The extraordinary stories hidden in our global geography and history
In short: From a town of one resident to a race around the globe, our world is full of statistical anomalies. Discover how tectonic plates, census data, and a daring 19th-century journalist reveal the unexpected scale of our planet.
In the late 19th century, journalism became a high-stakes sport. In 1888, reporter Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Cochrane) proposed a journey to beat the fictional Phileability of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg. The race turned into a dual competition when the 'Cosmopolitan' newspaper sent Elizabeth Bisland to travel in the opposite direction. On November 14, 1889, Bly began her voyage toward Europe, while Bisland headed west. Ultimately, Bly completed the 24,899-mile circuit in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes, arriving four and a half days ahead of Bisland.
Geography is equally dynamic. The American East Coast has drifted approximately 8 feet further from Europe over the last century. Similarly, Mount Everest continues to rise by roughly 5 to 10 millimeters annually, driven by the Indian subcontinent pressing into Eurasia. This movement is mirrored in the sheer density of Canadian landscapes, which contain over 3 million lakes—accounting for 60% of the world's total.
Humanity also inhabits extreme niches. In Wyoming, the town of Buford once housed 2,000 railroad workers, but by 1980, its population was just the Sammons family. After decades of solo stewardship, Don Sammons auctioned the 10-acre town on eBay in 2012, where it was purchased by two buyers from Vietnam. Meanwhile, demographic extremes exist in Uganda, where 2010 census data showed that 48.4% of the population was under 15, while only 2.5% were aged 65 or older. Even our technology reaches the edges of the earth, with ATMs located as far south as McMurdo Station in Antarctica and as low as Ein Bokek, near the Dead Sea.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 7 Amazing Facts from All Around the World
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