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Countries and territories where English is an official language

  • TanzaniaA 1.8-million-year-old stone chopping tool sits on display at the British Museum, recovered from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
  • United KingdomStonehenge in Wiltshire stands as a ring of stones, each about 13 feet high and weighing 25 tonnes. These massive structures were erected between 2400 BC and…
  • The BahamasChristopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World on the 12th of October 1492 when he landed on an island he named San Salvador.
  • Marshall IslandsRadiocarbon dating suggests that Bikini Atoll may have been inhabited as early as 1200 BCE. Archaeological digs on other atolls found evidence of human…
  • TuvaluThree thousand years ago, Polynesians began a great migration across the Pacific Ocean. They arrived in what is now Tuvalu using double-hulled sailing canoes…
  • Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands sit in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They form an archipelago divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick…
  • GrenadaChristopher Columbus sighted the island of Grenada during his third voyage to the Americas in 1498. He named it La Concepción in honour of the Virgin Mary.
  • Saint LuciaArchaeological evidence places the first proven inhabitants of Saint Lucia, the Arawak people, on the island between 200 and 400 CE.
  • DominicaDominica first emerged from the sea during the Oligocene Epoch approximately 27 million years ago. It stands as one of the last Caribbean islands to be…
  • Saint Kitts and NevisThe Kalinago people called the island Liamuiga, which translates to fertile land. They arrived around 1300 CE and displaced earlier agricultural societies…
  • MauritiusIn 1507, Portuguese sailors blown off course from their route to India via the Mozambique channel landed on an uninhabited island.
  • American SamoaAmerican Samoa sits fourteen degrees below the equator, making it the southernmost territory of the United States. The land area covers slightly more than…
  • BermudaIn 1505, a Spanish explorer named Juan de Bermúdez sighted the islands that would bear his name. The first written record appeared in 1511 within Pedro…
  • Federated States of MicronesiaThe Federated States of Micronesia stretches across 2,900 kilometers of the western Pacific Ocean. This island nation comprises 607 individual islands and…
  • GuamAround 1500 to 1400 BC, migrants from the Philippines arrived on Guam and began a long journey of settlement. These people were part of the Austronesian…
  • Isle of ManThe first human footprints on the Isle of Man appeared before 6500 BC. Hunter-gatherers and fishermen arrived by sea when rising waters cut the island from…
  • ÍndiaModern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent no later than 55,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest places outside Africa where Homo sapiens…
  • United States Virgin IslandsChristopher Columbus sighted the islands on his second voyage in 1493. He named them Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes after a legend about Saint Ursula…
  • KenyaIn 1984, paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey and his assistant Kamoya Kimeu uncovered the Turkana Boy fossil at Lake Turkana.
  • Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands sit in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand. Fifteen islands spread across a vast stretch of water form this nation.
  • MaltaThe Maltese archipelago has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, during the Mesolithic period. Archaeological discoveries at Latnija Cave by researcher…
  • Puerto RicoIn 1493, Christopher Columbus arrived on the island he named San Juan Bautista. The Taíno people had already lived there for centuries before his arrival.
  • SudanSūdan was not merely a scribe who recorded history from a safe distance but a man who stood shoulder to shoulder with Maharaja Suraj Mal during the most…
  • AustraliaThe Madjedbebe rock shelter in Arnhem Land holds evidence of human presence dating back 50,000 to 65,000 years. This site marks one of the earliest known…
  • GuyanaThe name Guyana comes from an indigenous Amerindian language and means land of many waters. This vast territory lies between latitudes 1° and 9°N, and…
  • Saint HelenaOn the 21st of May 1502, a Galician navigator named João da Nova sighted an island in the South Atlantic Ocean while returning to Lisbon.
  • CanadaIn 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the shores of Gaspé Bay and declared possession of New France in the name of King Francis I.
  • JamaicaChristopher Columbus first set foot on the island in 1494 during his second voyage to the Americas. He claimed the land for Spain and named it Santiago.
  • Hong KongOn the 26th of January 1841, British forces began controlling Hong Kong Island following the Convention of Chuenpi. The Qing dynasty had surrendered early in…
  • PakistanIn the Soan Valley of northern Pakistan, stone tools dating to approximately 2 million years ago mark some of the earliest human activity in South Asia.
  • Solomon IslandsArchaeological evidence from Kilu Cave on Buka Island reveals human presence in the Solomon Islands between 30,000 and 28,000 BC.
  • New ZealandThe South Island rises sharply along the Southern Alps, a mountain range formed by compression of the crust beside the Alpine Fault.
  • Commonwealth of NationsOn the 18th of January 1884, Lord Rosebery stood in Adelaide, South Australia, and described the changing British Empire as a "Commonwealth of Nations".
  • SingaporeIn 1365, the Javanese eulogy Nagarakretagama recorded a place called Temasek, meaning Sea Town, as a trading port under the influence of the Majapahit Empire.
  • EnglandThe name England derives from the Angles, a Germanic tribe that settled in Great Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries.
  • WalesThe name Wales derives from an Old English root that referred to the Gauls known to the Romans as Walha. Anglo-Saxon settlers used this term to describe…
  • United StatesPaleo-Indians first migrated from North Asia to North America at least 15,000 years ago. They crossed the Bering land bridge or followed submerged Ice Age…
  • ScotlandThe earliest known evidence of human presence in Scotland dates to the Bølling, Allerød Interstadial warm period, approximately 14,500 to 14,000 years ago.
  • PhilippinesThe first human bones found in the Philippines date back 709,000 years to a site now known as Callao Cave. These remains suggest an unknown species of early…
  • South AfricaArchaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area, known as the Cradle of Humankind, is a UNESCO…
  • NigeriaOn the 8th of January 1897, a British journalist named Flora Shaw coined the name Nigeria for the territory along the Niger River.
  • IndiaModern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as…
  • Northern IrelandOn the 3rd of May 1921, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 came into force and officially created Northern Ireland. This legislation divided the island of…