Historical Tidbits Archives – Page 2 of 59

April 14, 2026April 14, 2026

M is for Malta

Malta, the two tiny islands south of Sicily and west of Tunis. Graphic by Nuclear Vacuum.

What is it?
The stuff that dreams are made of…
Sam Spade, describing the Maltese falcon in “The Maltese Falcon”

Fast Facts

Named for: Greek meli (μέλη) for honeyed. There are native bees.
Capital: Valletta
Long/Lat: 35.5 N/14.3 E , 6700 mi East/11 hours East of CV. Nearly directly south of Liechtenstein.
Population: 520,000, or 9x Castro Valleys
Size: 122 sq mi, 8x CV. The population density and size of about 10 CVs.
Avg temp in April: 62 F/16 C (CV-like)
Median household income: $60,000, also high on a world standard
Ethnicity: 78% Maltese, meaning a mix of Italian, Spanish, Arab, French etc.
Main industries: Tourism, banking. In theory, limestone, but not too much.

Unlike Liechtenstein from yesterday, Malta is a tiny dot of great strategic importance. It’s in the Mediterranean, just south of Sicily and Italy but just East of Tunis and North Africa. Tunis was the springboard for the Phoenicians, who advanced sailing and the alphabet, but they were more traders than conquerors. The Romans took over in their turn, as did Hannibal and the Carthaginians. The Goths and Visigoths came through, followed by Islam sweeping across southern Europe and northern Africa. And that’s just the first half of their story of civilization.

Aleccio, Matteo Perez d’; The Siege of Malta: Attack on the Post of the Castilian Knights, 21 August 1565; National Maritime Museum.

It was a place of launching dreams of conquest or re-conquest. When the Crusaders made their move to “take back” land, they pushed from Europe south, establishing footholds in the Mediterranean from Venice and the Riviera to islands like Malta and Cyprus going down to Jerusalem. There were multiple waves of Crusades in the Middle Ages, and, at some point, a group of Benedictine monks built a hospital to minister to the wounded and sick Christian Crusaders. This was the Order of the Knights Hospitallers, affiliated with St. John. Their surcoat with the white cross against the red background is the inverse to the Knight’s Templar, but both captured the idea of a monastic order, beginning from ministering to the sick and needy, yet grounded in a military base.

April 13, 2026April 13, 2026

L is for Liechtenstein

Fast Facts

Named for: “Light stone” Liechtenstein Castle in Southern Austria
Capital: Vaduz
Long/Lat: 47.1 N/9.3 E, 6000 miles or 11 hours East of Castro Valley
Population: 41,232 or 0.8 CVs
Size: 62 sq mi, 4 CVs
Avg temp in April: 54F/12 C mountains!
Median household income: ~$150,000
Ethnicity: 67% Liechtensteiners, 9% Swiss, 7% German (pasty white people)
Main industries: Precision manufacturing (e.g. dental equipment), financial services (low taxes)

We move from islands to mountains: Central Europe, on the other side of the world from Kiribati, literally and metaphorically. Liechtenstein is one of only two double land-locked countries, which is a thing because humans now must have special statistics for everything. Double land-locked means that it’s land-locked between two other land-locked countries, in this case between Switzerland and Austria. If they could carve out a country within Liechtenstein’s borders, that would be land-locked cubed.

Liechtenstein’s nickname is “The Principality,” which isn’t much shorter, so I’ll just have to learn to spell it. Liechtenstein means “light stone,” and it was what Hugo von Petronell called the castle he built after receiving a fief from the Babenburg margraves. Translating that medieval-speak, it means he did something good for the honchos who ran Austria in the 13th century. But here’s the rub: Liechtenstein Castle is in Austria. Was then, still is now.

April 9, 2026April 10, 2026

I is for Iceland

Iceland, just hanging out near the top of the world. Graphic by Hayden120 & Nuclear Vacuum.

Fast Facts

Note: Starting today, I am adding world capitals to the facts list. I have revised prior days’ as well because we should know how to spell Reykjavik and Tegucigalpa.

Named by: Flóki Vilgerðarson, who saw ice caps in Iceland. Earlier names included Snæland (Snowland) and Garðarshólmur (Garoar’s island, mine all mine!)
Capital: Reykjavik
Long/Lat: 64.1 N/21.2 W, 4200 mi and 8 hrs east of Castro valley
Population: 394,000 or only 6x CVs
Size: 39,800 sq mi or 2350 CVs, not population dense
Avg temp in April: 39 F/4 C brrr
Median household income: $55,000 because stuff is expensive in Iceland
Ethnicity: 86% Icelander, 7% Polish
Main industries: Fishing, tourism, aluminum

So many volcanoes! Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið, Eldfell, and Laki, whose 1783 eruption wiped out a quarter of the population. This is what happens when a country emerges out of the ocean rift between two tectonic plates, as the Eurasian plate and Mid-Atlantic plate are moving away from each other. You get Iceland.

A fourth-grade view of geology would point out that all the continents used to be huddled together in Pangaea, and, over a LOOOOONG time, they’ve been separating. The Atlantic Ocean’s getting bigger, and the Pacific, smaller. One of the points of separation goes through Iceland, which is only about 14 million years old. Proto-humans began at 3 mya, so Iceland is just a little older than we are. No wonder it’s still got acne!