1st June: Samoa

Samoa celebrates independence today and for the next two days - they have a three day celebration.

1. Samoa is located south of the equator, in the Polynesian region of the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand.
2. It consists of two main islands - Savai'i and Upolu, and four smaller islands. Upolu is named after the first woman on the island according to local mythology.
3. Savaiʻi is the largest of the islands with an area of 1700 km2. It is the fifth largest island in Polynesia, behind the two main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands of Hawaii and Maui. It has just one township, Salelologa which has a ferry terminal.
4. Mount Silisili is the highest point at 1,858m. The word silisili means highest height in the Samoan language.
5. Samoa has just one city, the capital, Apia, which grew from a tiny village with a population of 304 in 1800 to a population of 36,735 in 2011.
6. Samoa is among the last places to see a sunset on a given date, and in particular the village of Falealupo on the westernmost point of Savai'i, which is only 20 miles (32 km) from the international dateline. This village was, according to the BBC, 'the last place on earth to enter the new millennium'.
7. The national flag consists of a red field with a blue rectangle in the canton. The blue rectangle bears the Southern Cross Constellation.
8. The author Robert Louis Stevenson owned a 400-acre (160-hectare) estate at Vailima village in Samoa. He died there in 1894 and is buried at the top of Mount Vaea above his former home.
9. Samoa is home to probably the world's smallest species of Spider. It is native to Upolu and is the size of a printed full stop.
10. Apia Harbour was the site of an infamous naval standoff in 1889 when seven ships from Germany, the USA, and Britain had been facing each other off for months, and none wanted to give ground (or sea!) and lose face when a cyclone approached. All of them apart from one British ship, Calliope, were destroyed in the storm.