From celebrities and designers to the bizarre and historical

… the fashion designer Oscar de La Renta is Dominican?
… the entertainer Frank Sinatra owned a villa in Casa de Campo, La Romana?
… where Paso Fino horses are bred for export?
… a legally valid divorce is possible here in just 48 hours?
… Tahiti and Haiti, as well as Dominica and the Dominican Republic, are often confused, but the latter two share the island of Hispaniola?
…that the politician Rafael Trujillo had 12.000 Haitians murdered in 1937 to lighten the skin color here? He himself was mulatto, but powdered his skin to make it lighter.
… the national hero Juan Pablo Duarte once stayed in Hamburg?
… Baron von Schömburg, in 1858, commissioned by the Dominican government, produced the first proper map of the island?
… the semi-precious stone Larimar is only found in the Dominican Republic?
…where the oldest university in America is located?
… the Dominican Republic produces approximately 1,3 million ounces of silver and 350.000 ounces of gold annually?
… one of the country's infamous magnetic mountains is located here?
…German Jews settled in Sosúa during the Second World War?
… Easter is celebrated here intensively for a whole week?
… Napoleon sent a fleet of 79 warships to Saint Domingue in 1801, and the Bay of Samaná was the rendezvous point after crossing the Atlantic?
… the Dominican Republic today exports bee pollen, mindel fur coats and polished diamonds?
… over 30 different banana varieties grow on Hispaniola?