Combination Post: Silly Saturday Facts Collection No. 52 + Wacky Border Sunday:

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Global History Hub! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this massive world we all call home! On today's edition of Silly Saturday and Wacky Border Sunday, we'll be taking a look at the ancient region of Mesopotamia, and for Wacky Border Sunday, we'll be taking a look at COME BACK!!!

     Silly Saturday:

• Mesopotamia got its name due to its location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
• Sumer was the first urban civilization withing Mesopotamia.      
• The Assyrian empire of Mesopotamia was one of the first superpowers of the ancient world.

     Sources: https://learnodo-newtonic.com/mesopotamia-facts  

     Wacky Border Sunday:

     

     Hawaii has several counties, each of comparable size. But Kalawao county is a tiny, thirteen square mile blip in Hawaii that is reserved for those who have leprosy. We discussed here what Hawaii did to those that were once afflicted with leprosy. It's quite interesting.

     Sources: https://www.theawl.com/2011/06/fun-with-maps-seven-peculiar-u-s-borders/

Combination Post: Silly Saturday Facts Collection No. 47 + Wacky Border Sunday: Lake Constance

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Global History Hub! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this massive world we all call home! Today we'll be doing another combination post because I, unfortunately, forgot to post yesterday. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dive straight into it!

     Silly Saturday:

• The inventor of the television did not allow his own children to watch television.
• British Top Gear is the most-watched television show ever, with an estimated 350 million viewers weekly in 170 countries.
• Queen Elizabeth II has her own YouTube channel.

     Wacky Border Sunday: 

     

     The borders of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland all meet at this small lake, only to dissolve once they reach the water. This has caused many small, local disputes over fishing rights and boat licensing.

     Sources: https://www.kaplaninternational.com/blog/fun-facts-about-television

     https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/worlds-top-10-strangest-borders-11762438

Combination Post: Silly Saturday Facts Collection No. 42 + Wacky Border Sunday: Argentina & Chile

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Global History Hub! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this massive world we all call home. Today we'll be doing a combination post to make up for the lack of posts yesterday. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dive straight into it!

     Silly Saturday:

• The ancient Egyptians forged one of the earliest peace treaties on record.
• Ancient Egyptians loved board games. 
• Egyptian laborers were known to organize labor strikes.

     Wacky Border Sunday: 

     

     A statue of Jesus separates Chile and Argentina. How cool!

     Sources: https://www.history.com/news/11-things-you-may-not-know-about-ancient-egypt

     https://www.mensxp.com/special-features/today/26322-23-most-interesting-international-borders-across-the-world.html

Combination Post: Silly Saturday Facts Collection No. 39 + Wacky Border Sunday: The Kentucky Bend

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Global History Hub! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this massive world we all call home! In today's edition, we'll be doing a rare combination post, comprising of Silly Saturday and Wacky Border Sunday! Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dive directly into it!

     Silly Saturday:

• Benjamin Franklin never said that the turkey should be the national bird. He was joking when he wrote that.
• Walt Disney didn't draw Mickey Mouse. It was drawn by Ub Iwerks.
• The huge cowboy hats that everybody associates with the wild west weren't actually the hat of choice for cowboys. The chosen hat was actually a bowler.

     Wacky Border Sunday:

     

     The Kentucky Bend. It's amazing what they can wedge farmland in to.

     Sources: https://bestlifeonline.com/historical-facts/

     https://www.theawl.com/2011/06/fun-with-maps-seven-peculiar-u-s-borders

Combinations Post: Silly Saturday Facts Collection No. 27 + Wacky Border Sunday: Zavikon Bridge

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this massive world we all call home! Today on our combination post, we'll be looking at our 27th collection of facts and our edition of Wacky Border Sunday! Let's dive straight into it!

     Silly Saturday Facts Collection:

• The National Library of Sweden has a book from the 16th century that can be read in six different ways.
• The Speyer wine bottle, found in Germany in 1867, is the world's oldest wine, dating back from 325 B.C.E. to 350 B.C.E.
• The oldest known advertisement dates from around 3000 B.C.E. and was found in the ruins of Thebes. It was an ad for a slave named Shem.

     Wacky Border Sunday: 
     
     Zavikon Bridge: The shortest international bridge in the world between Canada (left) and the United States. (right)

     Sources: https://historydaily.org/20-random-historical-facts

Wacky Border Sunday: The Diomede Islands + Misfortunate Monday: The Attack On Pearl Harbor

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another installment of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide for the world! Today we're going to be discussing two things, the Diomede Islands and Pearl Harbor. Let's start with the Diomedes islands, shall we?

     You could reasonably swim from Russia to the U.S. because the gap is separated by a mere 3.8 kilometers.

   

     Misfortunate Monday:

     Pearl Harbor was a quiet naval base on the shores of Hawaii, and it was where a devastating surprise attack from the Japanese occurred. The attack happened on December 7th, 1941 when hundreds of planes descended from the sky and opened fire on the naval base, destroying or damaging nearly twenty naval vessels. More than 2,400 Americans died, including civilians. 1,000 were wounded. The day after the attack, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

     Up until that point, the Japanese had America fooled. Japanese leaders declared peace with America and gave them numerous prizes and peace offerings. America believed they were allies with the Japanese until Pearl Harbor.

     Because of Pearl Harbor, nuclear bombs had to be brought into the scheme of things. America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, one in Hiroshima and the other in Nagasaki. Shortly after America's involvement in World War II, the war ended. The opposing forces realized that if the Americans could destroy Japan just like that, why not them too?


     The attack of Pearl Harbor.
        

     Fun Facts:

• Japan attacked Pearl Harbor without declaring war.
• American radar detected incoming planes but nothing was done.
• The attack lasted about two hours.

     Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor

     https://hireourheroes.org/2016/12/08/11-interesting-facts-attack-pearl-harbor/

Misfortunate Monday + Triumphant Tuesday: The California Gold Rush and The Great Depression

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another installment of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to the wacky history of the world. Today we'll be doing a combination post to make up for my missed post yesterday. The two subjects we'll be doing are going to be the California Gold Rush and the Great Depression. Let's dive straight into it, shall we?

     Misfortunate Monday:

     The Great Depression is well known as one of the worst declines of the modern industrialized economy. It began in 1929, ending in 1939 because of World War II. World War II essentially ended the Great Depression because it employed hundreds of thousands of unemployed and hungry American's into the defense industries. But I digress. By 1933, when many believe that the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15,000,000 American's were laid off and nearly half of the country's banks had failed.

     Shortly before the Great Depression, everybody from millionaires to janitors began pouring their life savings into stocks and shares of companies. As the stock prices continued to climb, so did the panic of the investors. People were getting worried because the stock prices continued to rise, even during a mild recession. Nervous investors began selling their stocks, therefore, the stock price dropped like a stone. This then led to one of the worst depressions in American history.

     Stock prices of 1933

     
   

     Triumphant Tuesday:

     The discovery of gold nuggets was arguably one of the most important events to shape California as a whole. Thousands of prospectors and immigrants from all over the world traveled to America with the hopes of finding gold and getting rich. Unfortunately, only a select few people got rich from panning or mining, the rest were entrepreneurs, they were the ones that sold the prospectors their food, mining tools, and clothing.

     Gold was first discovered at John Sutter's mill on January 24th, 1848. As James Marshall recalled that fateful day, he said: "It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold."

     The gold rush was a crucial part of the development of California's history. More than 750,000 pounds of gold was mined out of the Californian rivers and mountains. I'm sorry guys. I really can't write anymore. Until tomorrow, Mr. Nations out!

     Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history
     https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849

          
  

Misfortunate Monday + Triumphant Tuesday: The Challenger Explosion and The Creation of the Internet

     Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your guide to the wacky world of well... the world! Today I've decided to try something new today. I'm going to try something that I will dub as a "combination day." It will basically be that I will do a small paragraph or two on the two subjects I was supposed to do on that specific day. I will try it now. Let's get right into it!

     Misfortunate Monday:

     The Nasa space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28th, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff, bringing an awful end to the spacecraft's tenth mission. The disaster ended the lives of all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire that would have been the first civilian in space. 

      It was later discovered that two of the rubber O-Rings which had been designed to seal the sections of the rocket had failed because of the cold temperatures earlier in the morning. This then resulted in the boosters failing, eventually destroying the rocket a few minutes after liftoff. Because of the extensive media coverage of the disaster, NASA had to suspend all later space missions.

     Picture of the crew of the Challenger

       

     Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/challenger-disaster   

     Triumphant Tuesday:

     The internet. A device that almost a third of our international populations uses on a daily basis. A device this expansive obviously doesn't have a single creator, but many, It is hard to pin down one creator when several million people post on the internet every day. 

     The internet was created because of the Cold War. Scientists were worried that the Soviets might try to launch an attack on the U.S. and that they would start with the telephone system. Destroying the telephone system would cripple the U.S, as there would be no efficient way for leaders and politicians to communicate with one another without sending a letter.

     This became especially important when Russia launched the first satellite, Sputnik. It didn't do much. It mostly just tumbled around space aimlessly, sending radio blips back to earth. But Americans saw it as a sign of defeat in the Cold War.

     The internet is by far the most expansive thing that we can access on earth. It is basically the hub of information for the world. Without it, life really wouldn't be the same. Until tomorrow, Mr. Nations out!