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Hannes Hafstein, first Prime Minister of Iceland and the first Icelander to be appointed to the Danish Cabinet as the Minister for Iceland. In 1874, a thousand years after the first acknowledged settlement, Denmark granted Iceland a constitution and limited home rule over domestic matters, which was expanded in 1904.
[citation needed] First women's secondary school Kvennaskólinn í Reykjavík is founded by Thora Melsted. 1874: The King of Denmark visits Iceland and grants Icelanders a constitution. 1000 years of settlement celebrated throughout the country. [citation needed] 1875: First session of the restored Althing which has the power to pass laws.
Written sources consider the age of settlement in Iceland to have begun with settlement by Ingólfr Arnarson around 874, for he was the first to sail to Iceland with the purpose of settling the land. Archaeological evidence shows that extensive human settlement of the island indeed began at this time, and "that the whole country was occupied ...
The ridge marks the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, and Iceland was created by rifting and accretion through volcanism along the ridge. [71] Many fjords punctuate Iceland's 4,970-kilometre-long (3,090 mi) coastline, which is also where most settlements are situated.
The first Bishop of Skalholt was Ísleifur Gissurarson, who was elected by the Althing in 1056. After his son Gissur was installed as bishop, the power and wealth of the church quickly grew due to the introduction of tithing, the first tax introduced in Iceland. The church became the second unifying institution in the country after the Althing.
Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript, describes in considerable detail the settlement of Iceland (Icelandic: landnám) by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries. According to the Landnámabók , Iceland was discovered by Naddodd, who was sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands, but got lost and drifted to the east coast of Iceland.
Consul Gerlach opened, protested against the invasion, and reminded the British that Iceland was a neutral country. He was reminded, in turn, that Denmark had also been a neutral country. [45] The British discovered a fire upstairs in the building and found a pile of documents burning in the consul's bathtub.
However, Hitler revisited the idea of invading Iceland in 1942, reacting angrily when it was discovered that the Allies had constructed air bases on the island after he had been assured that this was not possible. Hitler proposed deploying special forces to raid the island, though this idea was not developed further. [7]