Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc:

States the United States of America/the USA
Kingdom the United Kingdom/the UK
Republic the French Republic

We normally use "the" for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:

canals the Suez Canal
rivers the River Nile, the Nile
seas the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceans the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

We normally use "the" for plural names of people and places:

people (families, for example) the Clintons
countries the Philippines, the United States
island groups the Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain ranges the Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill's birthday.
Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies.
Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurants the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banks the National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatres the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema
museums the British Museum, the National Gallery
buildings the White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapers the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post
organisations the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":

the Tower of London
the Gulf of Siam
the Tropic of Cancer
the London School of Economics
the Bank of France
the Statue of Liberty