Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Mid-Atlantic Ridge and adjacent plates. Volcanoes indicated in red.. In geological terms, Iceland is a young island. It started to form in the Miocene era about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it lies between the North American Plate and Eurasian Plate.
The Icelandic Commonwealth, [a] also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing (Icelandic: Alþingi) in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262.
A doublet earthquake strikes southern Iceland with a composite magnitude of 6.1 M W. [39] September: Iceland faces financial crisis following the collapse of the country's three major commercial banks. [citation needed] 2009: 26 January: After months of rallies outside the parliament building, the Icelandic government resigns. [citation needed ...
The union between Denmark and Norway, ignoring some shorter periods, lasted until 1814, when Norway briefly gained independence, and Iceland became an integral part of Denmark until 1918, when Iceland was recognised as a fully sovereign state in personal union with Denmark under a common monarch, on 1 December that same year. [citation needed]
The oldest known source which mentions the name "Iceland" is an eleventh-century rune carving from Gotland. There is a possible early mention of Iceland in the book De mensura orbis terrae by the Irish monk Dicuil, dating to 825. [9] Dicuil claimed to have met some monks who had lived on the island of Thule. They said that darkness reigned ...
Hannes Hafstein served as the first minister of Iceland from 31 January 1904 until 31 March 1909. The Act of Union, signed on 1 December 1918 by Icelandic and Danish authorities, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state (the Kingdom of Iceland), joined with Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. Iceland established its own flag ...
Because of the Kalmar Union, Iceland had been under the control of the Crown of Denmark since 1380, [4] although formally it had been a Norwegian possession until 1814. [5] In 1874, one thousand years after the first acknowledged settlement, Denmark granted Iceland home rule. The constitution, written the same year, was revised in 1903 and the ...
Memorial at the place of execution of Catholic bishop Jón Arason, in Skálholt in southern Iceland. The Icelandic Reformation took place in the middle of the 16th century. Iceland was at this time a territory ruled by Denmark-Norway, and Lutheran religious reform was imposed on the Icelanders by King Christian III of Denmark.