Hubert Wilkins (1888–1958) was an Australian polar explorer and aviator who made the first west-to-east Arctic aerial crossing. Born in Mount Bryan East, Australia, on Oct. 31, 1888, George Hubert Wilkins was educated in electrical engineering at the School of Mines and Industries in Adelaide, after which he took up photography and learned the fundamentals of flying. As a newsreel photographer, he covered (1912–1913) the Balkan War for British newspaper and motion-picture concerns. The American explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson selected Wilkins as official photographer for the Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913–1917), and his loyalty and devotion to the aims of the expedition resulted in his promotion to second in command. In September 1917, during World War I, Wilkins joined the Australian Flying Corps on the French front as a photographer. In 1919 he competed, unsuccessfully, for the London Daily Mail prize of $50,000 for a flight from England to Australia. Wilkins was second in co...
Italy may be divided into four basic geographic areas: the north, the peninsula (comprising central and southern Italy), the island of Sicily, and the island of Sardinia. It is hilly and mountainous country, with plains covering less than a quarter of its area. The massive arc of the Alps, straddling Italy's frontier with its northern neighbors, sweeps around from the town of Savona located in the west to the Slovenian border in the east. The Alps shelter the northern plain, Italy's most extensive lowland, from the colder climates north of the Alps. The plain is blessed with long, warm summers and an abundant water supply from rainfall and rivers; it supports Italy's richest farmland and its heaviest concentration of industry. Along the northwestern coast, in the region of Liguria, the Alps give way to the Apennine mountains, which curve southeastward to form the backbone of Italy's familiar boot-shaped peninsula. Except in Apulia, the ...
British Antarctic Territory is a colony that extends between 20° and 80° west longitude and from latitude 60° south to the South Pole. It consists of the South Orkney and South Shetland islands and a wedge of Antarctica, including the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands adjacent to the peninsula. Most of the islands are rugged, with many glaciers, and the Antarctic Peninsula is mountainous, Mt. Andrew Jackson rising to about 13,700 feet (4,175 meters). A snow-covered plateau extends along the peninsula at a height declining from about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) in the south to about 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) in the north. Covered by ice, the continental area is fringed by ice shelves 800 feet (240 meters) thick. The territory has no permanent inhabitants, but there are scientific and field stations manned by scientists and technicians. The area was discovered in 1819–1821 and taken possession of by Britain over the period to 1832. The territory, created in 1962, is administered...
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