A new interactive map has become popular after revealing the most notable people from different towns around the world – with many viewers surprised at the results.
The map shows that Boris Johnson is one of the most notable people to have been born in New York, while Barack Obama is the most notable person to come from Honolulu.
Rita Ora, who was born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (modern-day Kosovo), posted a screenshot of MailOnline’s article to her Instagram Stories, along with a shot of the map showing she is one of the most notable people from her hometown.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in New York on 19 June 1964. People widely believed he was born in the UK.
Keanu Charles Reeves was born on 2 September 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon.
Natalie Portman was born Natalie Hershlag, was born on 9 June 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel.
Her mother was American and her father was Israeli.
Mel Gibson is an Australian actor, what many people don’t realize is that he was American born.
Emma Watson was born on 15 April 1990 in Paris, before moving to Oxfordshire with her mother after her parents split.
The map is the brainchild of Mapbox researcher and geographer Topi Tjukanov and is based on a study published in June this year.
In the study, researchers from the University of Paris set out to calculate a person’s notability based on information scraped from Wikipedia and Wikidata.
‘A new strand of literature aims at building the most comprehensive and accurate database of notable individuals,’ the research team, led by Morgane Laouénan wrote.
‘We collect a massive amount of data from various editions of Wikipedia and Wikidata.’
‘Using data from Morgane Laouenan et al, the map is showing birthplaces of the most ‘notable people’ around the world,’ Mr Tjukanov explained.
‘Data has been processed to show only one person for each unique geographic location with the highest notability rank.’
Users can view the most notable person in their hometown across four categories – Culture, Discovery & Science, Leadership, or Sports & Games.
It was thought that the members of the family would be the most notable people in the UK but to utter surprise, it was found out that Charlie Chaplin is actually the UK capital’s most notable person.
In other cities across the UK, Roald Dahl is the most notable person from Cardiff, J.J. Thomson from Manchester, Mel B from Leeds, and Sean Connery from Edinburgh, according to the map.
In Texas, Selena Gomez, Tommy Lee Jones and Beyonce are some of the most notable people, while in Florida, Ariana Grande, Jim Morrison and Tomy Petty are at the top.
In California, it’s Marilyn Monroe, Cameron Diaz, and Cher who take the titles as the most notable people.
Mr Tjukanov posted a link to the map on Twitter, writing: ‘Did you know Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar and Barack Obama in Honolulu?
‘Who is the most famous person from your home town?’
One user said: ‘My small hometown of Linlithgow (pop. 15k) is birthplace to Mary Queen of Scots, Prof Charles Wyville Thomson (who led the Challenger expedition of 1872), John West (tinned fish) and in 2222 *will* be the birth place of Cmdr Montgomery Scott of the USS Enterprise!’
Another added: ‘Sharing a birthplace with Frank Oz will never stop pleasing me.
‘I like to tell people that means both Yoda and Fozzie Bear were born in the same hospital as me.’
And one joked: ‘This is just such silly fun. I’m enjoying discovering all the folks I didn’t know were Yinzers: Jeff Goldblum? Coach Cal? Never knew about them!’
