20th May: Cuba Independence Day

Today is Cuba Independence Day. 10 things you may not know about Cuba:

1. Cuba is home to the worlds’ smallest bird (the bee Hummingbird, 5-6 cm long) and smallest Frog (Eleutherodactylus iberia, 1cm long).
2. When Columbus landed there in 1492, he thought he was in China and sent some of his men to find the emperor. However, once he realised his mistake, Columbus initially called the island Isla Juana after Prince Juan of Asturia, although he later switched to calling it Cuba. It is not known whether this was derived from a local Taíno word meaning 'where fertile land is abundant' or if it was named after the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal.
3. Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates in the world (99.8%) and also the most doctors per person in the world. As well as providing free healthcare for its own people, Cuba exports doctors to places which need them, and medical tourism is a growing industry. They also export medical equipment.
4. The tourist industry in Cuba is growing, although between 1992 and 1997 it was actually illegal for foreign visitors to have any contact with ordinary Cuban people, so if you wanted to go on holiday there you could only visit segregated enclave resorts. Americans were not allowed to go there on holiday at all after 1960 and at time of writing, Cuba is the still the only country that US citizens need official government permission to visit. However, now that Barack Obama has changed the footing of relations with Cuba, this could change.
5. Although most Cubans are Christians, Christmas was removed from the calendar of celebrations by Fidel Castro in 1969, making 25 December just another working day. He thought that celebrating Christmas was detrimental to sugar cane production. It remained that way until 1998, when the Pope came to visit, and Christmas became a public holiday again.
6. As well as Christmas, Castro had it in for The Beatles and banned their music in 1964, although he later decided that John Lennon was worthy of respect and commissioned a statue of him and named a park after him. Castro didn't like the game of Monopoly, either, and one of the first things he did when he came to power was have all games of Monopoly destroyed.
7. Cuba is known for its cigars. It has the perfect climate for growing tobacco and the making of the cigars is highly regulated to make sure that they are hand-produced using a 100 step procedure which has been in place for centuries. Cuban cigars are officially banned in the USA, but John F Kennedy was a fan - before he signed the embargo against Cuba, he stocked up with 1,200 Cuban cigars.
8. Bacardi Rum was originally made in Cuba, but when Castro tried to nationalise it, the company moved their manufacturing away from Cuba.
9. Cuba is a good place to hitchhike - government vehicles are legally obliged to pick up hitchikers if they have room.
10. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with a population of over 11 million. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud and several archipelagos. Havana is the capital and largest city.