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...
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...
Europe is the northwesterly portion of the world's largest landmass, other parts of which are Africa and Asia. Also included in Europe are thousands of nearby islands, such as the British and Aegean islands, and several distant ones, such as Iceland and the Svalbard group. Europe is in fact a complex peninsula jutting westward from Asia. By tradition, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains form the southern limit; the North Atlantic Ocean and its northeastward extensions, the Norwegian and Barents seas, the western and northern limits; and the Ural Mountains, Ural River, and Caspian Sea, the eastern limit. Thus outlined, the total area of the continent is about 4 million square miles (10.4 million sq km). Europe stretches from the margins of low latitudes into high latitudes beyond the Arctic Circle. The southernmost point on the mainland is Punta de Tarija on the Strait of Gibraltar at 36°2′ N. If islands are included, the southernmost...
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