1st May: Czech Republic

The Czech republic joined The EU on this date in 2004. Here are some things you might not have known about the Czech Republic.

1. The capital and largest city is Prague, home to the world's largest castle (by area at over 7 hectares/18 acres), and the world's oldest working astronomical clock, dating from 1410. Prague also has the distinction of being the only major city in Europe not to be bombed during WWII. It's thought Hitler wanted to make it the cultural capital of Europe.
2. Prague is the defenestration (throwing people out of windows) capital of the world. Two of the most famous defenestrations in world history occurred in Prague. On July 30, 1419 seven members of the Prague city council were thrown out of a Window after refusing the demands of a mob lead by a priest demanding the release of several prisoners. On May 23, 1618 a group of Protestants threw three Catholic representatives of the Emperor out of a third story window in Prague Castle. They survived, because they landed in a pile of Horse manure. One of the victims, Philip Fabricius was later given the title the “Baron of Highfall”.
3. The Czech Republic is almost entirely surrounded by mountains (except to the south, toward Austria and Slovakia). Mountains mark a natural border with Germany and Poland.
4. Czech people are the world's heaviest consumers of Beer - 160 litres (43 gallons) per person per year.
5. Famous Czech people include tennis champions Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl; religious reformer Jan Hus; composer Antonín Dvorák; author Franz Kafka (Although he wrote in German, he was from the Czech Republic); doctor Jan Jansky, who first divided Blood into four types in 1907. Oscar winning director Miloš Forman, Oscar Schindler, Sigmund Freud, Ivana Trump, supermodel Petra Nemcová. Gregor Mendel and Sigmund Freud are both Austrian – but they were born in the Czech Republic.
6. Sugar cubes were invented in the Czech Republic in 1841 after a sugar factory director’s wife got injured while trying to cut some pieces of sugar and suggested finding an alternative. They also gave us the word ‘robot’ which was first used in 1920 in a play by Karel Capek, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The playwright’s brother suggested calling the working machines ‘roboti’ from the Slavic ‘robota’, meaning ‘labour’.
7. Škoda Auto, one of the largest car manufacturers in Central Europe, is based in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1895, Škoda is one of only a few car brands with a history of more than 100 years. ‘Skoda’ means ‘damage’, ‘shame’ or ‘pity’ in Czech.
8. A popular pastime in the Republic is Mushroom picking. Thousands of Czech nationals gather yearly on St. Václav Day, during the weekend that is nearest to September 28, to hunt mushrooms, and they can get very competitive over it.
9. Historically, the Czech Republic was made up of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the March of Moravia, both part of the the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806), and later the Habsburg Empire (1526-1918).
10. The highest point in the country is Sněžka at 1,602 m (5,256 ft).