25th May: National Day of Argentina

Today is the National Day of Argentina. 10 things you might not know about Argentina:

1. The name "Argentina" comes from the Latin argentum "Silver", because of the mythical Sierra de la Plata ("Silver Mountains") a mythical source of silver in the interior of South America.
2. Famous people from Argentina include Eva Peron (Evita), Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Marxist revolutionary, and Pope Francis. Ladislao Biró, the inventor of the Ballpoint pen was Hungarian, but moved to Argentina in 1943.
3. Argentina has a special holiday to celebrate friendship. Dia del Amigo, or Friend's Day, was founded in the 1970s and is an important event on the calendar. While they don't get the day off work, it is an official holiday and friends get together in the evening to celebrate their friendships. It's such a big thing that in 2005, mobile networks went down with the sheer numbers of calls and hotels and restaurants get completely booked out.
4. It was home to some of the biggest Dinosaurs yet found - Argentinosaurus, discovered in the country and named after it, is believed to have been 38 meters (125 ft) in length and weighed over 75,000 kilograms (160,000 lbs). There was an even bigger dinosaur, similar to a T Rex, which preyed on it - Giganotosaurus.
5. Argentina was the first country to use fingerprinting as the primary form of identification in criminal records, after Francisca Rojas, a 27 year old mother from the Province of Buenos Aires, became the first person ever to be convicted using fingerprint evidence, in 1892.
6. Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, is regarded as the world's southernmost city, close to Tierra del Fuego National Park - the southernmost national park in the world, and the legendary "Lighthouse at the End of the World" made famous by Jules Verne.
7. Both the highest and lowest points in the Southern and Western Hemispheres are located in Argentina. The highest point is Mount Aconcagua in the Mendoza province (6,959 m (22,831 ft) above sea level), and the lowest point is Laguna del Carbón in the San Julián Great Depression Santa Cruz province (−105 m (−344 ft) below sea level.
8. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is the fourth biggest city on earth and the most visited city in South America.
9. Argentina's national sport is pato, a horseback game which originated in the 1600s and is like a cross between polo and basketball. The name “pato” literally means “duck” in Spanish, as the earliest versions of this game used a live duck in a basket - duck lovers will be pleased to note that nowadays, they use a ball. It was a dangerous game, partly due to players falling off their horses and getting trampled to death, and partly because players would often start knife fights with each other during the game. The game was banned several times for this reason. Today's version is more sedate. Perhaps the history of playing this game is the reason why Argentina is so successful at polo - it has won more international championships than any other country and is home to most of the world's top players.
10. The hornero is the national bird, chosen by a lower school survey in 1928 The ceibo is the national flower and national tree, while the quebracho colorado is the national forest tree. Rhodochrosite is the national gemstone.