Christopher Columbus founded in 1494 a small fort in the region known by the Taíno people as Bonao. The fort was built to protect the gold mines around Maimón and other places. But there was not much gold in the region and the fort was soon left without people.
The town was founded again during the early years of the 19th century but at about to the north of the old place, closer to the River Yuna. The new town had the name "Yuna" was soon was changed to the old one: "Bonao". It was also called "El Bonao" (English: "The Bonao") but the article "El" (English: "The") was left out during the first years of the 20th century and it is never used now.
The new small town was made a "Puesto Cantonal" (and old category, like a "Military Post") in 1859 and then a municipality of La Vega province in 1865.
In 1936, its name was changed to "Monseñor Meriño" after the Archbishop Adolfo A. Nouel, past president of the country. In 1960, it got is old name of Bonao.
Bonao is in the Bonao Valley in the centre of the Dominican Republic. It has a total area of . It has five municipal districts (a municipal district is a subdivision of a municipality); these are Arroyo Toro-Masipedro, Jayaco, Juma Bejucal, La Salvia-Los Quemados and Sabana del Puerto.
The altitude of the city of Bonao is above sea level.
The municipality of Bonao has the La Vega province to the north and to the west, the Sánchez Ramírez province to the east, the municipality of Maimón to the southeast, the municipality of Piedra Blanc to the south and the province of San José de Ocoa province to the southwest.
The city is near the River Yuna, one of the most important river of the Hispaniola island; the sources of the river are on the eastern side of the "Cordillera Central" ("Central mountain range"). It flows through the Bonao Valley and then through the Cibao Valley and into the Samaná Bay.
There are other smaller rivers near Bonao, tributaries of the River Yuna.
Bonao has a tropical wet climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: Af) with no dry or cold season as it is constantly moist (rainfalls during the whole year).
The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with of rainfall, followed by October with .
The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of followed by February with an average of .
The municipality of Bonao has five municipal districts:
Farming is very important around the city; it is one of main regions of the country where rice is grown.
Mining is also important here; nickel is mined in a mountain close to the city by the Falconbridge, a Canadian company.
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an expedition by Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) and William Clark (1770–1838), two men chosen by United States President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase, which the country had just bought from France. (This land was made up of much of what is now the Central and Western United States). They left Saint Louis in 1804, leading a group of 33 people. The group reached the Pacific in 1806, viewing much of the West on the way and writing down what they saw. Along the way, the group was joined by a Shoshone Native American woman named Sacagawea, who helped guide them. After their exploration, Lewis became Governor of Louisiana Territory, and Clark became Governor of Missouri Territory. The only person that died on the trip was Sergeant Charles Floyd who died August 20, 1804 of Dysentery.
Baia Mare
Baia Mare is a municipality in the northwestern part of Romania. It is the seat of Maramureş County. 137,921 people were living in Baia Mare as of 2002.
Cyanide Spill of 2000: An hour before midnight on January 30, 2000, a dam holding back water in a settling area for the Baia Mare gold mine burst, spilling its contents into the Somes river, and subsequently into the Tisza river. The spill resulted in the release of at least 100,000 cubic meters of water containing high concentrations of cyanide, as well as heavy metals such as copper, zinc and lead. Cyanide is used to purify gold from rocks, and the water contained concentrations that exceeded the 'heavily polluted' threshold by 40 to 160 times. Zinc concentration was twice the acceptable standard, and lead concentration was 5 to 9 times greater. Rumanian authorities were quickly notified of the spill and immediately raised an alarm that prevented the loss of any human life. However, the spill killed all aquatic plant and animal life for dozens of miles downstream. On February 12, the toxic water flowed into the Danube, which receives water from the Tisza, carrying its impact into Hungary and Serbia, as well. Inhabitants of Belgrade witnessed a Danube with dead fish floating on the surface. Up to 100 people, most of them children, were treated after eating fish contaminated by the heavy chemicals. The Rumanian media entitled this environmental disaster ‘the largest since Chernobyl’.
Baia Mare has the following towns as its 'sister cities':
Umm Kulthum
Umm Kulthum (May 4, 1904 – February 3, 1975). She was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and actress. She was born in Tamay ez-Zahayra. She is a famous and distinguished singer of the 20th century in the Arab world.
Craig Parker
Craig Parker was born 12 November, 1970 in Suva, Fiji. He is a New Zealand actor who played Guy Warner in "Shortland Street".
Moon landing conspiracy theories
The moon landing conspiracy theories (also known as moon landing hoax or Apollo hoax) are beliefs that men did not land on the Moon in 1969–1972 during the Apollo program and that NASA faked the information. Some conspiracy theorists believe the Skylab space station is also a hoax.
This belief is considered by the scientific community and historians to be irrational. But on the internet, the debate can occur since it is easy for anyone to publish their ideas. There are subcultures within the USA and cultures around the world that believe that the Moon landings were faked. This view is claimed to have been taught in Cuban schools and wherever else Cuban teachers are sent (Nicaragua, Angola). It is also shared by the Taliban and by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
On 12 April 1961, the USSR sent the first man into space in Vostok 1, Yuri Gagarin. Six weeks later, US President John Kennedy promised a manned Moon landing by 1969 to win the battle of systems and impress the world with technical superiority:
Moon conspiracy theorists say that NASA had too many technical problems to meet the eight year deadline for going to the moon. But the USA could not afford to appear lose the race to the moon to the Soviet Union, and so the moon landings were faked. In 2004, President George Bush gave not eight but sixteen years for a manned return to the Moon, even though the technologies for it should have already been developed forty years earlier. In 2010, President Barack Obama canceled this plan, which seemed to the moon conspiracy theorists to be an admission that the USA still does not have the technology to go to the moon.
Doubts about the authenticity of the Apollo Moon landings appeared first in December 1968 when Apollo 8 was launched. The almost perfectly executed odyssey of Apollo 11 amazed many around the world, and some people doubted it was real.
The first book on the subject ("Did man land on the Moon?") was issued in Texas by the mathematician James J. Cranny in 1970.
NASA commented on some of the conspiracy theories in June 1977. But in August 1997, their Director of Media Services (1998–2000) Brian Welch (1958–2000) said in an interview with Sky TV News:
When Fox TV aired Bruce Nash's film "Conspiracy theory: Did we land on the Moon?" in 2001, NASA released hoax theory rebuttal materials on their web and FTP sites. They also wrote suggestions for science teachers on how to refute the hoax claims using the Lunar Sample Disk Kits.