Sharon Lee, age 14, of Concord, N.H., for her question:
HOW LONG HAS GREENLAND BELONGED TO DENMARK?
Greenland, at one point only 10 miles from northeastern Canada, is the largest island in the world. In 1933, the World Court upheld Denmark's claim to all of Greenland, and it is today a province of that Scandinavian country.
Norwegian Vikings are believed to have discovered what is now Greenland about A.D. 875. A Viking named Eric the Red brought a group of settlers from Iceland in about 985 and the Greenland colony quickly grew to more than 3,000 persons.
The people of Greenland voted to join Norway in 1261. Then Norway united with Denmark in 1380 and Greenland came under Danish rule.
Serious colonization of Greenland started in 1721. Then when the union between Denmark and Norway ended in 1814, Greenland remained with Denmark.
Many Danish scientific expeditions studied Greenland during the 1800s and early 1900s. During much of this time Norway attempted to claim Greenland, but this was resolved in Denmark's favor in 1933.
Greenland is over three times as large as Texas and it is longer than the distance from New York City to Denver. It lies about 1,300 miles away from Denmark and is 50 times larger than Denmark. The mother country has 90 times as many people as Greenland, however.
Most of Greenland lies north of the Arctic Circle and thick ice covers about 85 percent of the island. Almost all of the Greenlanders live on the southwestern coast, the warmest region on the island. July temperatures there average 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter temperature in this area average 18 degrees Fahrenheit.
The coldest winter temperature recorded in northern Greenland was minus 88 degrees.
Catching and processing fish employ more than a third of Greenland's people. Cod is the leading catch but also important are halibut, salmon and shrimp.
In 1953, a new Danish constitution changed Greenland from a colony to a province. It gave Greenland equal rights with the rest of the Danish kingdom.
In 1966, the Bank of Greenland was established. It was the first bank founded on the island. Also in 1966, Denmark started a 10 year $600 million program to expand and modernize Greenland's fishing industry, education and housing. In addition, Denmark started to train Greenlanders to take over local administrative and technical jobs held by Danes.
Greenland's bitter climate makes farming impossible except in some southwestern coastal areas. Agriculture there is limited chiefly to sheep raising. Small crops of hay, potatoes and vegetables are grown during the short summer.
Some low trees grow in Greenland but the island has no forests.
Greenland has some deposits of coal, cryolite, graphite, lead, uranium and zinc. But most of the deposits are of poor quality.
There is controlled hunting of seals, arctic hares, foxes, polar bears and reindeer.