Nostradamus

EARLY LIFE

Michel de Nostradame (Latinised as Nostradamus) was born on December 14, (or 21) 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France.

Nostradamus studied at the university of Avignon before qualifying as an apothecary (pharmacist).

In 1529, Nostradamus entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university statutes, and had been slandering doctors.  His expulsion letter is still in the faculty library.

Nostradamus's first wife and their two children died from the plague in 1534, while he was travelling around France advising villages how to eradicate the disease.

WORK AS A SEER AND HEALER 

After the death of Nostradamus' wife and two children, he became interested in the occult.

 Portrait of Nostradamus, painted by his son César de Nostredame 

The wealthy and influential started to consult Nostradamus and ask him to cast their horoscopes. He wasn’t much of an astrologer and made frequent errors in the star charts he created for his clients, so he encouraged them to provide their own.

Nostradamus succeeded in stopping a plague, which had swept through Aix and Lyons in the mid-1540s. He insisted on cleanliness and the removal of corpses, forbade the bleeding of victims, and devised his own tonic.

After Nostradamus predicted the death in a jousting accident of King Henry II of France, he was summoned to Paris in 1556, where he became an intimate occult friend to Queen Catherine de' Medici. The prophecy was fulfilled three years later when Henry II died from a terrible head wound whilst jousting.

WORKS 

Nostradamus started to produce an annual almanac, the first being published in 1550. The Almanacs were published two or three times each year from 1550 until his death. Taken together, these almanacs contain at least 6,338 predictions.

In The Prophecies Nostradamus compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. Fearing religious persecution, Nostradamus made them difficult to interpret The first installment was published in 1555 and contained 353 quatrains.

Copy of Garencières' 1672 English translation of the Prophecies

Since its first publication The Prophecies has rarely been out of print. Over the years, many people have come to believe that Nostradamus predicted a range of events in history.

Nostradamus published in 1555 a medical cookbook, Excellent er Moult Utile Opuscule a tous necessaire qui desirent avoir connaissance de plusieurs exq uises recettes (An excellent and most useful little work essential to all who wish to become acquainted with some exquisite recipes). Included were recipes for various fruit jams such as cherry, lime or oranges made with ginger, honey, cooked wine and sugar. He also wrote about ways of cleaning teeth.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH

Nostradamus spent his last years in Salon-de-Provence, a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.

Nostradamus house in Salon. By Leon petrosyan - Wikipedia Commons

By 1566, Nostradamus's gout, which had plagued him painfully for many years, had turned into dropsy. On the morning of July 2, 1566 he was found dead, lying on the floor next to his bed and a bench.

Nostradamus was buried in the local Franciscan chapel in Salon-de-Provence.

His dwelling is maintained as a museum, and for four days every June or July, Salon-de-Provence celebrates its history during the time of Nostradamus.

Source Daily Mail.

Nose

HISTORY

Sushruta, the first known plastic surgeon specialized in rhinoplasty i.e. nose reconstruction. This was important in ancient India as convicted criminals and women accused of adultery had their noses amputated. Rhinoplasty offered them a chance to escape the stigma.

In ancient Rome, a hooked or aquiline nose was often considered a sign of strong leadership and noble character. This belief stemmed from the Roman idealization of certain physical traits as indicators of personal virtues and societal roles. Julius Caesar, for instance, was often depicted with a pronounced nose, his profile became iconic and a standard for Roman portraiture.

Byzantine Emperor Justinian II (668 – December 11, 711) responded brutally to any opposition and consequently, generated enormous opposition to his reign. This resulted in his deposition in 695 in a popular uprising. After he was deposed, Justinian's nose was cut off, to prevent him from seeking the throne again - tradition prevented mutilated people from Imperial rule. He replaced his nose with a solid golden prosthesis, and in 705 retook the throne. 

When the Vikings invaded ninth century Britain, they brought with them their violent customs and imposed strict tax laws on the locals. Any citizen refusing to pay would either have his nose slit. From this comes from the phrase "to pay through the nose", meaning to pay a lot.

Medieval priests were reprimanded by their superiors for using their sacred garments for the blowing of their noses. The upper class Romans used to carry napkins for such purposes but this custom disappeared for more than a thousand years.

In the 1890s, Professor Lees Ray of Liverpool invented the Nose Improver, a brass implement designed to press ugly noses into better shapes.

Dutch winemaker Ilja Gort was reported to have insured his nose for 5 million Euros in 2008.

HUMAN NOSE

Women’s noses grow until the age of 15 to 17; for men, it is 17 to 19.

An average man's nose is 5.8cm long and sticks out 2.6cm. Women's are 5.1cm and stick out 2.2cm.

The nose of a Belgian male aged 80. Wikipedia Commons

According to Guinness World Records, the longest nose on a living person was that of the Turk Mehmet Özyürek (October 17, 1949 –May 18, 2023), which measured 8.8cm (3.46in) from the bridge to the tip. Mehmet Özyürek was officially confirmed as the record holder on March 18, 2010.

Within a split second, the human nose modifies the moisture of inhaled air to a constant relative humidity of 75%, and the temperature to a constant of 98.6F (even if the air is 40F or 100F)

The reason why we have two nostrils is because different smells are detectable at different air speeds, so one nostril is always more open than the other to give us a wider olfactory range.

Your nose constantly goes through "nasal cycles" where the two nasal cavities alternate being partially congested to enhance your sense of smell and help lighten the workload. This is why, during a cold, one nostril always appears to be plugged while other is open.

The human nose can recognize and remember 50,000 different scents.

Your nose is connected to your memory center; that's why smells trigger powerful memories.

You see your nose at all times, your brain just chooses to ignore it.

In an average lifetime, a person will grow about two metres of nose hair from each follicle.

Obsessive nose picking is called rhinotillexomania.

Rhinotrichotillomania, on the other hand, is the word for compulsively pulling out nose hairs.

The point where your nose meets your forehead is called the nasion.

If you squeeze your nose together so that no air goes in or out, you can't hum.

ANIMAL NOSE

A cat’s nose pad is as unique as a human fingerprint, so no two feline noseprints are ever alike.

Dogs have two noses. The second, which humans don't have, is called Jacobson's Organ and is located at the back of the nose. This double smelling system allows some trained dogs to sniff out bladder, kidney and prostate cancer with a 95% accuracy.

If you unfolded and laid out the delicate membranes from inside a dog's nose, the membranes would be larger than the dog itself.

Photo of a common canine nose. Shi Tzu's nose. - Wikipedia

The tip of a nose, especially a mammal's cold, wet nose, is called the rhinarium.

An ant has five noses.

Source Daily Express

Norway

HISTORY

In 310BC Pytheas, an explorer from the Greek city of Massilia (now Marseilles), voyaged past Gibraltar and turned north up the European coast. He then sailed up the west coast of Britain and continued beyond it for six days to reach an uncomfortable inhabited land which he called Thule. At midsummer the sun never set, and beyond there the sea was frozen.

As a result of this report Thule (now assumed to be Norway) becomes for all Greek and Roman geographers the most northerly place in the world.

The name Norway comes from the Old Norse word norðrvegr, "northern way" or "way leading to the north", which the Danes named the coastline of western Norway.

In 866, Harald Fairhair made the first of a series of conquests over the many petty kingdoms which would compose all of Norway. In 872, after a great victory at Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, Harald found himself the first king of the whole country, becoming Harald I of Norway.

Harald Fairhair, in an illustration from the 14th century Flateyjarbók.

In the 13th century King Haakon IV of Norway gave polar bears to fellow monarchs that he liked. One such polar bear was given to Henry III of England and kept in the Tower Of London.

In 1349 half of the Norwegian people died from an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

From 1513-1814, Norwegian king’s names strictly alternated between Christian and Frederick.

Before 1814 Norway had been in a union with Denmark. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel on January 14, 1814, whereby Frederick VI of Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania.

May 17th is Norway’s National Day, celebrating the signing of Norway’s constitution on May 17, 1814. The constitution was based on American and French models.

Celebrations of the National Day were banned from 1820-29 as Norway was in a union with Sweden, but they resumed in 1833 and the date has been celebrated with huge parties ever since.

The 1814 constitutional assembly, painted by Oscar Wergeland

The union with Sweden lasted from 1814 until June 7, 1905 when Norway finally became a separate nation again.

When Prince Carl of Denmark was offered the throne of newly independent Norway in 1905, he refused to take it unless the Norwegian people agreed that they wanted a monarchy rather than a republic. He won the resulting referendum on November 12, 1905 with 79% of the vote, and became King Haakon VII.

King Haakon VII reigned from November 1905 until his death in September 1957.

Haakon VII.

Norway attempted to stay neutral in World War II, but was occupied by German forces from April 9, 1940 to May 8, 1945.

With the German invasion of Norway in progress on April 9, 1940, Norwegian military officer and politician Vidkun Quisling attempted to seize power in the world's first radio-broadcast coup d'état, but failed after the Germans refused to support his government.

Quisling served as Minister-President between 1942 and 1945, heading the pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime. He surrendered after the German defeat and was found guilty of high treason against the Norwegian state. Quisling was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on October 24, 1945. The word "quisling" has since become a synonym for "collaborator" or "traitor," reflecting the very poor light in which Quisling's actions were seen, both at the time and since his death.

Vidkun Quisling

Rondane National Park was established as Norway's first national park on December 21, 1962.

In 2016 Norway officially became the first country in the world to ban deforestation and stop using products stemming from deforestation. Any product which stems from deforestation is now banned in the Scandinavian nation.

FUN FACTS

Norway consumes more spicy Mexican food than any other European nation.

On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside the Middle East .The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product

Oil production has helped to expand the Norwegian economy and finance the Norwegian state

Norway gets 98-99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, more than any other country.

Norwegians pay half-tax in November so that they have more money for Christmas shopping.

From 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2015, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world.

Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It has a 'sovereign fund' of $1 trillion, around $200,000 for each of it's five million citizens to support future generations.

Despite being smaller than California, Norway has a longer coastline than the entire United States (including Alaska and Hawaii).

The U.S. has more people of Norwegian descent than Norway.

There is a town called Hell in Norway.

Oslo, Norway, is the third most northern capital city of an independent country, behind Reykjavik, Iceland, and Helsinki, Finland.

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean roughly the size of Ireland. Lying about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole, it is the northernmost inhabited region of Europe,

Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone, meaning anyone may live and work on the archipelago indefinitely regardless of country of citizenship.

In Svalbard there is no sunset from approximately April 19 to August 23.

The town of Rjukan, Norway receives no natural sunlight from September to March due to the steep mountains that surround it. They've installed three large mirrors to reflect light into the town's square. The mirrors track the sun's path and move every ten seconds to create a 600m squared pool of light.

Since 1864, May 17 has been Children’s Day in Norway. On this day children are at the center of attention, and various festivities take place to honor them.

One of the traditions on Children's Day in Norway is the Children's Parade or "Barnetoget." Children, usually dressed in national costumes or formal attire, march in parades through the streets, often waving flags and singing songs. It's a joyful and colorful event that brings communities together.

Another popular tradition on Children's Day is the tradition of eating as much ice cream as they want.  It has become customary for parents and adults to allow children to enjoy unlimited amounts of ice cream on this special day, adding to the festive spirit.

Norway has the won the most gold medals in winter Olympic history and was the first nation to acheive at least 100 medals of each gold, silver, and bronze.

Sources Daily Express, Historyworld.net

North Sea

Before the adoption of "North Sea," the names used in English were "German Sea" or "German Ocean". The latter referred to the Latin name "Oceanus Germanicus", and they persisted even into the 1830s.

1482 recreation of a map from Ptolemy's Geography showing the "Oceanus Germanicus"

Rogue or monster waves of a freakish height were long thought to be mythical, but the first proven one was recorded in the North Sea in 1995 and was 25.6m (84ft) tall.

The Danish settlement of Rungholt on the island of Strand was sunk into the North Sea by a massive windstorm on January 16 1362. Estimates put the number of deaths at around 10,000 and the coastline shifted east.

Located 15 miles into the North Sea off the coast of Lincolnshire is a trench 318 ft deep and 30 miles long known as The Silver Pit — so called because when it was found in the 1830s, it was teeming with fish.

The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea on December 24, 1969.

Oil platform Statfjord A with the flotel Polymarine

Seven countries have a coastline bordering the North Sea: Norway, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

The line from Calais to Dover is the boundary between the English Channel and the North Sea.

Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea by the North Sea Canal, completed in 1876.

Source Daily Mail

North Pole

EXPLORATION

The North Pole is the point that is farthest north on the planet Earth. It is not a land mass, but rather a body of water that is almost permanently covered in a 2-3m thick ice sheet.

Christopher Michel ·North Pole Wikipedia

American explorer Robert Peary claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909. His crew included Inuits Ooqeah, Ootah, Egingwah, and Seeglo, and fellow American explorer Matthew Henson. Peary's claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century. However it is now believed that Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as 60 miles (97 km).

American aviator Floyd Bennett took part in an expedition to Greenland with retired American naval officer Richard Byrd during the spring of 1926. On May 9, 1926, Bennett claimed he was at the controls as the two men made the first flight to the North Pole. However, in 1996 it was revealed that Byrd's long-hidden diary's solar sextant data consistently contradict his June 1926 report's parallel data by over 100 miles (160 km).

The first consistent, verified, and scientifically convincing attainment of the North Pole was on May 12, 1926, by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from the Italian built airship Norge.

The first confirmed men to set foot at the Geographic North Pole were Aleksandr Kuznetsov's Sever-2 expedition. The party flew on three planes (pilots Ivan Cherevichnyy, Vitaly Maslennikov and Ilya Kotov) from Kotelny Island to the North Pole and landed there on April 23, 1948.  Cherevichnyy's plane was the first one to land at 4:44pm (Moscow Time, UTC+04:00)

Soundings made by the Sever-2 expedition were the first to indicate an underwater mountain ridge beneath the ice and water at the North Pole.

The USS Nautilus was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine. Under the command of Commander William R. Anderson, it left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and embarked on a historic journey to the North Pole. On August 3, 1958, after navigating under the Arctic ice for nearly 1,300 miles, the USS Nautilus reached the geographic North Pole, making it the first ship to achieve this feat. The submarine then surfaced to commemorate the occasion and display the American flag at the North Pole. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."

The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika was the first surface vessel to reach the North Pole. 

The Arktika's journey was part of an expedition to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution. The expedition was led by Captain Gennady Lyachin, and it also included a team of scientists. The Arktika reached the North Pole on August 17, 1977, after a journey of 18 days. The crew planted a Soviet flag at the Pole, and they also conducted a number of scientific experiments.

Icebreaker Arktika,.By RIA Novosti archive, Wikipedia

On April 29, 1978 Japan's Naomi Uemura, travelling by dog sled, became the first person to reach the North Pole alone. The Japanese adventurer reached the North Pole after a 54-day journey. Uemura was a mountaineer, skier, and dog musher who had already set several records, including becoming the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest solo.

In 1985 expedition leader Mike Dunn organized a trip of the "greatest explorers" to the North Pole. Among them were Neil Armstrong, Steve Fossett and Sir Edmund Hillary. Armstrong said that he accepted the invitation because he only ever saw the North Pole from space and not from the ground.

FUN NORTH POLE FACTS

There is a star, called the North Star or Polaris, that is always in the sky above the North Pole. People can tell how far north they are by seeing how high the North Star appears in the sky.

At the North Pole, the Sun does not rise in December; at the South Pole, it does not set.

Because of the Earth's bulge, if you weigh 150lb at the Equator you'll weigh 151lb at the North Pole.

The North and South Poles have no official time zones. In the North, countries which have research stations follow their respective countries' times.

The North Magnetic Pole is one of two places on the Earth where its magnetic field points vertically downwards.

The North Magnetic Pole is not identical to the North Pole, which is the geographic north pole. It moves over time due to magnetic changes in the Earth's core.

Location of the North Magnetic Pole and the North Geomagnetic Pole in 2016.By Cavit - Wikipedia

The North Magnetic Pole, once located over Canada, is now in the Arctic Ocean and is wandering slowly towards Russia.

North Korea

HISTORY 

North Korea was founded on September 9, 1948 after Korea had been freed from Japanese occupation. The socialist Democratic People's Republic of Korea, backed by the Soviet Union was established in the north half of the peninsula. The U.S. set up a democracy in the southern half.

One of the guerrilla leaders during the Japanese occupation, the communist Kim Il-sung, became premier.

The flag of North Korea was adopted on September 8, 1948. The prominent red star is a universal symbol of communism, the red stripe expresses revolutionary traditions. The two blue stripes stand for sovereignty, peace and friendship. The white stripes symbolize purity.

In 1950 North Korea, seeking unification of the Korean peninsula, launched a large scale invasion of South Korea. After three years fighting the Korean War ended in stalemate with no land lost or gained.

North Korea became a totalitarian dictatorship and an elaborate cult of personality developed around Kim Il-sung and his successors.

North Korea built a fake village with empty buildings lit by automatic timers in the 1950s in an effort to lure South Koreans to defect across the border.

The CIA parachuted hundreds of people into North Korea throughout the 1950s to start resistance networks. Despite never hearing from most of them again, they continued to parachute more in until an inquiry in the 1970s questioned the morality of such an initiative.

North Koreans born after the Korean War are about two inches shorter than South Koreans on average.

North Korea reportedly launched its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, on August 31, 1998. The launch was met with international condemnation, as many countries viewed it as a test of North Korea's long-range missile technology. The United States Space Command reported that the satellite failed to reach orbit and disintegrated in the atmosphere. However, North Korea claimed the satellite was a success and that it is now in orbit around the Earth.

An inquiry report of the United Nations Human Rights Council, officially titled "Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," and issued in February 2014, found systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in North Korea. The report found North Korean citizens faced torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, political imprisonment, enforced disappearances, religious persecution, forced labor, and widespread hunger.

North Korea created “Pyongyang Time” in 2015, moving its clocks 30 minutes back making it 8.5 hours ahead of GMT. This was done to symbolically break away from Japan's legacy of colonial rule over Korea. The change was announced by the North Korean government on August 7, 2015, and it took effect on August 15, which is the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule. 

POLITICS 

Even though he died in 1994, Kim Il-sung remains president of North Korea. The constitution was revised in 1998, declaring him 'Eternal President of the Republic', making North Korea the world’s only necrocracy—the only government that still operates under the rules of a former, dead leader.

North Koreans bowing in front of statues of Kim Il-sung (left) and Kim Jong-il

North Korea holds elections every five years. All seats are won by the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland. According to official reports, turnout is near 100%, and approval of the Democratic Front's candidates is unanimous or nearly so.

A North Korean official who was also Kim Jong Un's uncle was executed for clapping half-heartedly when Kim was elected.

North Korea has a list of 375 state-approved slogans and catch-phrases, one of which being "Let us construct additional pylons!"

MILITARY 

North Korea uses a fax machine to send threats to South Korea.

North Korea has the fourth largest army, the largest special forces, And the largest submarine fleet in the world.

Korean People's Army (KPA) soldiers at Panmunjom. By David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada 

SOCIETY 

The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, was first published under the name Chongro on November 1, 1945.  It was founded by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP) as a propaganda organ, and it has continued to play that role ever since.

North Korea has a system of social classification called songbun, established by Kim Il sung, in the late 1950s. It has been expanded to five main groups: special, nucleus (core), basic (wavering), complex and hostile. Where you can live or study, what job you can do, and even what food you can eat are controlled by your songbun. An individual's songbun depends mainly on what their paternal ancestors did in the first half of the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War. Perceived disloyalty during that time is punished with low sungbun. So too is perceived disloyalty now. Christians are therefore classed as hostile and suffer greatly as a result.

North Korea's tallest building is 330m (1,082ft), 105 storeys tall. Construction of the Ryugyong Hotel (dubbed the Hotel of Doom), in Pyongyang, began in 1987 under Kim Il-Sung, but was halted five years later. It was then slated to open it in 2012, the centenary of Kim Il-sung’s birth, but this was then cancelled. The Ryugyong Hotel holds the Guinness World Record for tallest unoccupied building in the world.

An Ohio man was detained in North Korea for nearly six months for leaving a Bible at a nightclub.

In North Korea, people don't celebrate birthdays on July 8 and December 17, since those are the dates that Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il died.

North Koreans born since the 1950s are on average two inches shorter than South Koreans.

ECONOMY 

North Korean propaganda claims that North Korea is the world's only tax-free country. The North Korean state, however, still collects revenue from its citizens in the form of hidden taxation through various sales taxes.

The Korean Peninsula at night. North Korea is almost completely dark, the bright spot is Pyongyang

North Korea doesn't make much from tourism – about 2,500 people visit a year.

Tourists to North Korea are not allowed to use the local currency (the North Korean won), and instead must use a special debit card tied to foreign currencies.

Chinese tourists taking boat tours in North Korea purchase small bags of bread and biscuits and throw them on shore for North Koreans to pick up and eat, like at a zoo.

North Korea generates about $2 billion a year by forcing its poorest citizens to work as slaves in other countries.

North Korea is sitting on 6-10 trillion dollars worth of minerals it can't access due to lack of technology and equipment.

CULTURE

Only around 1000 people in North Korea have access to the real internet and computers are just straight up illegal unless you have specific government permission.

In North Korea viewing pornography or reading the Bible are each punishable by death. Generally the method is execution by firing squad.

North Korea finally got its first pizzeria in 2009, thanks to Kim Jong-il’s obsession with pizza.

The Chollima, a mythical winged horse, is the national animal of North Korea.

North Korea is the only country where marijuana is 100% legal to grow, sell, possess and use.

Source Daily Express

North Dakota

HISTORY

The indigenous American peoples lived in what is now North Dakota for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans. Their tribes included the Mandan people, the Dakota people and the Yanktonai.

The first European to reach what is now North Dakota was the French-Canadian trader Pierre Gaultier, Sieur de La Vérendrye, who led an exploration party to Mandan villages in 1738.

Dakota Territory was settled sparsely by European Americans until the late 19th century, when the railroads were constructed into the region.

About 38 percent of North Dakota's immigrants were Scandinavians. Of that group, about 85 percent were Norwegian.

Norwegian settlers in front of their sod house in North Dakota in 1898

The Dakota Territory, an organized incorporated territory of the United States, was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota on November 2, 1889.

On January 3, 1933, Minnie D. Craig was elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.  However, North Dakota was suffering from an agricultural depression caused by drought and the session proved challenging for Craig. Her tenure as an elected member of the legislature ended in 1935 when she left to become a state worker for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

The KVLY-TV mast (formerly the KTHI-TV mast) is a 2,063 ft (628.8 m) tall television-transmitting mast in Blanchard, Traill County, North Dakota used by Fargo station KVLY-TV channel 11. Completed in 1963, it was the tallest structure in the world until succeeded by the Warsaw radio mast in 1974; that mast collapsed in 1991, making the KVLY-TV mast again the tallest structure in the world until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai overtook it in 2010.

North Dakota didn't technically qualify for statehood until 2012 when a constitutional error found by a 66-year-old man was corrected.

FUN FACTS

At an election in the North Dakota town of Pillsbury in 2008, nobody turned out to vote.

The number 1 beer drinking state in the US in 2012 was North Dakota, with 45.8 gallons per year per adult.

As of 2015, there was about 756,927 people living in North Dakota.

Most of the economy is based on agriculture. North Dakota has 39 million acres of farm and ranchland.

The most important agricultural crop is durum, a type of wheat, which is grown all across the state.

The state's cows turn out one billion glasses of milk a year.

It's illegial to serve beer and pretzels at the same time in North Dakota.

North Dakota is the least visited state in America, owing, in part, to its not having a major tourist attraction. Also geographically, it's isolated from a lot of the country.

Theodore Roosevelt had a ranch in the North Dakota Badlands which he used as his hunting base. The president's dedication to conservation is remembered by a national park there that bears his name. Elkorn Ranch, North Dakota, is now part of the Theodore Roosevelt memorial park, which is home to a variety of plants and animals, including bison, prairie dogs, and elk. The park often exceeds 475,000 visitors each year, making it arguably the most popular tourist attraction in the state.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

North Dakota has 63 national wildlife refuges more than any other state.

The Geese in Flight sculpture, erected in 2001, stands along the “Enchanted Highway” between Regent and Gladstone. Weighing 78.8 tons, the artwork is 110' tall by 154' wide and is the world's largest scrap metal sculpture.

North Dakota has the only bank in the United States that is owned by the state. The Bank of North Dakota is where all of the money from all government agencies is held.

North Dakota has the most churches per capita of any state.

Vang Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manfred. By Andrew Filer - Flickr: Wikipedia

North Dakota is not close to any oceans or seas. Because of this, the state has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters.

The state's all-time low temperature was -60 degrees below zero at Parshall in northwestern North Dakota on February 15, 1936. This occurred in the same year as North Dakota's all-time high temperature of 121 °F (49.4 °C), which was recorded in Steele on July 6th. 

According to a 2016 survey, North Dakota is the U.S. state with the least Millennials still living at home.

Source Inforum.com