September 29, 2014

Rescue teams searching Japan’s Mount Ontake volcano for missing hikers suspended operations this morning as the volcano continued to shoot gas, ash, and rocks high into the air. The 10,062-foot (3,066-meter) volcano, which is approximately 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Tokyo, erupted unexpectedly on September 27. At least 36 people died in the eruption, and dozens of others were injured. Some 45 people remain missing. While most of the hundreds of hikers on the volcano on Saturday were able to walk down to safety, others were trapped in a suffocating cloud of volcanic gas and debris rolling down the flanks of the mountain.

Magma (molten rock) forms deep underground and rises toward the surface, left, collecting in a magma chamber. As pressure builds, the chamber breaks open and magma rises through a conduit, right. At openings called vents, the magma erupts as gas, lava, and pyroclasts (rock and ash). Layers of erupted lava and pyroclasts make up the body of a stratovolcano, shown here. (WORLD BOOK illustrations by Jay Bensen)

Television images show Mount Ontake’s upper slopes blanketed in ash, and rescuers report that bodies have been found buried in ash up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) deep. The Japan Meteorological Agency predicts further eruptions and warns that volcanic debris will likely continue to fall in a radius of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the peak. The eruption was preceded by several minor earthquakes, which seismologists did not interpret as harbingers of a major event.

Additional World Book articles:

• Ring of Fire
• Geology 1991 (a Back in Time article)
• The Biggest Eruptions on Earth (a special report)

July 25, 2014

Palestinian protests planned as a “day of rage” in the West Bank erupted this morning in violence, with at least five Palestinians killed by Israeli security guards. Palestinians took to the streets, chanting “with our soul and blood, we will redeem Gaza,” to demonstrate their anger at the deaths of more than 800 Palestinians since the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict began on July 8. Sporadic disturbances also broke out in East Jerusalem following prayers on this the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Following an international outcry over yesterday’s missile strike on a United Nations (UN) school in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has increased efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The strike on the UN school, which was being used as a displaced persons shelter in northern Gaza, left 16 people dead and dozens more injured. “Many have been killed–including women and children, as well as UN staff,” declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued to the media. It is yet unclear who was behind the strike. A spokesperson for Hamas condemned it as “Israeli brutal aggression that targeted” Palestinians left homeless by Israeli strikes. The Israeli military suggested that the hit was self-inflicted, noting that rockets from Gaza sometimes fall and explode within Gaza.

A Hamas supporter waves Islamic flags on the roof of the Palestinian Parliament building in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Today in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested Israel's strikes on Gaza. (AP/Wide World)

Simmering tensions among Palestinians in the West Bank have raised the specter of a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Middle East experts note, however, that such uprisings, by their nature, are not planned. “The intifada does not start by a decision and end by a decision,” stated Othman Abu Gharbiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah central committee. Nevertheless, he noted, “no doubt we are passing through a dangerous time.”

The current Israeli-Hamas hostilities began when a Palestinian boy was murdered on July 2 in an apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israeli teenage boys, whose bodies were found in the West Bank on June 30. Besides the Palestinian death toll, 33 Israelis–30 soldiers and 3 civilians, have been killed so far in the conflict.

Additional World Book article:

• Israel 1987 (a Back in Time article)
• Israel 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• Middle East 2007 (a Back in Time article)

May 28, 2014

Maya Angelou, one of America’s most acclaimed writers and poets, has died at age 86. Best known for her autobiographical writings, Angelou drew from the African American storytelling tradition, weaving humor, wisdom, and folk sayings into her work. Her writings celebrated womanhood, the human spirit, and the will to overcome hardship. Angelou was also a civil rights activist, teacher, playwright, and filmmaker. In 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors.

Angelou attracted national recognition with the publication of her first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), a frank recounting of her difficult childhood in the segregated rural South and early career as a cabaret singer and calypso dancer. She later appeared on Broadway and danced with the Alvin Ailey dance company. Angelou continued to record her life in Gather Together in My Name (1974). She followed it with Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting Merry Like Christmas (1976). Other books in the series include The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013).

Maya Angelou (© Steve Dunwell)

Angelou also wrote some 25 volumes of poetry and essays. Her poetry is compiled in The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994). Several of her essays are collected in Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993). Other collections of essays are Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997) and Letter to My Daughter (2008). Angelou was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1994 for her achievement in literature. She also won three Grammy Awards for spoken-word recordings of her poetry and prose

Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis. She spent much of her early life in Stamps, Arkansas. She adopted the name Maya Angelou in 1953.

In 1993, Angelou was invited to read an original poem at  Bill Clinton’s first presidential inauguration. She was only the second poet honored in that way, after Robert Frost in 1961. In her poem, she said, “Yet, today I call you to my riverside,/ If you will study war no more. Come,/ Clad in peace and I will sing the songs/ The Creator gave to me when I and the/ Tree and the stone were one.”

Feb. 13, 2012

Whitney Houston, one of her generation’s greatest rhythm and blues (R&B) singers, died on February 11 in Beverly Hills, California. She was 48 years old. Her spectacular voice spanned three octaves and combined the sweetness of early pop music with the exuberance of gospel and pathos of soul.

All of Ms. Houston’s studio albums sold more than 1 million copies. Her 1985 debut album–”Whitney Houston”–sold more than 10 million copies in the United States alone. The album included three No. 1 singles, including “Saving All My Love for You,” for which Houston won her first Grammy Award, for best female pop vocal performance. Her second album, “Whitney” (1987), was the first album by a woman to enter the Billboard charts at No. 1 and delivered even more hit singles: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go.”

Such success drew the attention of Hollywood, and in 1992, Houston played a pop diva opposite Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. The film’s soundtrack, which included the mega hit “I Will Always Love You,” sold 17 million copies in the United States and won the Grammy for album of the year. “I Will Always Love You,” composed by Dolly Parton, won single record of the year. After two more films, Waiting To Exhale (1995) and The Preacher’s Wife (1996), Houston resumed her pop career with another hit studio album, “My Love Is Your Love” in 1998, after which her career went into decline.

Whitney Houston was born on Aug. 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother, Cissy Houston, was a gospel and pop singer who backed up Aretha Franklin, and Ms. Franklin was Houston’s godmother. Houston’s cousins included singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. As a child, Whitney Houston sang in a church choir. Before becoming a star with her debut album,  she worked as a backup studio singer for Chaka Khan, Lou Rawls, and Teddy Pendergrass among others.

In 1992, Houston married R&B singer Bobby Brown. The following year, she gave birth to a daughter, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, who survives her. The marriage was troubled, and Houston and Brown divorced in 2007.

Whitney Houston is often cited as one of the most honored female performers of all time. She won 2 Emmy Awards, 6 Grammy Awards, 22 American Music Awards, and 30 Billboard Awards. Her albums, singles, and videos sold more than 170 million copies worldwide.

Additional World Book articles:

• Popular music
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
• Rock music