Siamese cats come from Thailand, once called Siam, where old manuscripts of 'Cat-Book Poems' describe them. In the late 1870s the American consul in Bangkok sent one, named Siam, to President Rutherford B. Hayes: the first documented Siamese in the US.
📍 California, USA
Despite its name, the Bengal cat was created in the United States: breeder Jean Mill crossed a wild Asian leopard cat with a house cat in 1963 and founded the breed in California in the 1980s. 'Bengal' comes from the leopard cat's scientific name.
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📍 Iceland
Icelandic horses descend from ponies brought by Norse settlers more than 1,000 years ago. Today no horse may be imported into Iceland, and one that leaves can never come back. Many can do an extra-smooth gait called the tölt.
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📍 Southwestern Colombia & Ecuador
Hawaii's glossy, heart-shaped anthurium is native to Colombia and Ecuador and only reached the islands from London in 1889. The red 'heart' isn't a petal: the real flowers are the tiny bumps on its spike.
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📍 Malay Peninsula & Sumatra
Durian comes from Malay duri, 'thorn', after the fruit's spiky husk. Called the 'king of fruits' in some regions, it smells so strong that Singapore bans it on its metro trains.
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📍 Northern China (Gansu to Luoyang)
The oldest paper scraps, from the 2nd century BC, were found in China, and Han court official Cai Lun refined papermaking around 105 AD. Egypt's papyrus was a different material.
📍 Sistan (Iran–Afghanistan border)
The earliest known working windmills turned in Sistan, on today's Iran–Afghanistan border, by the 900s. Their sails spun around an upright shaft to grind grain and lift well water, centuries before Europe's first windmills.