Portal:North America/Did you know

...that the CIA began to recruit and train anti-Castro forces for the Bay of Pigs Invasion in the Sierra Madre mountains on the Pacific coast of Guatemala?

...that Calico Jack (pictured), an English pirate captain during the early 18th century, was executed with most of his crew in Jamaica on 17 November 1720?

...that Navassa Island off the west coast of Haiti is claimed by the United States as an unorganized unincorporated territory?

... that the First Mexican Empire was the official name of independent Mexico under a monarchical regime from 1822 to 1823?

...that Jacob Piatt Dunn in 1886 wrote the first scholarly history concerning the Indian Wars?

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Portal:North America/Did you know/1

...that Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro (pictured), a fortress which guards the entrance to Havana bay in Havana, was named after the biblical Magi?

Portal:North America/Did you know/2

...that a circumferentor (pictured) was an important tool to surveyors for mapping the North American frontier?

Portal:North America/Did you know/3

...that Calico Jack (pictured), an English pirate captain during the early 18th century, was executed with most of his crew in Jamaica on 17 November 1720?

Portal:North America/Did you know/4

... that tequila was first produced in the 16th century?

Portal:North America/Did you know/5

... that Vermont coppers (pictured) were the currency used in Vermont before it became a U.S. state in 1791?

Portal:North America/Did you know/6

...that the Pewee Valley Confederate Memorial (pictured) is the only American Civil War obelisk monument in Kentucky to be made of zinc?

Portal:North America/Did you know/7

... that Confederate General John W. Frazer surrendered the Cumberland Gap during the American Civil War without a fight?

Portal:North America/Did you know/8

... that the Ulster cherry is named after Ulster County, New York, a region where sweet cherries are produced commercially?

Portal:North America/Did you know/9

...that the proposed Atlantica trade bloc would economically tie New England in the U.S. to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada?

Portal:North America/Did you know/10

...that the CIA began to recruit and train anti-Castro forces for the Bay of Pigs Invasion in the Sierra Madre mountains on the Pacific coast of Guatemala?

Portal:North America/Did you know/11

...that in 1869 the Spanish colonial authorities banned Baseball in Cuba because Cubans began to prefer baseball to viewing bullfights, the Spaniards' national sport?

Portal:North America/Did you know/12

...that the Cuban night lizard is less than 4 cm long and lives exclusively in the west corner of the southern-most coast of Cuba?

Portal:North America/Did you know/13

...that Pico Turquino in the Sierra Maestra mountains is the highest point in Cuba at 6,749 feet?

Portal:North America/Did you know/14

...that Tropical Storm Larry caused five deaths and US$53.6 million in damage when it struck the Tabasco state of Mexico, the first landfall in the state since 1973?

Portal:North America/Did you know/15

...that Navassa Island off the west coast of Haiti is claimed by the United States as an unorganized unincorporated territory?

Portal:North America/Did you know/16

...that the word hurricane, used in the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, is derived from a native Caribbean Amerindian storm god, Huracan, via Spanish huracán?

Portal:North America/Did you know/17

...that the French West Indies refers to the two French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and also includes the Guadeloupean dependencies of French St. Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, Les Saintes, Marie-Galante and La Désirade?

Portal:North America/Did you know/18

...that the Soufrière Hills volcano is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat?

Portal:North America/Did you know/19

... that the Valley of Mexico has been one of the most heavily populated places on the planet for almost two millennia?

Portal:North America/Did you know/20

... that the oldest winery in The Americas is in Parras de la Fuente?

Portal:North America/Did you know/21

... that Bésame Mucho, a song written in 1940 by Consuelo Velazquez, is according to some sources the most interpreted and performed song of the 20th century?

Portal:North America/Did you know/22

... that the Chontal Maya of Tabasco consider themselves the direct descendants of the Olmec civilization?

Portal:North America/Did you know/23

... that Raul Macias, a Cuban-Mexican boxer parlayed his popularity into a successful career in telenovelas?

Portal:North America/Did you know/24

... that the First Mexican Empire was the official name of independent Mexico under a monarchical regime from 1822 to 1823?

Portal:North America/Did you know/25

... that secondary students can take Yup'ik studies in the Yupiit School District, which is located in the Bethel Census Area of Alaska?

Portal:North America/Did you know/26

... that during the Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857, residents of Mulberry Street in New York City were forced to barricade themselves in their homes?

Portal:North America/Did you know/27

...that the Land Run of 1889 resulted in the founding of both Oklahoma City and Guthrie, whose populations grew from zero to over 10,000 in less than a day?

Portal:North America/Did you know/28

...that Jacob Piatt Dunn in 1886 wrote the first scholarly history concerning the Indian Wars?

Portal:North America/Did you know/29

...that Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first female dentist in the United States?

Portal:North America/Did you know/30

... that the book The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives explores U.S. military expenditures on items including Southern catfish restaurants and Dunkin' Donuts?

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