Hundreds of years ago there was this city called Puerto Rico which was the capital of the island of San Juan. Yes, you’ve read that right. Puerto Rico was a city and San Juan was the island, not the other way round.
In 1521 though, a Spanish mapmaker accidentally switched the two names by mistake and, therefore, San Juan became the city and Puerto Rico the island. As you can probably tell, the names stuck.
It’s amazing how a small misconception 500 years ago defined the world as we know it today!
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: The Cold War Era, Incredibly Accurate USSR Maps That Are Still Used By The US State Department
Photo: Creative Commons
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