Africa

Today's sweet watermelon is the result of millennia of breeding and genetics; wild varieties had pale, bitter flesh. Ancient Egypt knew watermelons well: pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb held 11 baskets of seeds. The red color is lycopene, selected over thousands of years.

In 1903, Britain proposed that Jewish settlers establish a state in East Africa (present-day Kenya)—the Uganda Scheme. The Zionist Congress rejected the offer in 1905, and Israel was ultimately founded in the Middle East.

In 1822, a stork was found in Germany with an African spear in its neck. It had flown from Africa wounded, providing decisive evidence that migratory birds travel between continents. Germans call such birds 'Pfeilstorch' (arrow stork).