http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Yellowknife
Yellowknife (pronounced /ˈjɛloʊnaɪf/) (
2006 population: 18,700[1]) is the capital of the
Northwest Territories (
NWT),
Canada. It is located on the north shore of
Great Slave Lake, approximately 400 km (250 mi) south of the
Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the
Yellowknife River. Yellowknife and its surrounding water bodies were named after the local
Yellowknives Dene First Nation, who made tools from regional copper deposits. The current population is ethnically mixed. Of the eleven official languages of the Northwest Territories, five are spoken in significant numbers in Yellowknife:
Dene Suline,
Dogrib,
South and
North Slavey,
English, and
French. In the Dogrib language, the city is known as
Somba K'e ("where the money is")
In 1978 the
Soviet nuclear-powered satellite
Cosmos 954 crashed to
Earth near Yellowknife. There were no known casualties, although a small quantity of radioactive nuclear fuel was released into the environment, and
Operation Morning Light—an attempt to retrieve it—was only partially successful.[13] A new mining rush and fourth building boom for Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds
300 km (190 mi) north of the city in
1991.[14] The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004.
Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On
April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of
Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of
Canada was transferred to the new capital city of
Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the
Canadian capital city with the smallest population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Morning_Light
Kosmos 954 (
Russian: Космос 954 meaning Cosmos 954) was a Soviet
Radar Ocean Reconnaissance
Satellite (
RORSAT) with an onboard nuclear reactor.[
1][2] The satellite's reactor core failed to separate and boost into a nuclear-safe orbit, and instead remained on board in an orbit that decayed until the satellite reentered
Earth's atmosphere (the
USSR informing the US in secret meetings) on
January 24, 1978 at 11:53 AM
GMT.
The USSR claimed that the satellite had been completely destroyed during re-entry. Subsequent recovery efforts, named Operation Morning Light, by a joint American-Canadian team swept the area by foot and air in
Phase I from January 24, 1978 to April 20, 1978 and
Phase II from April 21, 1978 to
October 15, 1978.
For these recovery efforts, the
Canadian government billed the
Soviet Union $6,
041,174.70 for actual expenses and additional compensation for future unpredicted expenses; the
U.S.S.R. eventually paid the sum of three million
Canadian dollars.
Liability Convention, regarding impacting artificial satellites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Wales_Northern_Heritage_Centre
The concept for the PWNHC was originally established in
1971, as a result of concern over the loss of northern artifacts and collections, and the need to provide museum services and support throughout the Northwest Territories. In
1972, a program calling for the development of museum services in the NWT received official approval from the
Government of the Northwest Territories. On April 16,
1979,
His Royal Highness,
The Prince Charles,
Prince of Wales, officiated at the opening of the facility that bears his name.
- published: 30 Apr 2010
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