On the lower and drier islands the vegetation before human colonization consisted of savanna or steppe vegetation, with the flattest inland portion supporting semi-desert plants.

On the higher islands and somewhat wetter islands, exclusively in mountainous areas, like Santo Antao island, the climate is suitable for the development of dry monsoon forest, and laurel forest as this vegetation is believed to have been present in the past.

On September 28, 1995 Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries took over the Comoros islands in a coup ( named operation Kaskari by the mercenaries ) against President Djohar.

On the map of Ptolemy, the " Kimbroi " are placed on the northernmost part of the peninsula of Jutland., i. e. in the modern landscape of Himmerland south of Limfjorden ( since Vendsyssel-Thy north of the fjord was at that time a group of islands ).

On 11 June 1980, the United States signed a treaty with the Cook Islands specifying the maritime border between the Cook Islands and American Samoa and also relinquishing its claim to the islands of Penrhyn, Pukapuka, Manihiki, and Rakahanga.

On 20 May 1776 the British forces under the command of Lt. Clayton formally took their leave of Port Egmont, while leaving a plaque asserting Britain's continuing sovereignty over the islands.

On 12 December 1992, an earthquake measuring 7. 8 on the Richter scale occurred, killing 2, 500 people in and around Maumere, including islands off the North coast.

On 9 May 2008, the Falkland Islands Government asserted that the minefields which represent 0. 1 % of the available farmland on the islands " present no long term social or economic difficulties for the Falklands " and that the impact of clearing the mines would cause more problems than containing them.

On the other side, Sweden aimed to take over the Åland islands from Finland by sending a naval military expedition there on 15 February 1918.

On Monday 23 December 2011, in an interview on Turkish newspaper BirGün discussing secret budgets, former Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz admitted that Turkish secret agents intentionally started forest fires in Greece between 1995 and 1997 during the Prime Ministership of Tansu Ciller as part of state-sponsored sabotage, resulting in huge damage caused by major forest fires on the islands of the eastern Aegean and in Macedonia.

* On 21 September 1998, Hurricane Georges pounded the islands causing moderate damage and destroying 90 % of the banana crop.

* On 20 September 1998, Hurricane Georges pounded the islands, decimated the banana crops at nearly 100 %.

On some islands, major rivers provide a key transportation link in the absence of good roads.

On 27 February 2010, a tsunami caused by the 8. 8 magnitude earthquake off Maule, struck the islands, causing at least 8 deaths.

On oceanic islands ( where mammals are often scarce ), small birds – mainly passerine – may make up the bulk of its diet while elsewhere birds are only important food during a few weeks each summer when unexperienced fledglings abound.

On 30 November 1967, Lord Caradon, the British Ambassador to the United Nations, announced that in accordance with the wishes of the local inhabitants, the islands would be returned to Muscat and Oman, despite criticism from President Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi that the islands should be transferred to the People's Republic of South Yemen.

On these islands, it shares some of the same cliff habitat as the Black-legged Kittiwake, though there is some localized segregation between the species on given cliffs.

On 20 September 1979, representatives of the United States and Kiribati met on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts group of Kiribati, and signed a treaty of friendship between their two nations ( commonly referred to as the Treaty of Tarawa of 1979 ) by which the United States recognized Kiribati's sovereignty over Malden and thirteen other islands in the Line and Phoenix Islands groups.

On October 1, he found another group of islands where he went ashore for eight days, exchanged gifts with natives and took on water.

On March 27, 1933, Japan left the League of Nations, but continued to manage the islands, and in the late 1930s began building air bases on several atolls.

On one of these islands is Mozambique, and immediately north of that port is Conducia Bay.

On 21 June 1898, the American executives of the Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church expressed their desire to join other Protestant denominations in starting mission work in the islands and to enter into any comity agreement that would facilitate the establishment of such mission.

On the Danish flag, the cross design, which represents Christianity, was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries ; Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Åland Islands and the Faroe Islands, as well as the Scottish archipelagos of Shetland and Orkney.

On the basis of the author's beliefs as to whom Duncan married, various places of exile, Northumbria and Orkney among them, have been proposed.

On 12 May the Queen created him Duke of Orkney, and he married Mary in the Great Hall at Holyrood on 15 May 1567, according to Protestant rites officiated by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney.

On the Caithness ( southern ) side the Firth extends from Dunnet Head in the west to Duncansby Head in the east, while on the Orkney ( northern ) side from Tor Ness on Hoy in the west to Old Head on South Ronaldsay in the east.

On television, however, Mackay often stayed true to his Scottish roots, acting in productions such as Three Tales of Orkney and The Master of Ballantrae.

On Orkney Scotland, sea eagle bones have been found in 6000 year old burial mounds, suggesting that the birds were revered by the prehistoric people there, a belief strengthened by the Pictish stone carvings of sea eagles from Orkney.

On 2 August the same year, at Marstrand near Tønsberg, Haakon invested and confirmed the title of Earl of Orkney upon Henry Sinclair, Baron of Roslin ( a grandson of Maol Íosa V, Earl of Strathearn ) over the rival claim of Sinclair's cousin, Malise Sparre.

On leaving the Commons, he was created a life peer as Baron Grimond, of Firth in the County of Orkney.

On the 8th September 2006 the jack-up barge Octopus ran aground on an uncharted seamount within the Orkney Islands ( United Kingdom ) whilst being towed by the Harold tug.

On 2 August 1379, at Marstrand, near Tønsberg, Norway, King Haakon VI of Norway invested and confirmed Sinclair as the Norwegian Earl of Orkney over a rival claim by his cousin Malise Sparre.

On the north coast there is granite-schist, a great rarity in Orkney.

On 10 April, the Fleet Air Arm made a long range attack from their base at Hatston in the Orkney Islands against German warships in Bergen harbour.

On May 16, 2008 it was finally announced that the long anticipated purchase of Highland Country Buses ( and Orkney Coaches Ltd ) by Stagecoach Group had been finalised.

On May 16, 2008, it was finally announced that the long anticipated purchase of Highland Country Buses ( and Orkney Coaches Ltd ) by Stagecoach Group had been finalised.

On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast.

On 19 June 1992, he was consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Aberdeen.

Hugh MacDiarmid, the Scots poet and writer lived in Whalsay from the mid-1930s through 1942, and wrote many poems there, including a number that directly address or reflect the Shetland environment such as " On A Raised Beach ", which was inspired by a visit to West Linga.

On the longest day in Shetland there are over 19 hours of daylight and complete darkness is unknown.

On January 1 a former parliamentary candidate and a party activist in the Shetland Islands Brian Nugent announced that he was forming his own pro-independence party, the " Scottish Party " ( which eventually relaunched itself as the Free Scotland Party ) in response to what he perceived to be an overly pro-European Union stance by the SNP.

On that voyage — which took him to the Grand Banks, the Irish coast, the Shetland Islands, and the Faroe Islands — he took 14 prizes.

On 26 October 1943 the US Navy officially transferred three submarine chasers to the Shetland Bus operation.

On 8 November 1941, Larsen sailed from Shetland on his first tour as skipper.

On their return to Shetland, they ran into a storm, and one man, Karsten Sangolt, was blown overboard and drowned.

* Trygve Sørvaag, Shetland Bus: Faces and Places 60 Years On ( 2002 )

On March 2, 2002, a Scottish man was killed in an accident aboard the drilling rig Transocean Leader operated for BP, located about 86 miles west of Shetland, Scotland.

On top of Mousa broch, Shetland, UK

On the Shetland Islands, Simon King followed a family of otters and a host of birds: puffins, great skuas, oystercatchers, merlins and red-throated divers.