25 May: Buenos Aires

Today is a national holiday in Argentina (Known as Día de la Revolución de Mayo, anniversary of the First Independent Government in Buenos Aires and the first step towards independence) so here are 10 things you might not know about its capital, Buenos Aires:

1. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs". Spanish sailors frequently invoked the "Fair Winds" and the "Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires", the "Holy Virgin Mary of the Good Winds" to aid them in their navigation and prevent shipwrecks.

2. Buenos Aires was founded twice. First in 1536, when Pedro de Mendoza built a fort overlooking the Rio de La Plata. His chaplain named it after Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires. However, the local Querandi tribe and the Spaniards didn’t exactly get on and before long Mendoza was forced to flee. Then in 1580, Juan de Garay arrived from Spain and established a permanent settlement. He named it Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa Maria de Buenos Aires (“City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds”), which was shortened in due course to simply "Buenos Aires".

3. The city was under British rule for a couple of months in 1806. On June 27, forces under the command of William Carr Beresford took the city as part of a mission to undermine Spain during the Napoleonic Wars and control the port. However, France, Spain’s ally at the time, came to the rescue in the form of French nobleman Santiago de Liniers, who marched south from Montevideo and took it back.

4. The port in Buenos Aires is the largest in all of South America. It’s so important to the economy of the area that people who live in the city are called Porteños, or people of the port.

5. It has the most book shops per person than any other city in the world. There is a book shop for every 3600 inhabitants. Buenos Aires also has over 280 theatres, more than any other city in the world; and as of 2012, it had more psychologists and psychoanalysts per capita than any other city in the world.

6. The Presidents’ Mansion in Buenos Aires is called Casa Rosada, or Pink House. For the obvious reason: it’s painted Pink. There are two theories as to why the building is pink. The first is that it represented the coming together of two political parties in the late 19th century, one of which was represented by the colour Red, the other by the colour White. The other theory is that it was originally painted with cow’s blood. Coating buildings in cow’s blood used to be quite common as the blood protected against the damaging effects of heat and humidity.

7. Buenos Aires is home to the widest avenue in the world which is 460 feet wide with 14 lanes. In the middle of it is a rapid bus transit corridor. Due to the traffic light controls it would take a pedestrian several minutes to cross it at ground level.

8. The city’s metro system is the 13^th oldest in the world and the first to open in Latin America.

9. Once upon a time a nightclub in Buenos Aires employed a bouncer named Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Who at some point decided this wasn’t the career he wanted and became a Catholic priest. He did rather well on that career path, eventually becoming Pope Francis I.

10. The city is the birthplace of Tango, and one of its nicknames is the Tango Capital of the World.

Character birthday

Greased Lightning, aka Kieran Turner, a member of the original Freedom League. His power was super speed, helped by the fact his body was less dense than average. Kieran joined the Freedom League and was popular due to his gentle, caring nature. His ambition was to buy an organic farm, marry a like-minded woman and have a large family. Sadly, Kieran was killed by a landslide during a Freedom League training session, just a few weeks after his 21st birthday. Read about him in Runs in the Family.