You could file this week’s column under “You can learn something new every day. Even if you are on old guy.”

I was visiting with a relatively new acquaintance the other day and she happened to mention that she needed to get her passport renewed, as it had expired.

Oh, I asked, are you traveling somewhere?

No, she replied, I just like to carry my passport with me to be able to prove quickly that I am an American citizen.

My new acquaintance, you see, is of Filipino heritage and thus she looks oriental.

Then she told me that she has been an American citizen her whole life. That is because she was born on an island called Saipan. And anyone born on Saipan is automatically a U.S. citizen.

She lived there as a child and was adopted by an American woman and then lived in Hawaii, before eventually moving to Minnesota. She now lives in Mankato.

But with all the things going on in Minneapolis and around Minnesota, she wanted to be able to quickly prove she was an American citizen, and having a U.S. passport is one easy way to do that, she said.

She wasn’t really expecting to have any issues, but she felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

I guess being an old white guy the thought had never occurred to me that someone I know was worried about having to prove they were an American because of the way they look.

But that conversation led me to something else.

I had never heard much about Saipan, other than maybe a reference to it from World War II. And being a curious newspaper guy, I decided to find out more, with the help of my friend, Mr. Google.

Turns out that it is true – people born in Saipan after Nov. 4, 1986, are automatically U.S. citizens.

Saipan is the capital of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. And, it is a territory of the U.S., and has been since World War II. It is located 139 miles north of Guam, another U.S. territory, out in the Pacific Ocean. Pretty much southeast of Japan a long ways, and north of Australia a long ways.

Pictures I saw courtesy of Mr. Google show a tropical island with beautiful beaches and small mountains. There are quite a few resorts there and several championship golf courses, just in case you are interested.

Apparently it is similar to Hawaii, only less expensive to stay there and way less crowded. Although a quick look shows it could cost you $3,000 to fly there (and on Sundays it looks like it is $12,000 for some reason) and there might be several stops along the way.

But, you won’t need your passport to fly there, unless you want to use that as an ID. Because it is a part of the U.S., as a territory.

There are 16 U.S. territories, mainly in the Caribbean Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Five are inhabited and those are Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands and Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (aka Saipan). The other 11 are all very small, mostly uninhabited islands.

In all but one of the territories the residents are considered U.S. citizens. In American Samoa they are considered to be U.S. Nationals, but not U.S. Citizens. I am not sure why.

They generally cannot vote for president of the U.S. and they do not have representation in Congress. I seem to remember a big push to make Puerto Rico the 51st state, but for some reason that just never has happened.

My question is, how did the U.S. come to own all of these territories? The answers vary.

For Saipan, it was in World War II. The U.S. seized possession of Saipan from Japan during the Battle of Saipan that started on June 15, 1944. In the 1970s the citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands, including the island of Saipan, voted to become a commonwealth of the United States.

Previous to Japan controlling Saipan, it once was owned by other countries like Spain and Germany. And there were indigenous people there for centuries.

There, that is probably way more than you ever wanted to know about Saipan. But on the other hand, it is always good to learn at least one new thing every day.

And, maybe you might want to check out going there for a visit. These last three days the temperature has been just over 80 degrees each day in Saipan.

Although, I think the one flight I saw to get there was 31 hours long with three stops.

And, I am pretty sure I don’t want to fly there on a Sunday – if that $12,000 ticket cost is actually true.