Interesting Facts

20th May 1506 - Christopher Columbus died in poverty in Spain. 1570 – Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. 1609 – Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe. 1631 – The city of Magdeburg in Germany was seized by forces of the Holy Roman Empire and most of its inhabitants massacred, in one of the bloodiest incidents of the Thirty Years' War. 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. 1902 – Cuba gained independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma became the first President of Cuba. 1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off for Paris from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, N.Y., aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. 1932 – Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot. She landed in Irel...

Venezuala provides Cuba with an astounding 115,000 barrels of oil each day—gratis. (Yes, nada, nix, nothing to pay. The idea is that Cuban doctors provide medical care for Venezuela's poor in return.  I hope they get really excellent health car.   As you know, I give lots of time away for free, but it's my time.  Nice that Mr Chavez gives away things other people worked for.) Update - Since President Hugo Chavez's death, Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles says he would stop trading oil to Cuba for such services as it does not benefit Venezuala.

According to the think-tank Centre for Economics and Business Research some areas of Britain are becoming more dependent on state aid than Cuba. (By next year around two out of every three pounds spent in the North East and Wales will come from the taxpayer and taxpayers' money will account for the majority of the economy in eight out of the 12 UK regions and two areas will be close to 70%. In Cuba it's a mere 60%. That's where the similarity ends though, in Cuba they get year round sunshine, and they know how to dance.)