When the huge plates that cover the Earth move, they create enormous tension that cracks rocks, forming long faults. Blocks of land pushed up between roughly parallel sets of faults form block mountains. Examples include the Ruwenzori Mountain range in Central Africa and the Sierra Nevada in the south-western USA.

In about 1500 B.C., Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt sent a fleet to the ‘Land of Punt’. No-one is sure where Punt was, but experts think the Egyptian sailors ventured out of the Mediterranean and sailed south along the coast of Africa. Astonishing voyages were also made by Arab and Chinese explorers. People from Asia reached Australia 25,000 years ago, by …

Many waterfalls occur where rivers flow over hard rocks which overlie softer ones. The hard rocks resist erosion, while the softer rocks are worn away. The hard lip of the waterfall often overhangs the softer rocks and slabs of hard rock sometimes break off and crash downwards. In this way, waterfalls, like southern Africa’s Victoria Falls (whose African name means …

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommendation defines the international public telecommunication numbering plan used in the PSTN. It also defines the format of phone numbers. As per these recommendations, numbers can have a maximum of 15 digits and are usually written with a + prefix. CCITT, the predecessor of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector, developed the first formal list of telephone …

Trees do not grow on mountain tops either because the situation is too exposed, or because the soil is too thin or too frozen to allow their roots to draw nourishment from the ground. In most mountainous areas there is usually a clearly marked timberline, a boundary above which there is no tree growth. Sometimes the height of the timberline …

Bono — Paul David Hewson famously known as Bono was born in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin on 10 May 1960. He was raised in Glasnevin with his brother, Norman Robert Hewson (who is eight years older than Bono), by their mother Iris, a Church of Ireland Anglican, and their father Brendan Robert “Bob” Hewson, a Roman Catholic. His parents initially …

Bill Clinton — William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton was born on August 19, 1946. He was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. At 46 he was the third-youngest president. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and was the first baby boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States …

Archbishop Peter Akinola was born on 27 January 1944 to a Yoruba family in Abeokuta in southwestern Nigeria. Akinola was four years old when his father died, and he was sent to live with an uncle. He attended school between ages 10 and 16, when he left school to learn a trade. After an apprenticeship in Lagos, Akinola became a …

Anne Mulcahy — Anne M. Mulcahy was born on October 21, 1952. She is former chairwoman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation. She was named CEO of Xerox on August 1, 2001, and chairwoman on January 1, 2002. In addition to the Xerox board, she has been a member of the boards of directors of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji …

Alabama, one of the southern states of the United States, is largely rectangular in shape and is landlocked except for a short coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered by Tennessee on the north, by Georgia on the east, by the Florida panhandle on the south, and by Mississippi on the west. The state was visited by Spaniards …