South America

South America is the fourth largest of the continents, nearly twice as large as Europe.

South America ranks fifth in population of the continents (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America).

A composite relief image of South America

The population of South America was originally American Indians, who survive chiefly in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

In the 16th century the arrival of Europeans with the Spanish and Portuguese conquest, resulted the American Indians being mainly killed or assimilated. Where they were unsuitable for slave labor, the Indians were replaced by slaves imported from Africa.

In the 19th century Napoleon's toppling of the Spanish throne opened the way for the independence of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Brazil became peacefully independent, large scale European immigration took place and interstate wars took a heavy toll such as the Paraguayan war and the Pacific War.

The proclamation of the Independence of Brazil by Prince Pedro

The final boundaries of the southern United States were formed on December 30, 1853 creating North and South America.

In the 20th century there was rapid industrialization and high population growth in South America. Heavily indebtedness was incurred to fund economic expansion, which led in the 1980s to an inability to meet interest payments and a world stump.

South America is separated from North America by the Panama Canal.

Brazil, the largest country in South America, comprises almost half of the land area and population of the continent.

The remaining countries and territories are divided among three regions: The Guineas, which include Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, The Andean Republics, which include Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile  (not considered to be geopolitically an Andean State), Ecuador, and Peru and The Southern Cone, which comprises Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile (geopoltically) and Argentina.

Spanish and Portuguese are the most spoken languages in South America, with approximately 200 million speakers each.

By Patrick87 - This file was derived from:  Languages of South America.svg, 

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia

North America

HISTORY

The original people of North America lived in a wide range of environments. On the grass plains of the Midwest they hunted to extinction several American species, including the camel and mammoth. On the east side of the continent there were woodlands, where they killed elk and deer.

The cultivation of crops in America begins in the Tehuacan valley, southeast of the present-day Mexico City. Squash and chili were the earliest plants to be grown around 5000 BC soon followed by maize and then by beans and gourds.

Satellite imagery of North America.

The early crops that were grown in North America were all species which needed to be individually planted, rather than their seeds being scattered or sown over broken ground, as there were no animals in America at this time strong enough to pull a plough.

Bjarni Herjólfsson, a 10th century Norse explorer, is believed to have been the first European to sight North America in 986 while blown off course for Greenland. Despite begging from his crew to explore, he refused to stop and look around. He was later criticized by King Eric of Norway for his lack of investigation

Leif Erikson, the first known European to have set foot on North America, made landfall at three places on the continent around 1000 AD, one of which he named Vinland - the land of wine.

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus sighted a Bahamian island, believing he had reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, becoming the first European to set foot in North America since Leif Erikson.

Christopher Columbus never set foot on mainland North America.

When Columbus returned to Spain he bought back with him the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple fruit, the turkey and the chili pepper.. In his log he wrote "there is also plenty of ají, which is their pepper, which is more valuable than [black] pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome"

Genoese navigator John Cabot discovered the mainland of North America. Little is known about his life. About 1490 he settled in Bristol, England, and set sail in 1497 with two ships, accompanied by his three sons. They made landfall somewhere on the coast of North America on June 24, 1497. The exact location of the landfall has long been disputed, with historians proposing either Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia) as the most likely places.

John Cabot in traditional Venetian garb by Giustino Menescardi (1762). 

America was named after either Italian cartographer Amerigo Vespucci or English merchant Richard Amerike, the money-man behind British ship Matthew, which discovered the North American mainland in 1497.

The Spanish established the first permanent settlement at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. At St Augustine there was the first introduction of cattle, horses, pigs, and sheep into North America.

Map of North America, from 1621.

French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico between the late 1660s and his death in 1687. He was probably the first white man to visit the mid-west of North America.

France formally ceded much of its North American land to the British in the Treaty of Paris, after Great Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War. The treaty signed February 10, 1763 marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe.

Scottish-Canadian explorer Alexander Mackenzie was the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, He reached the westernmost point of his journey on July 22, 1793 and inscribed his name on a rock near the water's edge of Dean Channel. Mackenzie wrote the message with a reddish paint made of vermilion and bear grease, and turned back east.

Inscription on a stone at the end of Alexander Mackenzie's 1792–1793 Canada crossing  Wikipedia

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned an expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of North America to the Pacific Ocean. The leaders of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, left St. Louis with 33 volunteers on May 14, 1804. They arrived at the Pacific Coast of Oregon in November 1805 and returned to St Louis on September 23, 1806.

The final boundaries of the southern United States were formed creating North and South America on December 30, 1853.

The St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1950.

In 1967, 75 per cent of the North American population resided within 500 miles of Niagara Falls.

FUN FACTS

North America covers an area of about 9,540,000 square miles (24,709,000 square kilometers), about 16.5% of the earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface.

 It is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa

In 2013, North America's population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population, if the Caribbean is included. It is the 4th most populous continent.

There are eight time zones in North America.

America roughly translates in Chinese to 'beautiful country'.

Due to obesity, North America has 6% of the world's population and 34% of the world's human biomass.

In 1990, the most obese state in America still had a lower rate than the least obese state in America today.

The lowest ever temperature in North America was set on February 3, 1947, when the mercury dropped to a bone-chilling −63.0 °C (−81.4 °F) in Snag, Yukon. This small village is located near the Alaska border, and it is known for its harsh climate. The extreme cold was a result of a combination of clear skies, calm winds, and frigid Arctic air masses typical in the region during winter.

Source Historyworld.net

Europe

Europe is named after the Phoenician princess Europa of Greek myth. the mother of King Minos of Crete, she was seduced by Zeus disguised as a bull. Europa climbed on to his back and he carried her off into the sea and took her to Crete.

Geographically, Europe is not a continent. Its boundary with Asia was a Greek idea to name the two sides of the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles).

 The oldest city in Europe is the eastern Croatian city of Vinkovci. The city has been inhabited for the the past 8,000 years.

In the 10th century AD Europe was a shambles of crude wooden houses and churches. This was in sharp contrast to the continuation of Roman building techniques in the Byzantine and Islamic empires in the East

In the 10th century AD there wasn't a single city in Europe that had a population of more than 400,000.

About 30% of the European population died from the plague between 1347 and 1350.

There are only 10 modern countries that have never been (in their entirety) a colony of a European empire: Afghanistan, China, Iran, Japan, Liberia, Mongolia, North/South Korea,  Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

Europe covers 3.93 million square miles, which is roughly 6.7 per cent of the Earth's surface (or two per vent if you include the oceans).

By Rob984 - Derived from File:Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary.svg and File:Europe on the globe (red).svg., Wikipedia Commons

About 740 million people, which is 11 per cent of the world’s population, live in Europe.

There is a tribe in Africa who believe Europe is the afterlife, and all its inhabitants are spirits.

The midpoint of Europe is a Slovak village, Kremnické Bane.

The European part of Russia accounts for 40 per cent of Europe’s land area.

The largest country entirely in Europe is Ukraine.

The most visited place in Europe is Disneyland, Paris.

Sources Daily Express, Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

Continent

In general it is agreed there are seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America.

The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

The Earth has an eighth continent called Zealandia. The entire continent sank after breaking away from Australia around 65-80 million years ago. 

New Zealand is not part of of any of the world's seven recognized continents, and is in fact situated upon the submerged continent of Zealandia.

The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The concept was independently and more fully developed by German geophysicist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930). He presented his Continental Drift hypothesis on January 6, 1912.

Antonio Snider-Pellegrini's Illustration of the closed and opened Atlantic Ocean (1858)

Istanbul in Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.

Because of its ice cover, Antarctica has the highest average surface elevation of all the continents at around 2000 meters (6561 ft) above sea level.

Here is a list of songs with continents in the title.

Australia

FACTS ABOUT AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

The Romans called the land mass ‘Terra Australis Incognita’ – ‘unknown land of the South’ – long before Australia's existence was confirmed.

Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing on the continent of Australia on February 26, 1606. At the time, he was sailing on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in search of new trading opportunities in the East Indies.

Janszoon and his crew made landfall on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, which he believed to be part of New Guinea. He named the area "Nieu Zelandt" (meaning "New Zealand" in Dutch), which would later lead to confusion with the actual country of New Zealand.

During his brief time on the Australian coast, Janszoon and his crew had some encounters with the local Indigenous people, who were likely the Kaurareg people. However, the Dutch did not establish any permanent settlements or trading outposts in Australia at that time.

The Dutch sailing ship Eendracht reached Shark Bay on the western coastline of Australia on October 25, 1616, as documented on the Hartog Plate etched by explorer Dirk Hartog. The first plate is the oldest-known artifact of European exploration in Australia still in existence.

Copy of Dirk Hartog's plate in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, first sighted the south-eastern coast of what is now Australia on April 19, 1770. He spent the next few months sailing along and mapping the east coast, which he formally claimed for Great Britain on August 21, 1770, naming it New South Wales.

Isaac Smith was the first European to set foot on eastern Australian soil. Cook told him "Jump out, Isaac" as the ship's boat touched the shore at Botany Bay, which is 8 miles (13 km) south of the modern Sydney central business district.

The first eleven ships carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia under the command of  Governor Arthur Phillip anchored at Botany Bay between January 18 and 20, 1788. The land was quickly ruled unsuitable for settlement as there was insufficient fresh water. Phillip also believed the swampy foreshores would render any colony unhealthy so he decided to sail north.

Botany Bay, 1788 watercolor by Charles Gore

On January 26, 1788 the British First Fleet, led by Governor Arthur Phillip in HM Armed Tender Supply, sailed into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbor) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the Australian continent. The event is commemorated as Australia Day.

Sydney Cove, Port Jackson from a drawing made by Francis Fowkes in 1788.

Captain Matthew Flinders (March 16, 1774 – July 19, 1814) was an English navigator and cartographer, who was the leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia. In 1804 he recommended the new continent be named 'Australia', as an umbrella term for New Holland and New South Wales. (The name is from the Latin ‘australis’, meaning ‘of the south’.) It took 20 years before the UK government agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.

Watercolor miniature portrait of Matthew Flinders, c1800. By State Library of NSW

Until they were imported into the country, Australia did not have any members of the cat family, hoofed animals, apes, or monkeys.

In the early days of the colonial Australia most of the cooking was improvised. Pieces of meat, especially kangaroo meat were jammed on sticks and cooked over an open fire.

Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 164,000 convicts were transported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government. The last shipment of convicts from Britain arrived in Western Australia in 1868. Sixteen years later the United Kingdom ended its policy of penal transportation to Australia.

The State of Queensland, Australia is named after Queen Victoria, who signed the order creating its Statehood in 1859.

Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick's "Advance Australia Fair", a patriotic song that was first performed in 1878, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem in 1984. Until then, the song was sung in Australia as a patriotic song. In order for the song to become the anthem, it had to face a vote between "God Save the Queen," the "unofficial anthem" "Waltzing Matilda" and "Song of Australia."

A dingo fence was built in the 1880s to protect Australian sheep from dingoes. It is 3,488 miles long.

The first civilian ambulance service was set up in 1892 in Brisbane, Australia. After witnessing an accident at the Brisbane Exhibition, Seymour Warrian founded the City Ambulance Transport Brigade.

Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland on March 4, 1899, killing over 300 people in the deadliest natural disaster in Australian history.

The country came into being on January 1, 1901 when the British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federated forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Edmund Barton (1849-1920) was appointed the first Prime Minister.

The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne on May 9, 1901. Exactly 26 years later it moved to Canberra's Provisional Parliament House, and exactly 87 years later it moved into the Parliament House in Canberra.

The National Flag of Australia, a Blue Ensign defaced with the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross, flew for the first time atop the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne on September 3, 1901.

On September 7, 1902, the Governor-General of Australia, Lord Hopetoun, declared a day of "humiliation and prayer" for rain after a seven-year drought had killed livestock and dried up crops.  Rain began to fall three days later. Churches and schools across the country held special services, and people were urged to pray for an end to the drought.

The rain finally came three days later, on September 10th. It was a torrential downpour that brought much-needed relief to the drought-stricken country. The rain continued for several days, and by the end of the week, the dams were full and the crops were greening up. The prayers of the Australian people had been answered, and the drought was finally over. The day of prayer for rain is still remembered today as a day of national unity and hope.

The site of Canberra was selected for the location of the nation's capital in 1908 as a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's two largest cities.

In 1908, Australia chose an emu and a kangaroo for its coat of arms to represent a nation moving forward because it was thought that neither animal could move backward. Science has since determined that emus and kangaroos can, in fact, move backward.

On April 2, 1911, the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the first national census of the country, which aimed to gather information about the population and other key aspects of Australian life. The 1911 census was conducted using paper forms that were distributed to households across the country. 

The population of Australia in 1911, according to the first national census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was approximately 4.5 million people. The census also revealed that the majority of Australians at the time were of British or Irish descent, and that the country's population was largely concentrated in urban areas along the eastern coast.

The name 'Aussie' was first used by Australian soldiers in the First World War. Their own colloquial name for themselves was 'Digger.'

Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs (below) (1855 – 1948) was an Australian judge and politician who was sworn in on January 21, 1931 as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. He was also the first Governor-General to live permanently at Government House, Canberra.

The largest attacks mounted by a foreign power against Australia took place on February 19, 1942. More than 240 bombers and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people and causing immense damage to the town, the airfields and aircraft.  It was the same fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbor, though a considerably larger number of bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor.

Remains of the Darwin Post Office after the first Japanese raid in 1942

Green and gold were chosen as the national colors of Australia in 1984..

In 1999 a storm dropped about 500,000 tonnes of hailstones in Sydney and along the east coast of New South Wales, causing about A$2.3 billion in damages, the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history. 

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around February 7, 2009. They left 173 dead and 414 injured in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history. 

Fire approaching a residence in Steels Creek at 6:11 pm. By Daniel Cleaveley 

GEOGRAPHY

Nearly 91 per cent of Australia, totaling 2.7 million square miles, is covered by native vegetation — even its extensive deserts, which are home to plants such as saltbush.

Australia is the richest source of mineral sands in the world.

Arguably the largest state in the world, Western Australia covers one-third of the Australian continent. It spans over 2.5 million square kilometers (1 million square miles).

Western Australia is four times the size of Texas, with one tenth the population.

Australia is moving 7cm (2.8 inches) north every year. It is the fastest moving continental landmass in the world.

Over 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

Half of the entire population of Australia lives in three cities Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. There are only 46 cities and towns in Australia with over 30,000 people.

The only continent without an active volcano is Australia.

FUN AUSTRALIAN FACTS

Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015, is a Rhodes Scholar who entered a seminary aged 26, before quitting and eventually entering politics.

There are twice as many kangaroos in Australia as there are people. The kangaroo population is estimated at 40 million.

The kangaroo and the emu are shown supporting the shield on Australia's coat of arms. The two animals were chosen to appear on the Australian coat of arms because they cannot walk backwards, thus exemplifying forward-thinking.

There are ten times more sheep in Australia than people.

Australia has more wild camels than any other country. They even export camels to Saudi Arabia.

Despite it’s reputation for dangerous creatures, Australia is one of the safest places to live. On average only two people die of snake bite per year, one from sharks and there's been one death in 37 years from spiders.

Australia’s highest mountain (Mount Kosciuszko) and largest city (Sydney) are both named after men who never visited Australia.

Toilets in Australia flush counter clockwise.

Australia is steadily shifting northward at a rate of approximately 2.7 inches per year. This continuous movement has resulted in the country relocating over a distance of more than 5 feet between 1994 and 2023. 

Source Daily Express

Asia

Asia is the largest and most populous of the Earth's seven continents, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres.

The origin of the name is unknown, though it seems probable that it was at first used with a restricted local application, gradually extended to the whole continent.

The original distinction between Europe and Asia was made by the ancient Greeks. They invented Asia and Europe to name the two sides of the Hellespont (now Dardanelles).

Some of the oldest human civilizations began in Asia, such as Sumer, China, and India. Asia was also home to some large empires such as the Persian Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Mongol Empire, and the Ming Empire

Within the continent of Asia, there are 48 generally recognized sovereign states plus two states (Palestine and Taiwan) with substantial, but not general, recognition.

Some countries are variously located in both Europe and Asia. Namely: Cyprus, Georgia, Russia and Turkey.

Asia is the largest of the continents, occupying 30% of the total land surface of the world.

By Koyos + Ssolbergj  Wikipedia

The continental mainland stretches from the southern  end of the Malay Peninsula to Cape Chelyuskin in Siberia. Its westernmost point is Cape Baba in NW Turkey, and its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnev in NE Siberia. The continent’s greatest width from east to west is about 8,500 km (about 5300 mi).

Asia hosts 60% of the world's current human population with a population of around 4.5 billion (as of 2015).

During the 20th century Asia's population nearly quadrupled.

Seven of the ten largest cities in the world are located on the Asian continent.

Less than one-sixth of Asia’s land is arable. In general the basic unit of production is the village rather than the farm. 

Asia contains both the world's highest mountain (Mount Everest 29,118 ft ) and the world's lowest point below sea level (The Dead Sea at -1,293 ft).

The Asian continent has been the birthplace and cradle of all the world’s most prominent religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and many others.

Sources Wikipedia,  Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2011. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.

Antarctica

ANTARCTICA HISTORY

The literal meaning of ‘Antarctica’ is ‘opposite the bear’. The ancient Greeks named the frozen north ‘Arktikos’ after their word for ‘bear’, as the Great Bear (Ursa Major) is above the North Pole.

The first person to explore the southern ice fields was Captain James Cook, who reached 70° 10' South in 1774; the most southerly point to which a ship had ever sailed.

On January 28, 1820 a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic mainland at a point with coordinates 69º21'28"S 2º14'50"W. They managed to twice circumnavigate the continent and disproved Captain Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice fields.

The first American to see Antarctica was 21-year-old seal hunter Captain Nathaniel Palmer on November 17, 1820. His vessel, a diminutive sloop named the Hero, was only 47 feet (14 m) in length. The Palmer Peninsula was later named after him.

Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer (1799-1877), 

Before 1840, the Antarctic was known as Terra Australis Incognita (the unknown southern land). When modern-day Australia stole its name it left the continent nameless until its current name was adopted in the 1890s.

On October 14, 1899, the Norwegian zoologist Nicolai Hansen became the first person to be buried in Antarctica. Hanson was a member of the 1899 Borchgrevink Expedition, the first scientific foray to spend considerable time in the Antarctic, but was taken seriously ill during the voyage from England. At his request was Hanson buried in the mountain section above Cape Adare, where a grave was excavated from the mountain.

Nicolai Hanson

Danish traveler Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on Antarctica on February 20, 1935. She accompanied her Norwegian husband, Captain Klarius Mikkelsen, on an expedition, which made landfall at the Vestfold Hills near the present Davis Station. Mikkelsen left the ship and participated in building a memorial cairn. A mountain, Mount Caroline Mikkelsen, is named after her.

Picture below shows Caroline Mikkelsen raising the flag of Norway at a cairn on the Ingrid Christensen Coast of Antarctica

In 1958 Vivien Fuchs, leading the British Commonwealth Expedition, became the first to cross Antarctica.

The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, came into force on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–58 (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.) These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations at that stage.

Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen of Norway was born in Grytviken on the island territory of South Georgia on October 8, 1913. She was the first person born South of the Antarctic Convergence, Solveig also had claims to be the actual first Antarctica birth as that territory is sometimes considered part of Antarctica.

Solveig Jacobsen standing with her dog on the Grytviken flensing plan in 1916

The first person born on Antarctica itself was Emilio Marcos Palma of Argentina on January 7, 1978. He was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and weighed 3.4 kg (7 lb 8 oz). His father, Captain Jorge Emilio Palma, was head of the Argentine army detachment at the base.

The southern pole of inaccessibility is the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from the Southern Ocean. A four-man team, using only skis and kites, completed a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1967 on January 19, 2007. It was also the first time ever the feat had been achieved without mechanical assistance.

The old Soviet Pole of Inaccessibility Station.19 January 2007. By Cookson69 

FUN ANTARCTICA FACTS

If Antarctica were to melt, the sea level would rise by 60 metres.

Antarctica is almost 1.5 times the size of the United States.

Antarctica occupies 10% of the world's surface.

A satellite composite image of Antarctica.

Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice, representing nearly three-quarters of its fresh water.

98% of Antarctica is covered by ice which is a mile thick.

There is about eight times as much ice in Antarctica as in the Arctic.

Antarctica's most abundant land animal is the nematode worm.

Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

The Antarctic midge is endemic to Antarctica. At 0.079–0.236 inches long, it is the largest purely terrestrial animal on the continent, as well as its only insect.

Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.

Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.

Mount Jackson with an elevation of 3,184 metres (10,446 ft) is the highest mountain in the Antarctic Peninsula.

There is a waterfall that pours slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley that runs as red as blood.

It has no permanent residents and no indigenous inhabitants; settlement is limited to scientific research stations with a population of Antarctica that varies from approximately 4,400 in summer to 1,100 in winter. This population is spread across approximately 40 year-round stations and a range of summer-only stations, camps, and refuges.

Every year at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, after the last airplane has left for the winter, the remaining scientists hold a screening of John Carpenter’s The Thing, which is about a shape-shifting alien that terrorizes scientists trapped at an Antarctic research station. The movie is usually shown in a double-feature with The Shining.

The eight churches in Antarctica serve the population of 4,400.

Antarctica is the only continent where dogs are banned. Being used as sled dogs for exploration until 1992, they were banned over concerns that they would transmit diseases to the seal population.

The driest place on earth is McMurdo dry Valleys in Antarctica where it hasn't rained for two million years. Only anaerobic bacteria are able to survive in the extreme conditions. Scientists also consider the area terrestrially closest to Mars on earth.

Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth, with a mean annual temperature at the South Pole of -49°C/-56°F.

A temperature of -89°C/-128°F was recorded in Antarctica at the Russian base Vostok on July 21, 1983. It is the lowest ever temperature in an inhabited location.

The Russian station Vostok

The warmest reliably measured temperature ever recorded on the Antarctic continent was 18.3 °C (64.9 °F) set at at Esperanza Base, on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula on February 6, 2020 - around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. 

There is an exclusive club in Antarctica called Club 300. In order to become a member one have to warm themselves in a 200 degree sauna, and then run outside naked and touch the Ceremonial South Pole where it's 100 degrees below.

Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Daily Express