History fact #1
In 1871, Britain and the United States asked Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm I to decide who owned San Juan Island. The quarrel had started in 1859, when an American farmer shot a British company's pig that was rooting in his garden. After that, soldiers from both countries shared the island for twelve years. The Kaiser gave the question to a three-man commission, which met for nearly a year in Geneva. On October 21, 1872, it ruled for the United States and set the boundary through Haro Strait. The only casualty of the whole affair was the pig. It's a fitting tale for Halloween week: a little spooky at first, with a harmless ending. If you had a neighbor dispute, who would you pick to settle it?
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