If you are not from, have no relative in, nor have yet visited Jamaica, I would at least assume you have heard of Jamaica, right?.
Whether it is from the internet, television, your work or in some movie? Is my assumption correct?
But even if you are familiar with Jamaica, I can probably bet you (and win) you never knew half of these interesting facts on Jamaica.
I myself was even surprised at some of these findings. Here you go!
- Jamaica was the first country in the Western world to construct a railway, even before the United States! This was only 18 years after Britain!
- Jamaica is the first Caribbean Country to gain Independence.
- Jamaica is the first team from the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify for the Football (Soccer) World Cup. This was the 1998 championship.
- Jamaica stands strong in 3rd place on the list of countries to win the Miss World titles the most! [Hmmm!] The only countries to have won it more than Jamaica is India, Venezuela and the UK, but considering the size of Jamaica, you have to say that this achievement is monumental!
- On his second voyage to the New World in 1494, the tip of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica was the first land sighted by Christopher Columbus.
- Jamaica was the first commercial producer of bananas in the Western Hemisphere.
- Jamaica also was the first island in the Caribbean to produce rum on a commercial basis.
- The Manchester Golf Club in Jamaica, established in 1868, is the oldest in the western hemisphere!.
- Apart from the United States, Jamaica has won the most world and olympic medals.
- Jamaica has more multiple (two or more) live births than anywhere else in the world.
- Jamaica was the first country to impose economic sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa.
- Jamaica was the first tropical country to enter the IOC Winter Olympics. The bobsleigh team’s efforts inspired the film ‘Cool Runnings’.
- Jamaica was the first colony England acquired by conquest. This was in the year 1655 when the
- We have the second largest butterfly in the world? (The Giant Swallowtail).
- Another of the interesting facts on Jamaica is that it was the first British colonial territory to establish a postal service (in 1688).
- And if you know none of the above, (which is fine) I expect you at least know that Jamaica is the birth place of Robert (“Bob”) Marley [smile]
Now my friend, get out and share you new found knowledge of Jamaica.