state of Alabama. The city is known for
its role in both the American CivilWar
and the civil rights movement. Many
people in the city work for the government
or in trade, health care, and other
service industries.
Montgomery was founded in 1819. It
became the capital of Alabama in 1847.
In 1860 and 1861 the Southern states,
including Alabama, broke away from
the United States. Just before the
American Civil War began in 1861,
The government of Uruguay works in buildings
in Montevideo, the country’s capital.
176 Montevideo BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
leaders of those Southern states met in
Montgomery. There they formed a new
government called the Confederate
States of America. Montgomery was the
capital of the Confederacy for a few
months.
The civil rights leader Martin Luther
King, Jr., was a minister in Montgomery
in the mid-1900s. In 1955 a black
woman from the city named Rosa Parks
refused to give up her bus seat to a white
passenger. She was arrested for this.
King then led a protest in which people
refused to use the city’s buses. In 1965
King led another civil rights protest in
the city. It was a march from Selma,
Alabama, to Montgomery.
..More to explore
Alabama • Civil Rights Movement
• Confederate States of America • King,
Martin Luther, Jr. • Parks, Rosa
Montpelier
Population
(2000 census)
8,035; (2007
estimate) 7,806
Montpelier is the capital of the U.S.
state of Vermont. The city lies on the
Winooski River in the wooded hills of
the Green Mountains. It has the smallest
population of all the state capitals in the
United States.
Many people in Montpelier work for
the government. The headquarters of
several insurance companies are in the
city. Tourism and other service
industries are also important to the
city’s economy.
In 2005 people in Montgomery, Alabama,
honored the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery
bus boycott. During the boycott
people refused to ride city buses as a protest
against segregation, or separation of
the races.
The state Capitol in Montpelier, Vermont, is
pictured in autumn.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Montpelier 177
Montpelier was founded in the 1780s.
The first settlers were soldiers who had
fought in the American Revolution. The
first permanent home on the site was
built in 1787. Montpelier was named
the state capital in 1805.
#More to explore
Vermont
Moon
The Moon is a large natural object that
orbits, or travels around, Earth. After
the sun it is the brightest object in the
sky.
The average distance between the Moon
and Earth is about 238,900 miles
(384,400 kilometers). Compared to the
distance between other planets and
Earth, this distance is small. In fact, the
Moon is close enough to affect the level
of seas on Earth. Every day the seas seem
to rise and fall. This is because of a force
called gravity. The Moon’s gravity pulls
on Earth. It is too weak to affect the
whole planet, but it does make the water
move. This creates tides.
Physical Features
The Moon is slightly more than one
quarter the size of Earth. Its diameter, or
distance through its center, is about
2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers).
The Moon is made mostly of rock. The
surface has thousands of pits called craters.
The craters form when chunks of
rock and metal called meteorites crash
into the Moon. These crashes have covered
the Moon’s surface with rocks and
dust. The Moon also has plains made of
lava that erupted from volcanoes billions
of years ago.
During the daytime, when the Moon
faces the sun, its surface temperature
averages about 225° F (107° C). However,
at night the temperature drops to
about .243° F (.153° C).
Orbit and Spin
Like the planets, the Moon has two
types of movement: orbit and spin. The
Moon orbits Earth. It takes the Moon
The Moon is the most prominent feature in
the night sky.
A view of the near side of the Moon shows
some of its many craters.
178 Moon BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Luna 9, a spacecraft from the Soviet
Union, became the first unmanned craft
to successfully land on the Moon. In
1969 the U.S. Apollo 11 craft carried
the first people—Neil Armstrong and
Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr.—to walk on
the Moon. Ten other astronauts have
walked on the Moon since then.
#More to explore
Earth • Eclipse • Meteor and Meteorite
• Space Exploration • Tide
Moor
In the AD 700s a group of people
invaded Spain. These conquerors were
Arabs (people from Arabia) and Berbers
(a tribe from northern Africa). They
practiced the religion of Islam. The
Arab-Berber invaders soon began marrying
Spanish people. Their descendants
came to be known as the Moors.
The arrival of the Arab-Berber invaders
began 700 years of Islamic power in
Spain. Eventually, however, weak leaders
led to the fall of the Moors. Christian
kingdoms that had formed in the northern
mountain regions took land from
the Moors bit by bit. By 1212 the
Moors controlled only the kingdom of
Granada in southern Spain.
In 1492 Spanish Christians conquered
Granada. The Christians forced Moors
who practiced Islam out of Spain. Moors
who stayed in Spain became Christians,
or they pretended to follow Christianity
while secretly practicing Islam.
Descendants of the Moors who stayed in
