How the District of Columbia Got Its Name

Photo of vintage map of Washington D.C. courtesy 123rf.com

On this day in 1790 the city of Washington in the District of Columbia, was established as the seat of American government with the signing of the Residence Bill.  The city, Washington, was named in honor of President George Washington during his presidency.  The district, District of Columbia, was a feminine form of Columbus, which was used after the Revolutionary War in patriotic poetry and songs describing America and her being a land of freedom.


For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

The Big Village Of North America

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

In the language of native Indians in Canada, Canada means "Big Village".  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Can't Buy Antarctica...

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Antarctica is the only land on Earth not owned by any country, nor is there any military presence.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Combine This: Maps & Flags!

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

Here is a fascinating map of the world including the flags of the countries!  I found it two hours ago, and have been studying it ever since.

Beginnings: U.S.A. and C.S.A.

Map of Southern United States courtesy Gutenburg.org

On this day in 1789, George Washington and John Adams were elected first president and vice-president of the United States of America. 

Sixty-two years later, on this day in 1861 delegates from six Southern states met in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Confederate States of America.  Two weeks later, on February 18 the provisional Congress of the C.S.A. made Jefferson Davis provisional president.

For more information click here and click here.

Samoa Loses a Calendar Day

On the above map, Samoa is the red star in the center.
Photo courtesy MapQuest.com

Samoa is skipping December 30 and moving straight to December 31 in order to make a move west of the International Date Line.  This will put them in the same time zone with their other island-nation neighbors, with whom they do the bulk of their business.  Before this change, for instance, when it was Friday in Samoa it was Saturday in New Zealand, and when it was Sunday in Samoa it was Monday in New Zealand, so they lost two business days each week in which they could work together.  Samoa believes this will help their economy.  For more information click here.

Klicks

Photo courtesy military.com

The term "klick", used by the U.S. Military, is slang for kilometer, which is 1000 meters or 0.62 miles.  Its use by the American military is speculated to have begun in the 1950's or 1960's, possibly when American soldiers heard this or a similar term used by Germans, or Canadians, or Australians when referring to kilometers.

For more information on this and other U.S. military history, visit the Olive-Drab website for a listing of military history websites.

The Fascinating Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea is home to more underwater species than anywhere else on the earth, including 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals, and about 3,000 species of fish.

For more info, click to view The Encyclopedia of Earth website.

For more maps, click to view The World Atlas website. 

Maps and History

"The history and pre-history of the historical atlas are commonly understood in Western terms.  The first known historical atlas is generally given as the Parergon of Abraham Ortelius, published in Antwerp in 1579, initially as part of his general atlas, but from 1624 as a separate work. 

Yet it is also possible to draw attention to independent developments in China.  The first map in China dates from about 2100 BC and appeared on the outside of a ding (ancient cooking vessel), and a map of a graveyard produced between 323-15 BC was uncovered in a tomb in 1977.  Maps in China certainly became more common under the Western (or 'Former') Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 9), although very few have survived from before the twelfth century."

From page 2 of Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past, by Jeremy Black, published by Yale University Press.