January 22, 2007
Runnymede Trivia Posted by John Steele Gordon at 03:40 PM EST Fredric Smoler‘s reference to Runnymede, where Magna Carta was signed in 1215, reminded me of the ultimate trivia question: What is the easternmost point of American territory, if the Greenwich prime meridian is regarded as being as far east as one can go? Most people say Maine (which reaches to about 67 degrees west longitude), although the U.S. Virgin Islands (64 degrees) are more easterly. But the answer is not the Virgin Islands either. It is the one acre of Runnymede (less than 1 degree west longitude) that was ceded by the Queen to the United States in 1965 as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy. American sovereignty over this one acre is, to be sure, nominal—no customs barriers, no passports required—but nonetheless real. I imagine that criminals could not be arrested there by British police and that if a woman were to manage to give birth there, her child could claim American citizenship. I hope this doesn‘t set off a stampede of crooks and the heavily pregnant in the direction of Runnymede.
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