NAQT Social Sciences Questions (Set 2)

Edward Compton and John Ruskin are among the artists inspired by this mountain, which is renowned for its almost perfectly pyramidal shape. This mountain is on the border between Switzerland and Italy, near the Swiss town Zermatt. This mountain was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper; four people died in that ascent.

The Matterhorn

This river is the chief river of Southeast Asia. It originates in eastern Tibet, forms much of the Laos-Thailand border, flows south through Cambodia, and enters the South China Sea in southern Vietnam just south of Ho Chi Minh City. The capital cities Vientiane and Phnom Penh are on this river. The building of dams and clearing of rapids are asource of diplomatic conflict among China, Laos, and Cambodia.

The Mekong

This River is the longest or second longest in North America, depending on how you count. (The Missouri River could be considered longer.) Referred to by Abraham Lincoln as "the father of waters," this river begins at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and flows 2,340 miles to a vast delta on the Gulf of Mexico, forming portions of ten state borders and the world's third-largest drainage basin. This river picks up numerous major tributaries including the Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Red Rivers, and flows past numerous major cities, including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans.

The Mississippi River

This river is formed in western Montana by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. It flows past Bismark, North Dakota, and Kansas City before emptying into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Lewis and Clark used this river as a route for exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. This river is regulated by a number of major dams, including Fort Peck in Montana and Oahe Dam in South Dakota.

The Missouri River

This desert is triangular and covers the southern half of Israel.

The Negev Desert

This river flows 981 miles through a significant industrial region of the United States. Historically seen as the border between the northern and southern United States, this river is formed in downtown Pittsburgh by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, flowing past Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Evansville, forming borders of five states before emptying into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. Other major tributaries of the Ohio include the Kanawha, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wabash, and Cumberland Rivers.

The Ohio River

This river is one of America's most historic waterways. Rising at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, this river runs 405 miles, forming the border between Virginia and Maryland. Washington D.C. was sited on this river at its confluence with the Anacostia River. George Washington's plantation Mount Vernon was on this river, while Robert E. Lee's two invasions north of this river were major events of the Civil War.

The Potomac River

This river is a major river of the southern Great Plains. This river forms most of the border between Oklahoma and Texas along its 1,360-mile length. That border formed part of the border between Mexico (and later the Republic of Texas) and the United States after the 1819 Adams-Onis Treaty. This river runs through the Louisiana cities Shreveport and Alexandria before empying into the Mississippi south of Natchez, Mississippi.

The Red River of the South

This river has formed the border between Texas and four Mexican states since 1848. This river flows south out of Colorado through New Mexico before reaching the international boundary near El Paso. Texas's Big Bend National Park is named for the sweeping curve this river cuts through the Sierra Madre Oreintal. After leaving the mountains, this river flows past Laredo and Brownsville before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Rio Grande

This speech, formally titled "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences," was a report given by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the Congress of the Communist Party denouncing the regime of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. Khrushchev specifically criticized Stalin for making his own rivals in the Communist Party and the Red Army into "enemies of the people," as well as for glorifying himself above the party and the country. The controversial speech contributed to the split between the Soviet Union and Communist China and to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

The Secret Speech

This river is a major river of the northwestern United States. Rising in Yellowstone National Park, this river bisects southern Idaho along its 1,078 mile route. Flowing through Pocatello and Boise, this river forms much of the border between Idaho and Oregon, including the famous Hells Canyon. This river was a vital route for travelers headed west on the Oregon Trail, who followed the river most of the way to its mouth on the Columbia River.

The Snake River

This river drains the Great Lakes and serves as a major waterway of eastern Canada. First explored and named by Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, this river emerges from the northeastern corner of Lake Ontario in the Thousand Islands archipelago, forming the border between Ontario and New York. This river receives the Ottawa and Saguenay Rivers and flows through Montreal and Quebec City. At its mouth, the Gulf of this river is one of the world's largest estuaries.

The St. Lawrence River

These speeches were a series of addresses given by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Parliament during the Battle of France in World War II. The first speech promised "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" in the fight against Germany and stated Britain's commitment to "victory at all costs." The Second speech described Allied losses and the evacuation at Dunkirk, acknowledging the possibility of invasion but declaring "we shall fight on the beaches" and "defend our island whatever the cost will be." The final message came when the fall of France was imminent and claimed that the fight to come would go down as Britain's "finest hour."

The War Speeches

This river is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third longest in the world. This river rises in the Kunlun Mountains, flows across the Tibetan Plateau, passes the cities of Chongquing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and empties into the South China Sea. This river's basin is China's granary and is home to nearly a third of Chinese citizens. This river is dammed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, which reduced flooding, but displaced 1.5 million people and buried over 1,300 known archaeological sites.

The Yangtze

This river is, at 3,400 miles, China's second largest. This river is also the most important to the northern half of the country. This river rises in Qinghai province and flows into the Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea. This river's name comes from the extraordinary amount of loess silt that it carries, an average of 57 pounds for every cubic yard of water. Among this river's notable featurs is the Grand Canal, rebuiltduring the Ming Dynasty, that links it to the Yangtze.

The Yellow River

This river, weaves across Southern Africa. This river rises in eastern Angola, passes through Zambia, flows along the borders of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, crosses through Mozambique, and enters the Indian Ocean's Mozambique Channel near Chinde. Namibia's Caprivi Strip was created to allow access to the Zambezi. The Cabora Bassa and Kariba Dams from large lakes of the same name. The most spectacular feature of this river is Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), which is over a mile wide and is the largest waterfall by flow rate in Africa.

Zambezi River

Formerly and often called Mount McKinley, this mountain is the highest mountain in North America. This mountain is in south-central Alaska, in its namesake national park. The West Buttress route is considered the best path to ascend this mountain. Fredrick Cook, a man notorious for having faked the discovery of the North Pole, is now believed to have faked his ascent of this mountain in 1906 as well, leaving a climbing party seven years later with the honor.

Denali

This desert is part of the Western Desert, and the ninth largest in the world.

Great Sandy Desert

This man was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. A 1936 invasion by fascist Italy forced this man to live in exile in England until 1941, when he was restored to the throne with the assistance of the British military. Many members of the Rastafarian movement consider this man to be a sacred and messianic figure. Ethiopia suffered a severe famine in the early 1970s and this man was overthrown in 1974. The military government that replaced him was known as the Derg.

Haile Selassie

This river rises as the Crocodile River in South Africa's Witwatersrand region, it forms the Transvaal's border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, then crosses through Mozambique Deforestation in Mozambique contributed to massive flooding of this river in 2000. Perhaps the most famous description of this river comes from Rudyard Kipling, who in "The Elephant's Child" referred to it as "the great grey-green, greasy [this river], all set about with fever trees."

Limpopo River

This desert is bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. This desert is between the Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert, and it contains the lowest and driest point of North America, Death Valley. This desert is strongly associated with the Joshua Tree.

Mojave

Yamanaka and Kawaguchi are two lakes found along the slopes of this mountain, the tallest mountain in Japan. This mountain is only about an hour's drive from Tokyo, and has significance in the Shinto religion, being sacred to the goddess Sengen-Sama. This mountain was also depicted in a series of prints drawn by Hokusai.

Mount Fuji

This river is the principal river of the Iberian Peninsula. Rising in east-central Spain, it flows west for roughly 645 miles to the Atlantic, passing through Lisbon, Portugal on the way. The cities of Toledo and Santarem are on this river, and hydroelectric dams on this river produce huge artificial lakes, including the Sea of Castile.

Tagus

This river is the longest river in Canada. Flowing 1,080 miles out of the Great Slave Lake, the river flows past Fort Providence and Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories, emptying into a vast delta on the Beautiful Sea. This river is the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America. This river was named for a Scottish explorer who crossed Canada to the Pacific ten years before Lewis and Clark.

The Mackenzie River

This river is the eastern of the two rivers that define the historic region Mesopotamia (meaning "the land between two rivers"), which was home to the ancient civilizations Sumer and Akkad. This river rises in Turkey, then flows southeast by Mosul, Tikrit, and Baghdad before joining the Euphrates to make the Shatt-al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.

The Tigris

This speech was an extemporaneous speech by abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. Truth, a former slave, proclaimed that she could "work as much and eat as much as a man" and "bear the lash as well" while repeatedly returning to the title question of this speech. Truth also remarked that, even as a woman, "nobody ever helps me into carriages" because of her race. The speech was later published and popularized by feminist Frances Dana Barker Gage.

Ain't I a Woman

This desert is covered with solid water, but is classified as a desrt due to its lack of precipitation. Its tallest mountain is Vinson Massive in the Ellsworth Mountains. This desert is home to the active volcano Mount Erebus. This desert is surrounded by Ross and Weddel Seas and the Ross Ice Shelf. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole in 1911 in this desert, while the Englishman Robert Scott died trying to reach the South Pole in this desert. Ernest Shackleton had to abandon his ship, the Endurance, during an attempt to cross this desert on foot.

Antarctica

This desert's chief claim to fame is the rain shadow of the Andes, which makes it the driest hot desert in the world. This desert was the primary bone of contention in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883; Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources, which were necessary for the production of explosives.

Atacama Desert

This river is Africa's longest second river. It flows in a counterclockwise arc some 2,900 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The upper part of this river's principal sources are the Laulaba, which rises in the Democratic Republic of The Congo's Katanga province, and Zambia's Chambeshi River. Boyoma Falls (formerly Stanley Falls), a section of seven cataracts near Kisangani, marks the beginning of the Congo River proper. Forming the Malebo Pool near the world capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The lower part of this river flows past Angola's Cabinda exclave as it enters the ocean. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness depicts the often cruel conditions of this river's basin endured a a Belgian colony.

Congo River

Most of this river is in Eastern Europe, but it begins in Germany's Black Forest (Schwarzwald) near Freiburg, crossing Bavaria, before it enters Austria. In all this river passes through (or touches the borders of) 10 nations on its 1,785 mile course ending at the Black Sea. Chief tributaries include the Drava and Sava and this river passes through four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Formerly known as the Ister, this river was often used to define a northern border for the Roman empire.

Danube

Rising in the Krkonose Mountains of the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic, this river flows near Prague, then enters eastern Germany and flows northwest to the North Sea. THis river receives the Vlata, the Saale, and the Havel.Spree, and the many large cities on its course include Dresden, Dessau, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, and Hamburg. Like the Oder, this river has been a key transportation route for many centuries.

Elbe

This man was the leader of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. He supported the Free Officers Movement, which was led by Muhammad Naguib and which overthrew King Farouk in 1952, but he then took power wwhile accusing of Naguib of allying with the Muslim Brotherhood. This man nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, leading to a confrontation with Britain, France, and Israel. From 1958 to 1961, this man served as president of the United Arab Republic, a short-lived federation of Egypt and Syria. This man was succeeded in 1970 by his ally Anwar Sadat.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

This desert, Asia's second largest desert (after the Arabian Desert), is bounded on the North by the Altai Mountains. This desert is known for its role in the Silk Road trading route and the Nemegt Basin, where fossilized dinosaur eggs and human artifacts have been found.

Gobi Desert

This speech was a speech delivered by Nelson Mandela during his prosecution for terrorism charges in the Rivonia Trial. In the three-hour speech, Mandela defended his leadership of the Spear of the Nation, the militant wing of the African National Congress working to end apartheid in South Africa. At the conclusion of the speech, Mandela restated his commitment to the "struggle of the African people" and declared the title of this speech. Mandela was convicted, then spent the next 27 years in prison before his release in 1990.

I am Prepared to Die

This man was the president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He was a military leader who came to power in a coup when Prime Minister Milton Obote was out of the country. While in power, this man encouraged death squads such as the Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau, and he was blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 1972, this man expelled tens of thousands of Asians from Uganda. This man allowed Palestinian hijackers to land a captured Air France plane at Entebbe Airport in 1976; Jewish hostages on board were freed by Operation Thunderbolt, an Israeli commando operation during which Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of the future Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed. A 1979 invasion by Tanzania forced Admin from power; he fled to exile in Saudi Arabia.

Idi Admin

This man, a leader of the Kikuyu people, fought against British control of Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. This man studied anthropology at the London School of Economics with Bronistaw Malinowski; his book, "Facing Mount Kenya," is an account of traditional Kikuyu society under pressure from colonialism. When Britain allowed elections to take place, this man's KANU (Kenya African National Union) party was successful; in 1964, this man became the country's first president. This man used the slogan "harmbee," which is Swahili for "all put together," to encourage national unity and economic growth. This man's son, Uhuru, became Kenya's fourth president in 2013.

Jomo Kenyatta

This man was the leader of Tanganyika and then Tanzania from 1961 to 1985. (Tanzania was formed by the 1964 merger of Tanganyika with Zanzibar.) Tanganyika gained independence before this man came to power due to negotiations between this man and British Governor Richard Turnbull. This man put forward his socialist plans in the Arusha Declaration of 1967. This man's policies were known by the term Ujamaa, signifying family unity in Swahili. Under this man's leadership, literacy improved significantly, but poverty remained high, especially among rural laborers uprooted by this man's centralized economic planning. This man's Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Party of the Revolution, remains as the dominant power in Tanzania politics.

Julius Nyerere

Qogir, Ketu, and Mount Godwin-Austen are other names for this mountain, whose most common name comes from the fact that it is the second tallest mountain in the world. The first letter of this mountain's name stands for Karakoram, the mountain range in Pakistan and China in which the peak is found. The House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are features of this mountain, which also possesses a different second-place record, behind the Annapurna Massif: this mountain boasts the second-highest fatality rate among attempted climbers of any mountains above 8,000 meters.

K2

This river is a large region, not all of which is arid to qualify as a desert. This desert is known for its red sand, large game reserves (meerkats, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok), and mineral deposits (notably uranium). This desert's San Bushmen people speak a click language.

Kalahari Desert

This volcano is a shield volcano that is the most active of the five volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii. Its name means "spewing" or "spreading" in the Hawaiian language. In Hawaiian mythology, this volcano is the home of the fire goddess Pele. The three primary craters of this volcano are Halema'uma'u Crater, Pu'u Crater, and P'u'u 'O'o crater. In addition, part of the volcano is covered by the Ka'u Desert, a plain of dried lava and volcanic ash. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is on the rim of this volcano's Caledra.

Kilauea

This volcano is a stratovolcanic island in the Sundra Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Prior to its massive 1883 eruption, there were three separate volcanic peaks; Perboewatan (completely destroyed by the eruption), Rakata (extant) and Dana (almost completely destroyed). The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 35,000 people and is believed to have produced the loudest sound ever. This volcano is one of the largest volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The continued activity of this island formed a new island, Anak Krakatau (or child of this volcano) in 1927.

Krakatoa

This man became the prime minister of the Gold Coast in 1952 and declared independence from Britain in 1957, renaming the country Ghana. This man was the first African leader to declare independence from a colonial power. This man supported pan-Africanism, an ideology that proposed continent-wide cooperation and union of African peoples. This man's regime racked up large debts through military reform and the building of Akosombo Dam to create Lake Volta. A 1966 coup ended this man's rule over Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah

Formerly Africa's fourth-largest lake, its surface area has been reduced by over 90% since the 1960s due to droughts and diversion of water from such sources as the Chari River. This lake is at the intersection of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, but most of the remaining water is in Chad and Cameroon. This lake is very shallow and has no outlet, so seasonal rainfall causes large fluctuations in its area.

Lake Chad

This lake is Africa's third largest lake by area and the southernmost of the Great Rift Valley lakes. This lake is wedged between the nations of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Fed by the Ruhuhu River, this lake's lone outlet is the shire river, a tributary of the Zambezi. This lake contains hundreds of species of endemic fish, especially cichlids.

Lake Malawi

This lake is Africa's second largest lake by area. It is also the second-deepest in the world, surpassed only by Lake Baikal. Due to its extreme depth, this lake contains seven times as much water as Lake Victoria. A source of the Lualaba River, this lake is shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Zambia. On its Tanzanian shore is the town of Ujiji, at which Henry Morton Stanley "found" Dr. David Livingstone in 1871

Lake Tanganyika

This lake is Africa's largest and the world's second largest freshwater lake by area. This lake lies along the equator and is shared among Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Located on a plateau between two rift valleys, its lone outlet is the Victoria Nile, a precursor of the White Nile. Named by the British explorer John Hanning Speke after an English Queen of the same name. The introduction of the predatory Nile perch in the 1950s has caused environment degradation, sending many native cichlid species into extinction.

Lake Victoria

This lake is the largest man-made lake by area in the world. This lake was created by the construction of Ghana's Akosombo Dam across the river of the same name in the 1960s. This lake covers the area where two rivers of the same name formerly converged. The Akosombo dam can provide over a gigawatt of power, enough to supply nearby aluminum smelters utilizing the energy-intensive Hall-Heroult process and the needs of the rest of the country

Lake Volta

France's longest river, this river begins in the Cevennes range of southern France, flows north to the center of the country, then flows due west to the Bay of Biscay. Many notable cities are on this river including Nevers, Orleans, Tours, and Nantes. This rier is sometimes called the "last wild river in Western Europe," and many proposed damns on the river have not been built because of opposition to the flooding of land and to interference with Atlantic salmon. This river valley is particularly known for its vineyards and for its chateaux, a collection of over 300 castles dating to the 16th and 17th centuries.

Loire

This volcano is a shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii that is the most massive above-sea volcano on Earth. This volcano is taller than Mount Everest when measuring from base-to-summit rather than from sea level. Along with Kilauea, this volcano forms the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which was established in 1919 by Woodrow Wilson. When this volcano erupted in 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government gagged the press from reporting on the eruption.

Mauna Loa

This man came to power during the "Congo Crisis," which resulted in the assassination of elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the death in a plane crash of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold. This man changed the name of his country from "Congo" to "Zaire" (It reverted to "The Democratic Republic of The Congo" after his fall). Despite its atrocious human rights record, this man's regime was supported by the United States because this man took an anti-communist position during the Cold War. Rebels led by Laurent Kabila overthrew this man in 1997.

Mobutu Sese Seko

The subduction of the Nazca late formed this mountain, the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. This mountain is near the city Mendoza in Argentina, and straddles the Polish Glacier, which provides a popular route for climbers looking to summit it.

Mount Aconcagua

This volcano is a stratovolcano. It is the second highest volcano in Antarctica (but the tallest active one) and the southernmost active volcano in the world. This volcano sits on Ross Island. It took its name from the primordial personification of darkness in Grek Mythology. The northeast slope of this volcano is known as "Fang Ridge," and the volcano's underground magma produces unique pieces of feldspar known as "Erebus crystals." In 1979, an Air New Zealand jet crashed into the side of this volcano during a whiteout, killing over 250 people.

Mount Erebus

This volcano is a stratovolcano in eastern Sicily that plays a significant role in ancient Greek myths. Zeus trapped the monster Typhon under this volcano, and the volcano is also the site of Hephaestus's forges. This volcano overlooks the Sicilian town of Catania. It most recently erupted in 2015. Earlier eruptions occurred in 1928, destroying the village of Mascali, and in 1669, after which the volcano was thought to have gone dormant. There is a large depression on the side of this volcano known as Valle del Bove, or "Valley of the Ox."

Mount Etna

The border between Nepal and China straddles this mountain, which is the summit of the Himmalayas. With a height of over 29,000 feet, this mountain is thetallest in the world. The Khumbu Icefall and the cliff-like Three Steps are hazards faced by potential climbers of this mountain. This mountain was first summited by Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Local Sherpas act as guides for mountaineers in the area, though they walked out of the job over dangerous working conditions in 2014 after 16 of them were killed in an avalanche.

Mount Everest

This volcano is a stratovolcano on the island of Honshu. It is Japan's tallest mountain. This volcano is one of the "Three Holy Mountains" of Japan, along with Mount Haku and Mount Tate. This volcano last erupted in December 1707 in the lava-less Hoei Eruption. Because of its beautiful shape, this volcano is a frequent muse for artists, including the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose woodblock series includes "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." Aokigahara, popularly known as "Suicide Forest" is on the volcano's northwestern slope.

Mount Fuji

The second tallest mountain in Africa is this mountain, which shares its name with the country in which it is located. British geographer and political theorist Halford Mackinder led the first group to ascend the peak, which bypassed the Darwin Glacier and proceeded up the Diamond Glacier. Like Kilimanjaro, this mountain was formed by a now dormant volcano, and, like Kilimanjaro, part of its notoriety rests on a book. An Anthropological study of the Kikuyu people by Jomo Kenyatta was one of the first such texts by an African ethnographer to gain fame.

Mount Kenya

Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira are the three summits of this mountain, the tallest mountain in Africa. This mountain is notable for also being the tallest mountain that is not part of a mountain range, having been formed by a now extinct volcano. A corpse of a leopard is found on top of the mountain in a short story by Ernest Hemingway that uses the mountain as a backdrop for the memories, and ultimately the death, of a writer suffering from gangrene.

Mount Kilimanjaro

The name a polish commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War was appended to the tallest mountain in Australia by European explorers in the 19th century. When it was discovered that Mount Townsend was actually taller, the names were switched so that shis mountain would remain the highest peak on the continent. The peak's name in Aboriginal languages, such as Jangungal or Tackingal, translates to "table-top mountain."

Mount Kosciuszko

The Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachians is the location of this mountain, the tallest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River. This mountain, in North Carolina, was the subject of a debate over its altitude between its namesake and Thomas Clingman, leading Elisha Mitchell to attempt another ascent in which he fell to his death.

Mount Mitchell

This volcano is a stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains on the eastern coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. In the aftermath of its 1991 eruption, the global temperature briefly decreased by almost a full degree Fahrenheit due to the ejection of aerosols and sulfuric acid. That eruption was ten times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens; it killed at least 800 people and forced the evacuation of some 20,000 people. In its aftermath, monsoon rains created Lake Pinatubo in the resulting crater. In 2010, the indigenous Aeta people were formally granted domain over the volcano.

Mount Pinatubo

This volcano is a stratovolcano that is the highest peak in the Cascades and in the state of Washington. It is located about 50 miles southeast of Seattle. The three principle peaks of this volcano are Columbia Crest (the tallest), Point Success, and Liberty Cap. The Little Tahoma Peak is a remnant of an older, much larger this volcano that has since eroded away. This volcano has not erupted since the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The Nisqually Glacier, on this volcano's slope, is used to track climate change. The Emmons Glacier on this volcano is the largest glacier by area in the contiguous US, while the Carbon Glacier is the largest by volume. The entirety of this volcano is in its namesake national park, the fifth national park established in the U.S.

Mount Rainer

This volcano is a stratovolcano in the Cascades of Washington state. It is about 100 miles south of Seattle and about 50 miles north of Portland. It last erupted in May of 1980, killing 57 people in the most devastating volcanic eruption in US history. Perhaps the most famous casualty of that eruption was an innkeeper named Harry Truman (no relation to the president of the same name) who refused to evacuate from the mountain. Because of an avalanche of volcanic debris during that eruption, this volcano lost about 1300 feet in height; lahars (mud-flows of pyroclastic material) reached all the way to the Columbia River. This volcano is surrounded by Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Mount Saint Helens

This volcano is a stratovolcano on the Gulf of Naples in Campania in south-central Italy. This volcano, which last errupted in 1944, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. The most notable eruption of this volcano was in 79 AD when it buried the Roman cities of Herculanaeum, Stabiae, and Pompeii. The only surviving eyewitness of that eruption are a pair of letters written by Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. The 1908 Summer Olympics were relocated from Rome to London after a surprise eruption of this volcano.

Mount Vesuvius

This man was the leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011. This man's Free Officers Movement, modeled after the Egyptian organization of the same name, overthrew King Idris I in 1969. The Little Green Book collects ideas and sayings associated with this man's pan-Arabist ideology. The U.S. and Britain criticized this man's terrorist associations and blamed him for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland (the Lockerbie bombing) which killed 270 people. After a discotheque in Berlin was bombed in 1986, the U.S. attacked several sites in Libya. This man was overthrown and killed by supporters of the National Transitional Council during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.

Muammar al-Gaddafi

This desert, a coastal desert, is known for its bizarre Welwitschia and medicinal Hoodia plants. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world.

Namib Desert

This man was a leader of the African National Congress and the first democratically-elected president of South Africa. In the 1960s, this man was a young radical; along with Oliver Tambo and others, this man founded a militant group called Umkhonto we Sizwe (the "speaker of the nation") to carry out acts of sabotage against the apartheid government. In 1964, this man was charged with criminal activity in the Rivonia Trial; he was imprisoned for 27 years, most of them on Robben Island, a prison colony located off the coast of Cape Town. This man was the leading figure in South AFrica's transition away from apartheid; this man and his predecessor, F.W. de Klerk, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Nelson Mandela

This River is Africa's third longest. It flows in a great clockwise arc through Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, before entering the Gulf of Guinea. The medieval Mali and Songhai Empires were centered on the Niger, whose course was mapped by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park in the 1790s in Nigeria, it receives the Benue River, its main tributary. This river's massive delta, known for its fisheries, wildlife, and petroleum, is an area of increasing social unrest.

Niger River

This river is usually cited as the longest river in the world. This river flows about 4,132 miles in a generally south-to-north direction from its headwaters in Burundi to Egypt's Mediterranean Sea coast, where it forms a prototypical delta. Over 80% of this river's flow comes from the shorter headstream, which arises from Ethiopia's Lake Tana and meets the longer headstream of a similar name, whose haedwaters include Lake Victoria, at Khartoum. At the first of this river's six cataracts is the Aswan High Dam, which forms Lake Nasser, and greatly reduces the annual floods.

Nile River

Along with the Neisse, this river forms the Germany-Poland border, as dictated at the Potsdam Conference in July and August of 1945. One of the largest rivers to enter the Baltic, this river has been a major transport route for centuries. Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Breslau in Poland are on this river. Near its mouth is Stettin, which Churchill used as the northern terminus of his "iron Curtain." At the mouth of this river are Usedom Island, Swinemuende, and Peenemuende, which were primary test sites for the Germany V-2 rocket in the 1940s

Oder

This desert, which is shared by Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National parks, is known for its colorful, banded Rock formations.

Painted Desert

Italy's longest river at 405 mile, this river passes through Piedmont and Lombardy before entering the Adriatic 30 miles south of Venice. This river flows through Turin and Cremona, and this river passes near Milan, Padua, Pavia, and Mantua. This river ahs a long history of floods, and the manmade levees called argini which protect towns and crops can exacerbatethe floods. Pollution, especially from Milan, is becoming a major environmental concern for this river.

Po

This river begins in the Swiss ALps, passes through Lake Constance, flows west along the German-Swiss border, then turns north to form part of the German-French border. This river then flows north and joins with the Meuse and Scheldt to enter the North Sea at a delta in the Netherlands. Cities along its course include Basel, Strasbourg, Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Rotterdam, and tributaries include the Main, Mosel, and Ruhr. This river has played a strategic role in most German conflicts since the time of the Gallic Wars, but was not established as an international waterway until 1815. German myth tells of the Lorelei, a nymph who lured sailors on this river to their death.

Rhine

One of Europe's few major rivers to flow directly into the Mediterranean (via the Gulf of Lion), this river originates in the Swiss Alps and flows into Lake Geneva. This river emerges from Geneva and flows south, passes through Lyon, Avignon, and Arles, and enters the sea just west of Marseille. At Arles, this river splits into "grand" and "petit" branches that encircle the island Camargue. This river's valley is famous for its red wine, and because it is navigable for 300 miles, this river is the key access route of southern France.

Rhone

This man became the first president of post-colonial Zimbabwe in 1980. Zimbabwe was the successor state to Rhodesia, the white-supremacist state in south-central Africa led by Ian Smith. This man, the leader of the Zimbabwe National African Union, was a key figure in the civil and military struggle for African rights in Rhodesia. This man's regime came under increasing criticism for his failure to prevent hyperinflation and his suppression of political dissent. This man resigned the presidency after a November 2017 coup and was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Robert Mugabe

This desert's name means "empty Quarter" in English. This desert is sometimes considered the most inhospitable place on earth. This desert is known for the world's largest oil field, the Ghawar, and for once being part of the frankincense trade.

Rub' al-Khali

This desert is the world's second largest desert, but its largest hot desert. The Atlas Mountaisn bound the western parto f this region on the north, and the Sahel - a savannah-like strip - bounds it on the south. This desert is dominated by rocky regions called hamada, sand seas called ergs, and salt flats (shatt) and dry river valleys (wadi) that are subject to flash floods. The Berer and Tuareg peoples are native to this desert.

Sahara Desert

Though only the second longest river in France (behind the Loire), this river is of key importance as it flows through Paris. Starting on the Plateau de Langres near Dijon, this river weaves northwest for 485 miles to enter the English Channel near Le Havre. Along the way, it passes through Troyes, Fontainebleu, and Rouen. This river is France's chief transport waterway, along with its tributaries, the Marne and Oise.

Seine

At 230 miles, this river is Ireland's longest river. This river flows from Lough ALlen, and Loughs Ree and Derg are also on its course. At Limerick, the river widens into its namesake estuary and runs for 50 more miles before it enters the Atlantic. Peat bogs and marshes line the river for much of its course and this river is considered a dividing line between Ireland's more cultivated east and wild est. A chief tributary of this river is the Suck River. This river does not pass through Dublin, although the Liffey does.

Shannon

This desert is an extremely cold, sandy desert known for splitting the Silk Road into branches running north and south of it. This desert is bounded by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges.

Taklamakan Desert

Running from near Cirencester to an estuary near Southend in Essex, this river is the principal river of England and flows through central London. The Houses of Parliament and the London Eye overlook this river, as does Big Ben. Flowing through Reading, Oxford, and Swindon, this river is prevented from flooding London by its namesake Barrier near the Isle of Dogs. Though it is the longest river entirely in England, this river trails the Severn (which also flows into Wales) as the longest river in the United Kingdom.

Thames

This speech was a television and radio address made by Richard Nixon during the 1952 presidential election. Nixon was running for vice-president on the Republican ticket with Dwight Eisenhower, but had been accused of illegally using a campaign slush fund for personal spending. In the speech, Nixon explained his finances and argued that he never benefited from political gifts, except for a cocker spaniel named Checkers that had been given to his daughters. The speech was inspired by a 1944 speech by Franklin Roosevelt defending his dog, Fala.

The "Checkers" speech

This speech was delivered by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. King began his oration by calling the promise of the Declaration of Independence a "bad check" given to African Americans and urging action "until justice rolls down like waters." After singer Mahalia Jackson encouraged him to "tell them about the dream," King described his vision of former slaves and slaveholders sitting "at the table of brotherhood" and of his children being judged by "the content of their character" rather than by their race. The speech concluded by proclaiming "free at last, Great God almighty, we are free at last."

The "I Have a Dream" speech

This speech was delivered by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the night of India's Independence. Speaking minutes before independence became official at midnight, Nehru celebrated that Indians will "awake to life and freedom" and laid out his vision for a nation striving toward "peace, freedom, and democracy." Nehru also praised Mahatma Gandhi as "the Father of our Nation" and thanked him for holding "the torch of freedom" in the fight for independence.

The "Tryst with Destiny" speech

This river runs 1,800 miles from its source in the Tibetan Himalays; it starts eastward across the plateau, then turns south into the Indian state of Assam, and then enters Bangladesh, where it merges with the Ganges to form the world's largest delta. While serving as a historical route to Tibet, this river is also prone to disastrous flooding.

The Brahmaputra

This river is the most significant river of the Southwestern United States. Beginning in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, this river runs southwest for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico. This river formed numerous canyons along much of its length, most notably the Grand Canyon in Arizona. This river also has significant dams, including Hoover Dam near Las Vegas (forming Lake Mead) and Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona (forming Lake Powell).

The Colorado River

This river is a vital waterway of the Pacific Northwest. Rising in the Rockies of British Columbia, this river flows through Lake Revelstroke before entering Washington state. Grand Coulee Dam along this river in Washington forms Lake Roosevelt. When it was completed in 1943, Grand Coulee was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world; it is still America's largest electric power plant. This river receives the Yakima and Snake Rivers before forming much of the Washington-Oregon border, receiving the Willamette River in Portland before emptying into the Pacific where Lewis and Clark sighted the ocean.

The Columbia River

This speech was delivered by former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in support of the "free silver" economic policy. Bryan lambasted the "idle holders of idle capital," who benefited from a currency based on the gold standard. Instead, Bryan supported bimetallism as a way to make "the masses prosperous." At the end of the speech, he dismissed the gold standard as a "crown of throns" and procliamed "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." The speech catapulted Bryan to prominence and helped him secure the Democratic nomination for president, though he lost the election to Republican William McKinley.

The Cross of Gold Speech

This river is a historically significant river of the eastern United States. From its sources in the Catskills, this river flows 301 miles, forming the border between Delaware and New Jersey. This river flows past Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where it receives the Schuylkill River before emptying into the Atlantic. George Washington crossed this river on Christmas night in 1776 to surprise the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton.

The Delaware River

This river defines the western border of Mesopotamia. This river also rises in the Zagros Mountains of Turkey and is shores are home to Fallujah and Babylon. This river is the longer of the two rivers, with a course of 1,740 miles (compared to the Tigris' 1,180). Both the Tigris and this river have changed courses several times, leaving ruins in the desert where cities have been abandoned.

The Euphrates

This river is the holiest river of Hinduism. It irses in the Himalayas and flows a comparatively short 1,560 miles to the world's largest delta on the Bay of Bengal. Among that delta's distributaries are the Hooghly (on whose banks Kolkata - formerly Calcutta - may be found) and the Padma (which enters Bangladesh). Approzimately one in every twelve human beings lives in this river's namesake basin. Its population density is rapidly polluting the river; a significant source of that pollution is cremated remains.

The Ganges

This speech was delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of a cemetary on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Delivered following Edward Everett's two-hour dedication oration, Lincoln's remarks ran for just two minutes. The president opened by referring to the birth of the United States "four score and seven years ago," when the founders created a nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln praised the dead of Gettysburg for giving "the last full measure of devotion" and said he hoped their sacrifice would lead to "a new birth of freedom." Only five manuscripts of the speech exist, with the most complete draft being the Bliss Copy now kept at the White House.

The Gettysburg Address

This river has been a historically significant river since the early 17th century. Named for an English explorer, this river flows 315 miles through eastern New York state. After receiving the Mohawk River, this river flows past New York's capital, Albany, and West Point before forming the boundary between Manhattan and New Jersey. This river is also culturally significant as an inspiration for Washington Irving.

The Hudson River

This river is the chief river of Pakistan and the source of the name of India. It rises in Tibet and flows 1,800 miles to a delta on the Arabian Sea southeast of Karachi. The five major tributaries of this river - the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej Rivers- are the source of the name of the punjab region, which is Persian for "land of the five rivers." This river is the cradle of its namesake civilization, one of the world's earliest urban areas, whose main cities were Mojenjo-Daro and Harappa.

The Indus

This river is the chief river of Myanmar (also known as Burma). This river flows 1,350 miles past Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and Mandalay to the Gulf of Martaban, an arm of the Bay of Bengal. Its delta is one of the world's most impotant rice-growing regions, and its name is thought to come from the Sanskrit word for "elephant."

The Irrawaddy

This speech, formally titled "The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War," was a radio message by Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's defeat and surrender in World War II. Army officers who opposed the speech tried to destroy the recording of it the night before it aired, an attempted coup called the Kyujo incident. In the speech, Hirohito recognized the power of America's "new and most cruel bomb" and urged his people to "endure the unendurable" in order to save their nation. The message was written in classical Japanese, making it difficult for most Japanese citizens to understand. It was the first time the emperor directly addressed the common people.

The Jewel Voice Broadcast

This river rises in Syria from springs near Mount Hermon. It flows south to Lake Merom, through the Sea of Galilee, and into the Dead Sea, which is 1,300 feet below sea level. This river forms the boundary of a nation with the same name with the West Bank and northern Israel. In the New Testament, the river was the site of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In modern times, about 80% of its water is diverted for human use, a figure that has led to the shrinking of the Dead Sea and serious contention among bordering nations.

The Jordan River