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Replica of the Lucy skeleton, an Australopithecus afarensis from Hadar, Ethiopia, on display in a museum

Discovery of Lucy

The discovery of Lucy was the finding of a 3.2 million-year-old fossil skeleton of the early human relative Australopithecus afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia, on 24 November 1974. The paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted the first bone while surveying with a graduate student, Tom Gray. Lucy is about 40 percent of a single skeleton, and in 2024

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The 24 November 1974 finding at Hadar, Ethiopia, of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, by Donald Johanson's team.

Cast of the Neanderthal 1 skullcap from the Neander Valley, Germany, displayed in a natural history museum

Discovery of Neanderthals

The discovery of Neanderthals began in 1856, when fossils from a cave in the Neander Valley of Germany became the first specimen to be recognized as an early human fossil. In 1864 the geologist William King named the species Homo neanderthalensis, making it the first fossil hominin species to receive a scientific name. Neanderthals lived

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The recognition of Neanderthals as an early human species, beginning with the 1856 fossils from the Neander Valley in Germany and the 1864 naming by William King.

Lake Assal, a saline crater lake and the lowest point in Africa, in Djibouti

Djibouti: Geography, History, Government and Key Facts

Djibouti is a small country in the Horn of Africa that sits directly on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the passage where the Red Sea narrows before opening into the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It covers about 23,200 square kilometers (roughly 8,950 square miles), a little larger than Wales, and is home to approximately

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Djibouti is a small Horn of Africa nation on the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, home to Lake Assal and multiple foreign military bases.

Doha: Geography, History, Culture and Key Facts

Doha is the capital of Qatar, a peninsula nation on the western coast of the Arabian Gulf, and home to more than half the country’s population. Where Is Doha Located? Qatar is a peninsula roughly 100 kilometers wide and 200 kilometers long, bordered on land only by Saudi Arabia to the south, with Bahrain, the

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Doha is the capital of Qatar, home to more than half its population and the I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art.

A waterfall in Dominica's rainforest, illustrating the volcanic island terrain known as the Nature Island of the Caribbean

Dominica: Geography, History, Government, and Key Facts

Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is a mountainous island nation in the Eastern Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, situated between the French territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It is frequently confused with the much larger Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti more than 500 miles to the northwest, but the two countries

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Dominica is a small volcanic island nation in the Eastern Caribbean, known as the Nature Island and distinct from the Dominican Republic.

The Catedral Primada de America, a UNESCO-listed colonial cathedral in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic: Geography, History, Government and Key Facts

What Is the Dominican Republic? The Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation in the Caribbean that occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti to the west. It is not the same country as Dominica, a much smaller island nation roughly 400 miles to the southeast in the Lesser

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A Caribbean nation sharing Hispaniola with Haiti, home to Santo Domingo, the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.

Dubai: Geography, History, Culture and Key Facts

Dubai is the second-largest of the United Arab Emirates’ seven emirates, on the Arabian Peninsula’s eastern coast along the Arabian Gulf. Once a creek-side port built on fishing, pearling and trade, it is now known worldwide for the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building ever constructed. Where Is Dubai Located? Dubai covers about 4,114 square kilometers,

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Dubai is a trade and tourism hub in the United Arab Emirates, home to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

Dublin: History, Geography, Culture and Key Facts

Where Is Dublin Located? Dublin is the capital of Ireland, located on the country’s east coast where the River Liffey meets Dublin Bay on the Irish Sea. It is Ireland’s largest city and the seat of the national government, and together with its surrounding county, it forms the most populous part of the country. A

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Dublin is the capital of Ireland on the River Liffey, home to Trinity College, the Book of Kells, and a major tech and finance hub.

Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban's iconic arched stadium built for the 2010 World Cup

Durban: History, Moses Mabhida Stadium and Key Facts About South Africa’s Busiest Port City

Durban is South Africa‘s third-largest city and the busiest port in Africa, located on the Indian Ocean coast of KwaZulu-Natal province. Settled by British traders in 1824 near a lagoon long controlled by the Zulu kingdom and named in 1835 for Cape Colony governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban, it has grown into a major subtropical port

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Durban is South Africa's busiest port city, settled in 1824 on the Indian Ocean coast of KwaZulu-Natal.

The Mitad del Mundo equatorial monument near Quito, Ecuador, marking the line for which the country is named

Ecuador: Geography, History, Government and Key Facts

Ecuador is a South American country that straddles the equator on the Pacific coast, giving the nation its name (Spanish for “equator”). Its territory spans four distinct regions: a Pacific coastal lowland, the Andean highlands, the Amazon basin to the east, and the volcanic Galapagos Islands roughly 1,000 kilometers offshore, together covering about 256,850 square

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Ecuador is an equator-straddling South American nation of Andean peaks, Amazon rainforest, Pacific coast, and the Galapagos Islands, birthplace of Darwin's theory of evolution.