wealth, being either in debt or having no documented household income. The poorest 50% of Thais now hold only 1.7% of the country’s wealth, while the richest 10% now hold a massive 85.7%.

D. Spain

Spain produces 5,276,899 metric tons of olive annually. Production of olive in Spain is mainly concentrated around the Andalucian region where about 75% of the total olive production in Spain is obtained. Major production provinces in this region are Jaén and Córdoba. The main varieties produced in the Andalucian region are Hojiblanca, Picudo, Picual, Lechin, and Verdial. About 14% of Spain’s olive production is done in the Castilla-La Mancha region which produces the Cornicabra variety of olive. Other olive producing regions are Extremadura, Catalonia, and Valencia. Olive oil is extracted from olives, and it is widely used for cooking purposes such as frying, baking and steaming in Spain. Spain’s main international olive markets are in the US, UK and France.

1	Spain	5,276,899
2	Italy	3,220,674
3	Greece	2,232,412
4	Turkey	1,292,072
5	Tunisia	841,524

— WorldAtlas

A. Cochin International Airport, India

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has drawn attention to the greenhouse gas emissions caused by air travel. In Sweden, she is credited for the spread of “flygskam”– flight shame – which reports say may have encouraged some Swedes to avoid traveling by plane. Perhaps she had never heard of Cochin International Airport. In 2015, it became the world's first airport to operate completely on solar power. The airport is located in Kochi, within the Indian state of Kerala. The airport serves approximately 10 million passengers annually, with more than 1,000 flights departing each week. Additionally, nearly 30 airlines fly in and out of Cochin International Airport, and it ranks as India's fourth busiest airport in terms of international traffic. The airport also features several restaurants and shops, all of which run on solar energy. In 2015, Cochin International Airport became the world's first airport to operate completely on solar power. The airport is located in Kochi, within the Indian state of Kerala. The airport serves approximately 10 million passengers annually, with more than 1,000 flights departing each week. Additionally, nearly 30 airlines fly in and out of Cochin International Airport, and it ranks as India's fourth busiest airport in terms of international traffic. The airport also features several restaurants and shops, all of which run on solar energy.

The use of solar power in Cochin International Airport began in 2013, initially as a test pilot that included the installation of 400 solar panels. Following the success of the test pilot, the airport dedicated 45 acres of land, which had been reserved for cargo handling, to the creation of a solar power plant, and installed a total of 46,000 solar panels. The airport generates 12 megawatts of power, which meets its own use of electricity needs, and any surplus is added to the state grid. The solar plant is anticipated to eliminate approximately 300,000 metric tons of carbon, which is equivalent to planting about 3 million trees.

A. Apples

The apple originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were brought to North America by European colonists.

The Columbian exchange, named for Christopher Columbus, was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries.

C. Nauru

While statistics vary, the Pacific Island nation of Nauru has the highest percentage of obese inhabitants in the world. The obesity rate ranges from 61% to 71.7%. In small Pacific Island nations approximately four of every five citizens are obese. The reason is almost all of the food in these island nations are imported and therefore expensive, but fast-food chains offer cheap high-calorie processed food which makes a convenient alternative.

The United States is the most obese country in North America with 36.2% of its population having a body mass index of over 30.0. Nearly 78 million adults and 13 million children in the United States deal with the health and emotional effects of obesity every day. According to the CDC an average adult is 26 pounds heavier now than in the 1950’s.

Life expectancy has fallen to 64 in Tonga. Tongan life expectancy used to be in the mid-70s. Up to 40% of the population is said to have type 2 diabetes. Tongan Royal Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, who died in 2006, holds the Guinness World Record for being the heaviest-ever monarch at 440 lbs.

D. Nebraska

In an attempt to encourage tourism, the Nebraska Tourism Commission hired brand consultants to come up with a catchy, compelling slogan: “Nebraska: Honestly, it’s not for everyone.”

C. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park. Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park in the United States with over 11.3 million recreational visitors in 2016. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Maine to Georgia. The park was chartered by the United States Congress in 1934 and officially dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

1	Great Smoky Mountains National Park	11,421,200
2	Grand Canyon National Park	6,380,495
3	Rocky Mountain National Park	4,590,493
4	Zion National Park	4,320,033
5	Yellowstone National Park	4,115,000
6	Yosemite National Park	4,009,436
7	Acadia National Park	3,537,575
8	Grand Teton National Park	3,491,151
9	Olympic National Park	3,104,455
10	Glacier National Park	2,965,309

D. The Philippines

With 9 in 10 Filipinos suffering tooth decay and only one in 10 of them willing and able to see a dentist once a year, oral health care is a crisis. A government survey, indicated that one in seven citizens are absent from work or school at least once a month and one in 10 fail to go to school or work at least twice a year due to aching tooth or gums. Two disturbing findings of the survey are that nine in 10 urban children have decayed tooth, and women have more missing teeth than men. Seven in 10 women have missing teeth, while it is five in 10 for men. Even the number of missing teeth, women trump men: An average eight missing teeth for females, while four for males.

1. The Philippines: This island nation located in between the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea takes the cake (literally and figuratively) of the worst oral health in the world. The Philippines College of Dentistry found that nearly 90 percent of Filipinos suffer from tooth decay. Another astonishing finding is that nearly 100 percent of children between 3 and 5 years old have cavities.

2. India: With over a billion people, the subcontinent of India was bound to make the list. India’s National Oral Health Program reports that 95 percent of all adults have gum disease, and 50 percent of citizens don’t use a toothbrush. The program also noted that 70 percent of children under the age of 15 have dental caries.

3. Australia: This Western country may come as a surprise on this list, but its statistics earn it the number 3 spot. Nearly half of all 6-year-olds have tooth decay in their baby teeth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children between ages four and 15 are more likely to experience dental disease.

4. Bolivia: Nestled in the middle of South America, Bolivia has some of the worst oral health in the region. Twelve-year-olds have an average of four decayed, missing, or filled-in teeth. A study also suggests that only 50 percent of students own a toothbrush.

5. Poland: This Eastern European country has one of the highest tooth decay rates in the world. The average amount of decayed, missing, or filled teeth for children under 12 is a shocking four teeth. This country is considered to have the worst oral health in all of Europe.