Gander is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has a population of just under 10,000 people. The airport in the community has always been a major driver in the economy. Construction began on the airport in 1936 and it soon become one of the most important airports in the world. This was due to geography. Gander is located on the path that most planes take from the eastern United States and Europe. From the 1940s till the 1960s most planes needed a place to refuel on their way across the Atlantic Ocean, and many of the airlines chose Gander. After the development of longer range aircraft the importance of the Airport at Gander has declined.

The Netherlands are often referred to as Holland, but this is not quite accurate. Holland is just a part of The Netherlands. In fact the is no such thing as “Holland”, there is North Holland and South Holland which make up 2 of the 12 provinces of The Netherlands. That said, if you say Holland, instead of The Netherlands everyone will know what you meant. Only the geography nerds and malcontent jerks will probably correct you. Just to be clear, this blog post was not meant to correct you, just share an interesting fact.

Over the course of human history empires have risen and fallen. The Italians, Iranians, and the Greeks can all lay claim to large empires in their past, but it is the British and the Mongolians who can claim the largest empires ever. The reason they can both claim the title is the two ways that you can measure land mass. If there are no restrictions the British can claim the title of largest empire ever. At one point the British would have controlled territory all over the world, India, Canada, Australia, the United States, Kenya, Iraq and many other countries can count Britain as their former colonial masters, but the British empire spread across the world like dozens of dots on amap. The title of largest continuous land empire goes to Mongolia. The Mongolian empire covered an area from China, to Iraq, to eastern Europe, and all of known Russia. All of which was conquered with brute force and skilled horsemen.