63 Argentina Facts: Amazing Facts About Argentina

Last updated on April 13th, 2019

42. Argentina was a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Bank, and the Union of South American Nations, among others.

43. In addition to its continental land mass, Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Island, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia, and part of Antarctica. Argentina sent a pregnant woman there in 1977 in order to claim that portion of the continent. Her baby, a boy named Emilio Palma, was the first human born in Antarctica. Argentina also held the first wedding there and has issued passport stamps there.

44. Ushuaia, Argentina is the world’s southernmost city. It has a population of 57,000 residents.

45. Both the hottest and the coldest temperatures ever recorded on the South American continent have occurred in Argentina.

46. The world’s widest street is the 9 de Julio, or July 9th, in Buenos Aires. It has 14 lanes of traffic with an additional four lanes of parallel streets beside it.

47. Argentina is a prime destination for paleontologists where the oldest known dinosaur species on earth as well as the largest have been discovered. Remains of an Eoraptor that walked the earth around 230 million years ago were discovered. So have been the Giganotosaurus, one of the largest land carnivores and Argentinosaurus, which was 125 feet (38 meters) long and weighed 160,000 pounds (75,000 kilograms). The earliest plants to ever grow on land have also been discovered in the country. These liverworts appeared around 472 million years ago.

48. The chinchilla is Argentina’s most endangered animal. Famed for their soft hair, millions were sacrificed in the late 1800s and early 1900s to make fur coats. They may already be extinct in the wild.

49. In the Uspallata Pass high in the Andes on the border between Chile and Argentine stands the Christ of the Andes. This state of Christ commemorates a series of boundary and peace treaties between the two countries and was dedicated in 1904.

50. Argentine police official Juan Vucetich made in the first criminal fingerprint identification in 1891. Argentina was the first country to adopt fingerprinting as a method of identification and it was used to solve the murder of two children in a small town in 1925. Detective Eduardo Alvarez identified their mother as the murderer by her fingerprints.

51. The birth of animation is usually associated with Walt Disney but it was actually Argentine Quirino Cristiani who created the first animated feature film. El Apóstol was his political satire that debuted in 1917. It consisted of 58,000 frames and ran for 70 minutes. All copies of the film were lost in a fire in 1926. Cristiani also made the first animated film with sound; Peludopolis debuted in 1931.

52. Argentina has the highest number of psychiatrists per capita of any country in the world. Believed to be tied to the cosmetic surgery phenomena, there are approximately 145 per 100,000 residents. There is even a psychoanalytic district in Buenos Aires called “Ville Freud”.

53. Argentines spend the most time radio listening and movie viewing of any populations in the world. Argentina is the only Latin American country to have won an Academy Award as well. The average Argentine listens to the radio between 20 and 21 hours weekly. Argentina was one of the first nations to have radio broadcasting. The first broadcast was made in 1920 when only twenty Argentines had a radio receiver.

54. Argentina suffered the largest terrorist attack ever perpetrated in South America in 1994. A suicide bomber drove his car into the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injuring hundreds more. In 2005 Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio signed a petition for justice for the victims of the crime, the first public figure to do so. Bergoglio was once a bar bouncer and is now Pope Francis.

55. Counter-culture idol and Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara was actually born in and from Argentina.

56. Political parties in Argentina have their own brands of beer.

57. Ferrets in Argentina are given steroids from birth. They are then groomed and sold as toy poodles that sell for as much as $150 US per ferret.

Argentina on the map 

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58. The Argentines herd cattle on the pampas — large grassy areas of land. Many are owned by gauchos (cowboys) who are the cattlemen responsible for producing all Argentina’s beef.

59. Because Argentina is in the Southern Hemisphere, its seasonal climates are completely opposite those of the Northern Hemisphere. For example, Christmas occurs in the summer instead of in the winter.

60. Mount Aconcagua in the Andes in Argentina is not only Argentina’s highest point. At 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) above sea level it is also the tallest mountain in the South American continent and the whole Western Hemisphere. Switzerland’s Matthias Zurbriggen was the first to reach the summit of Mount Aconcagua and did so in 1897.

61. Argentina’s lowest point is Laguna del Carbón in the San Julián Great Depression. It is 344 feet (105 meters) below sea level and is also the lowest point in South America and in the Western Hemisphere.

62. Argentina is considered a megadiverse country with one of the greatest ecosystem varieties of life in the entire world. Its biological diversity is among the world’s largest with 15 continental zones, three oceanic zones, and the Antarctic region. Among its cataloged flora are almost 9400 species. Among its cataloged birds are over 1,000 species. There are 500 cataloged reptiles and amphibians and 375 mammal species.

63. The largest of all the warm-weather penguins live in Patagonia in Argentina. The Magellanic Penguins were named for Ferdinand Magellan who saw them on his first trip around the tip of the continent in 1519. They live on the coast of Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.

As you can tell, Argentina is a large, diverse and fascinating country. It is well-equipped for tourists from around the world and a great place to visit whether you prefer to enjoy culture, the environment or adventure outings.

Argentina – country at a glance