Island

European mapmakers drew California as an island apart from North America for 150+ years. The error came from a mistaken 1602 account, spread across maps from 1622 — and persisted even after Spain's king decreed in 1747 that California was not an island.

In 1968, Seoul dynamited Bamseom island to develop Yeouido. But Han River sediment accumulated on its bedrock, and the island resurrected — growing even larger. Today Bamseom is an uninhabited ecological reserve designated as a Ramsar Wetland.