curve on the Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line in Logan
Township, Blair County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is close
to 1,300 feet (400 m) in diameter and has a grade of almost
two percent. As a train travels west from Altoona, it ascends almost 60
feet (20 m) in the 0.66-mile (1.06 km) segment that makes up the curve
and rotates 220 degrees. The curve was completed in 1854 by the
Pennsylvania Railroad as a means of lessening the grade to the summit of
the Allegheny Mountains by increasing the distance. It was built as
alternative to the time-consuming Allegheny Portage Railroad, the only
other method of traversing the mountains. It has formed an important
part of the region's transportation infrastructure since its opening,
and during World War II was targeted by Nazi Germany in 1942 as a part
of Operation Pastorius. Horseshoe Curve was added to the National
Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Civil Engineering
Landmark in 2004.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Curve_(Pennsylvania)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1954:
Great Britain defeated France at the Parc des Princes in Paris
to win the first Rugby League World Cup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_World_Cup>
1982:
South Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim suffered fatal brain injuries
during a match with American Ray Mancini near Las Vegas' Caesars Palace,
leading to significant rule changes in the sport.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Koo_Kim>
1985:
The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a volcanic
mudslide that buried the town of Armero, Colombia, and killed
approximately 23,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armero_tragedy>
1990:
A man began shooting people indiscriminately in Aramoana, New
Zealand, killing thirteen people in the country's deadliest criminal
shooting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre>
2007:
An explosion hit the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City,
the Philippines, killing Congressman Wahab Akbar and at least four
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batasang_Pambansa_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Streisand effect:
A phenomenon in which attempting to suppress an item of information
attracts additional unwanted attention to it, thus furthering the
spreading of the information.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Streisand_effect>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I do not fear but that He will go on to supply what is yet wanting when
once I have begun to use what He has already given. For a possession
which is not diminished by being shared with there, if it is possessed
and not shared, is not yet possessed as it ought to be possessed.
--Augustine of Hippo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo>
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