Portal:North America
The North America Portal
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North America is a continent in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. The region includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, Clipperton Island, Greenland, Mexico, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States.
North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), representing approximately 16.5% of the Earth's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa, and the fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. , North America's population was estimated as over 592 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population. In human geography, the terms "North America" and "North American" sometimes refer to just Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Greenland.
It is unknown with certainty how and when first human populations first reached North America. People were known to live in the Americas at least 20,000 years ago, but various evidence points to possibly earlier dates. The Paleo-Indian period in North America followed the Last Glacial Period, and lasted until about 10,000 years ago when the Archaic period began. The classic stage followed the Archaic period, and lasted from approximately the 6th to 13th centuries. Beginning in 1000 AD, the Norse were the first Europeans to begin exploring and ultimately colonizing areas of North America.
In 1492, the exploratory voyages of Christopher Columbus led to a transatlantic exchange, including migrations of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the early modern period. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, immigrants from Europe, Asia, and descendants of these respective groups. (Full article...)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Exsudoporus_frostii_100632.jpg/220px-Exsudoporus_frostii_100632.jpg)
Exsudoporus frostii (formerly Boletus frostii), commonly known as Frost's bolete or the apple bolete, is a bolete fungus first described scientifically in 1874. A member of the family Boletaceae, the mushrooms produced by the fungus have tubes and pores instead of gills on the underside of their caps. Exsudoporus frostii is distributed in the eastern United States from Maine to Georgia, and in the southwest from Arizona extending south to Mexico and Costa Rica. A mycorrhizal species, its fruit bodies are typically found growing near hardwood trees, especially oak.
Exsudoporus frostii mushrooms can be recognized by their dark red sticky caps, the red pores, the network-like pattern of the stipe, and the bluing reaction to tissue injury. Another characteristic of young, moist fruit bodies is the amber-colored drops exuded on the pore surface. Although this mushroom is considered edible when thoroughly cooked, it is generally not recommended for consumption because of the risk of confusion with other poisonous red-pored, blue-bruising boletes. B. frostii may be distinguished from other superficially similar red-capped boletes by differences in distribution, associated tree species, bluing reaction, or morphology. (Full article...)![Hurricane Isabel eye](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Hurricane_Isabel_eye_from_ISS_%28edit_1%29.jpg/425px-Hurricane_Isabel_eye_from_ISS_%28edit_1%29.jpg)
Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB PC QC ( 10 or 11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 until his death in 1891. He was the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, and had a political career that spanned almost half a century.
Macdonald was born in Scotland; when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the Province of Upper Canada (today in eastern Ontario). As a lawyer, he was involved in several high-profile cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston, which elected him in 1844 to the legislature of the Province of Canada. By 1857, he had become premier under the colony's unstable political system. In 1864, when no party proved capable of governing for long, Macdonald agreed to a proposal from his political rival, George Brown, that the parties unite in a Great Coalition to seek federation and political reform. Macdonald was the leading figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the British North America Act and the establishment of Canada as a nation on 1 July 1867. (Full article...)![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Archocentrus_nigrofasciatus_female.jpg/220px-Archocentrus_nigrofasciatus_female.jpg)
Did you know...
- ...that the Cuban night lizard is less than 4 cm long and lives exclusively in the west corner of the southern-most coast of Cuba?
- ... that tequila was first produced in the 16th century?
- ...that Tropical Storm Larry caused five deaths and US$53.6 million in damage when it struck the Tabasco state of Mexico, the first landfall in the state since 1973?
- ... that the Valley of Mexico has been one of the most heavily populated places on the planet for almost two millennia?
- ...that Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first female dentist in the United States?
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North America
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