Farmer Accidentally Makes Belgium Bigger
You know how it is, you go to mow the lawn and the next thing you know, you’ve redrawn international borders.
A farmer in Belgium did just that when he moved a stone that was in his way. The stone marked the line between Belgium and France and was only noticed when a local history buff was out taking a walk and saw that the stone had been moved 7.5 ft over, into French territory, thereby making Belgium just that much bigger.
The stone was placed there in 1819, but that section of border was officially decided in 1820, 5 days after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. While the mayor of the Belgian town was thrilled with the expansion, he did allow that his French counterpart was likely less than stoked by the redistricting.
The farmer has been asked to move the stone back and if he doesn’t, the case will head to the Franco-Belgian border commission which has time on their hands, since they last met in 1930.