In the News, 2021: NORTH AMERICA

VALUE of trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2019, the year Mexico became America’s top trading partner, surpassing China.

_{Source: Forbes}

Construction of the Panama Canal (above), which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the narrow land in Panama, took 32 years. France began the project in 1882 and later abandoned it because tropical diseases were killing so many workers, most of whom came from the Caribbean. The U.S. took control of the project in 1904 and finished the canal in 1914.

The Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest mountains on the planet, older even than the North American continent.

_{Source: New World Encyclopedia}

The current 50-star version of the U.S. flag was designed in 1958 by a high school student, a 17-year-old sophomore from Ohio.

_{Source: Ohio History Central}