Every Day Is Special: March 12

March 12 - A Capital Day

Posted on March 12, 2017

Back in the "good old days," we tried to memorize everything we would ever need to know. I'm not sure why that included world capitals, but we gamely tried to memorize loads of them. I don't remember any of my teachers - not one - warning us that these countries didn't always have the same capital city.

Of course, these way-better-new days, it's pretty easy to find out things by using smart phones, computers, Google, what have you! No more memorization needed. And that's especially good since things like country names, capital cities, and other world factoids do change from time to time.

Today is the anniversary of a couple of changes:

On this date in 1913, the future capital city of Australia got its name, Canberra.

I said "future capital city" because Canberra wasn't yet built.

Melbourne had to remain the temporary capital until 1927!

Check out Canberra vs. Melbourne:

Population: C - 380,000 / M - 4,560,000
Founded in: C - 1913 / M - 1835
State/Terr.: C - Australian Capital Territory / M - Victoria

Canberra is a planned city, like Washington, D.C., and Brasilia.

Canberra is known for it's flowery celebration of spring, called Floriade.

Melbourne is 12 times larger than the capital!

Melbourne is a mix of modern and historical buildings.

On this date in 1918, Moscow became the capital of Russia. Again.

Moscow was the capital of a variety of Russian governments. But from 1712 until 1728, and then again from 1732 until 1918, the Russian Empire was ruled from Saint Petersburg, a city built by Peter the Great on the Baltic Coast.

Here is a quick contrast between Moscow and Saint Petersburg:

Population: M - 19,560,000 / SP - 4,880,000
Founded in: M - before 1147 / SP - 1703
Located on: M - the Moskva River / SP - the Baltic Sea

Moscow is the world's largest inland city.