• the European Parliament is currently housed in Espace Léopold in Brussels, Belgium?
• the Romanesque St. Charles Borromeo Church (pictured) in Detroit, Michigan, serves a parish that was established to minister to Belgian immigrants to the city?
• the Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium houses European Commission headquarters?
• the Belgian military leader Herman Baltia (pictured) exhibited his watercolour paintings on the Yser Front while he was serving as a commander in World War I?
• the Belgian Impéria was one of the first automobiles available with a sunroof?
• it was largely the zeal of Bishop Russell McVinney of Providence that reestablished the American College of the Immaculate Conception in Belgium in 1952?
• of over 200 artworks known to have been created by Belgian painter Virginie Bovie, only 7 have been located?
• since 1978, countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States have compiled government reports on groups referred to as cults?
• the Gileppe Dam (pictured) was the first dam built in modern Belgium?
• the Peeters directive describes French-speaking residents of Flanders, Belgium, having the right to use French to deal with the government as being "exceptional" and "temporary"?
• the association l'Affranchissement, founded in 1854, was the first rationalist organization in Belgium?
• the song with which Thor Salden won the Belgian preselections of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 reached Number 1 in the Flemish music charts?
• until the French Revolution, the Belgian village of Moorsel was divided into two distinct sections?
• the abandoned Sucreries Raffineries Bulgares factory in Sofia, Bulgaria, once owned by a Belgian company, was used as the set for Kreuzberg in a Bulgarian film?
• the Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse, a cyclo-cross race held in Overijse, Belgium, was won 11 consecutive times in the 1980s by former four-time world champion Roland Liboton?
• the Strépy-Thieu boat lift in Belgium is the tallest boat lift in the world at 73 metres high and has a structural mass of 200,000 tonnes?
• the Temple of Human Passions, first building of Art Nouveau's architect Victor Horta, was closed three days after its inauguration under the pressure of the puritanic Belgian public in 1899?
• in 1955, former Belgian Member of the European Parliament Jean-Maurice Dehousse studied in Beverly Hills, California?
• despite losing Belgium to the Allies, Nazi Germany declared Flanders a reichsgau in 1944?
• Norwegian chemist Alexis Pappas was born in London to Greek parents who fled from Belgium to England during World War I?
• Paul Simon's ballad "Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War" portrays Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte as a secret admirer of doo-wop music?
• singer-songwriter Django Walker was named after Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt?
• Belgium's sillon industriel (steelmaking pictured) was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe?
• Belgium's Carnival of Binche (pictured), which features a "battle of confetti", is the culmination of a build-up lasting 50 days?
• Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx is the only person to have won the general, points and king of the mountains classifications in the same tour?
• Belgian firm Interbrew has a 34.4% share in the Ukrainian beer market?
• U.S. Army major William Stewart Walker was credited with leading 380 of his fellow soldiers to safety in Belgium from behind German lines during World War II?
• Charles Le Gendre (pictured), was born in France, married in Belgium, but died an American general in 1899, working for King Gojong, Emperor of Korea?
• Peter Tsiamalili, the first chief administrator of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, also served as Papua New Guinea's ambassador to Belgium?
• a Belgian, Robert Goffin, was the first person to write a serious book on the indigenous American art-form, jazz?
• an 1889 trial against cadres of the Belgian Republican Socialist Party revealed that most leaders of the party were agents provocateurs paid by the government?
• Martial van Schelle fought as an American soldier in World War I, but was executed as a Belgian citizen during World War II?
• Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) cemetery in Belgium was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and contains the grave of the playwright Alan Bennett's uncle?
• Cornelia Adair, during World War I, invited Belgian refugees to stay at her Glenveagh Castle in County Donegal, Ireland?
• goose pulling (pictured) was a popular blood sport practiced in Belgium, England, the Netherlands and the United States that involved a man on horseback galloping past a live goose and pulling its head off?
• Belgian avant-garde singer Catherine Jauniaux has been described as a "one-woman orchestra" and a "human sampler"?

Facts on topics related to Belgium

Denmark

• 17th century Russian diplomat Pyotr Ivanovich Potemkin (pictured) is reputed to have insisted on lying in bed during an audience with the King of Denmark, who was himself confined to his bed, to demonstrate equality between Russia and Denmark?
• archaeologist Eigil Knuth was co-leader of the first Danish Greenland expedition to make use of an airplane, a Tiger Moth?
• Danish mass murderer Peter Lundin got married twice while in prison?
• Danish painter Albert Küchler's "Albanian Girl" was probably not Albanian, but Italian?
• Danish painter Carl-Henning Pedersen was known as the "Scandinavian Chagall"?
• Danish-born jurist Bredo Henrik von Munthe af Morgenstierne was disqualified from the Norwegian Parliament in 1824, having previously accepted a personal payment from the King?
• Grand Duchess Sophie Caroline of East Friesland instructed Danish royal architect Lauritz de Thurah to demolish Sorgenfri Palace in 1756 to make way for a new palace (pictured)?
• U.S. Independence Day is celebrated every 4th of July in Rebild National Park in Himmerland, Denmark?
• Dyrehaven, a forest park outside Copenhagen, Denmark, has 15 entrances, all with characteristic red gates (pictured)?
• Joan Tompkins in The Christine Jorgensen Story played the Danish aunt who gave the world's first transsexual, George Jorgensen, his new name, Christine?

Luxembourg

• "Amour Amour", Luxembourg's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 was performed by Plastic Bertrand a decade after the band achieved fame with "Ça plane pour moi"?
• Luxembourg City Hall (pictured) was constructed while all of Luxembourg outside the capital was controlled by rebel forces?
• Your Name is Justine, Luxembourg's submission for the 79th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was rejected due to insufficient creative contributions from Luxembourg in the film?
• both Denmark and Spain have plans to change their succession laws from male primogeniture to equal primogeniture, leaving Luxembourg and the United Kingdom as the only monarchies in the European Union not to have equal primogeniture?
• during the German occupation of Luxembourg in World War I, over 1% of the Luxembourgian population died fighting for France, even though Luxembourg remained officially neutral?
• in order to cut costs, Olau Line re-flagged their cruiseferry Olau Hollandia to Luxembourg in January 1993, but were forced to revert the ship to German flag only a month later?
• in the 2009–10 Rugby-Bundesliga season, with the Rugby Club Luxembourg, a team from Luxembourg competes in the German 2nd Rugby-Bundesliga?
• the Luxembourgian football club FV Stadt Düdelingen won the German Gauliga Mittelrhein in 1942 and went on to the German championship finals, losing 0–2 to FC Schalke 04?
• the Popular Independent Movement of Luxembourg was a single-issue political party that represented former Wehrmacht conscripts?

France

• "4 Mots sur un piano", which deals with the theme of a romantic relationship between two men and one woman, was the fifth best-selling single of 2007 in France?
• 11-year old Prince Joseph Wenzel of Liechtenstein is regarded by Jacobites as third in line for the throne of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland?
• 18th century Franco-Portuguese industrialist Jácome Ratton (pictured) left a vivid account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in his memoirs and was exiled to the Azores during the Napoleonic Wars?
• 18th century French artilleries were the most efficient at cannon operation (pictured), capable of firing 150 shots per cannon daily during siege?
• 18th century French salons were often led by those who were creating the Encyclopédie?
• footballer Edward King was honored for heroism in the Philippines and tactical skill in France and later became Commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College?
• Cambodia's Mongkol Borei District was part of Thailand until the French demanded it back in 1907?
• Camille Le Mercier d'Erm and his colleagues formed the Breton Nationalist Party in 1911 to advocate the independence of Brittany from France?
• Catherine II's Instruction to the Legislative Assembly was banned in pre-revolutionary 18th-century France as a "libertarian book"?
• cinematographer Lawrence Sher first developed an interest in photography after his father convinced him to take a 35mm camera on a Teaneck High School-sponsored trip to France?

Canada

• "Too Hot", Alanis Morissette's breakthrough single in Canada in 1991, was a dance pop song?
• 150 Irish from Indianapolis participated in the Fenian raids, an attempt to invade Canada from Buffalo, New York in 1866?
• 67 Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand Article XV squadrons were formed during World War II from graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan?
• Canada and Panama signed the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement on August 11, 2009?
• Canada and the Soviet Union were disqualified from the 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships following the Punch-up in Piestany, costing Canada a potential gold medal?
• Canada issues special licence plates available only to war veterans?
• Canada's first interchange was a cloverleaf opened in 1937 at the intersection of Highway 10 and The Middle Road?
• Canada's first paper mill was built in Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec, in 1803?
• Canada's largest dry-bulk shipping company, The Fednav Group, has a fleet of over eighty ships?
• Canadian actress Cara Duff-MacCormick won a Theatre World Award for her role in Moonchildren, a play about coming of age during the Vietnam War era?

Cyprus

• "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" was performed in French at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, despite being the Cypriot entry?
• Scorpions were transported to Cyprus in 1974 to protect the British Sovereign Base Areas during the Turkish Invasion?
• Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus, which prohibited homosexual acts between men, was repealed just eight days before a May 29, 1998 deadline set by the Council of Europe?
• among all European Union member states, Cyprus is the only presidential republic? (pictured: EU flag)
• despite being born in Harlow, England, Alex Stavrinou qualified to play for the Cyprus youth football team through his father's Cypriot heritage?
• during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1570–1573, the 8,500-strong Venetian garrison of Famagusta in Cyprus held out for eleven months against an Ottoman army of 200,000 men?
• in 1902, 23-year-old British archaeozoologist Dorothea Bate discovered a new species of dwarf elephant in a cave on the island of Cyprus?
• the Cypriot women's basketball team was disqualified at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie for exceeding the permitted number of naturalized players?

Lithuania

• football champion Romualdas Marcinkus (pictured) was the only Lithuanian pilot to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War?
• Iceland was the first country to recognize Lithuania's re-established independence in 1991?
• Lithuanian Chief of Defence Arvydas Pocius was freestyle wrestling champion of Lithuania in junior, youth and adult groups?
• Lithuanian art historian Paulius Galaunė studied psychoneurology at the University of St. Petersburg?
• Lithuanian artist Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas designed interiors for over sixty churches in the United States, Europe and Australia?
• Lithuanian poet Liudas Gira was a member of the delegation sent to petition the Soviet Union to accept the newly proclaimed Lithuanian SSR into the union?
• Lithuanian supermarkets offered cheaper beer, chocolate and soap to those who voted in the 2003 Lithuanian European Union membership referendum?
• Lithuanian writer and educator Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, as the oldest representative, chaired the first session of the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania in 1920?
• Lithuanian-born Aldona Gustas co-founded an artistic forum in West Berlin, the "Berliner Malerpoeten", intended to attract individuals who both wrote and illustrated their works?
• Uruguayan footballer Vladas Douksas' father was a Lithuanian shopkeeper?

Croatia

• Grandmaster Valentina Golubenko, the first and only World Youth Chess Champion born and raised in Estonia, is a Russian citizen playing under the Croatian flag?
• Milan Bandić was elected in 2005 as the mayor of Zagreb, Croatia, with the support of only a seventh of eligible voters?
• Šalata is the first neighborhood in Croatia to use digital homes?
• Italian Wall Lizards (pictured) on a Croatian island developed significant behavioral and morphological changes over the course of 36 years, which has been described as "rapid evolution"?
• Lepoglava prison (Croatian: Kaznionica u Lepoglavi) is the oldest and largest prison located in Croatia?
• Prvić near Krk is the windiest Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea?
• Svetozar Delić was a mayor of Zagreb, Croatia for three days, but it took three more days to remove him from the city hall?
• Zaprešić is the most densely populated city in Zagreb County, Croatia?
• a substantially complete Greek bronze Apoxyomenos, or representation of an athlete, was recovered off the Croatian island of Lošinj in 1999?
• at 5,821 metres (19,098 ft) long, the Mala Kapela Tunnel is the longest tunnel in Croatia?

Hungary

• amphibious tanks which were used on D-Day were developed by Nicholas Straussler from Hungary?
• Hungarian ballerina Nora Kovach's 1953 defection to the West was the first highly publicized Cold War-era defection of individuals in the field of dance?
• Hungarian fencer Pal Szekeres is the only person ever to have won medals at both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games?
• Hungarian long jumper and triple jumper Gyula Pálóczi has been called "the most successful jumper Hungary has ever produced" by the European Athletic Association?
• Hungarian István Major held the high jump record at the European Indoor Championships from 1972 to 1977?
• Hungarian István Réti travelled to Turin, to paint 1848 revolutionary Lajos Kossuth, who had died there recently?
• Hungarian National Defence Day falls on 21 May, the anniversary of the climax of the Battle of Buda (1849)?
• Hungarian company Zsolnay (its fountain pictured), known for its manufacture of decorative tiles, became the largest company in Austro-Hungary prior to WWI?
• Hungarian painter Béla Iványi-Grünwald was influenced by many French artistic movements including Symbolism, Fauvism and Impressionism, and in particular the work of Paul Gauguin?
• Hungarian-born Commando George Lane was spared execution after taking tea with Rommel?

Belgian

• the Belgian French Community Holiday celebrates a victory over the Dutch army, while the Dutch speaking region's holiday celebrates a victory over the French army?
• the Belgian cartoonist Karl Meersman was at first disqualified from a drawing contest at age thirteen, because the jury did not believe his drawing had been created by a child?