Pacific Northwest of North America. The Willamette's main stem is 187
miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the
United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the
Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley,
which contains two-thirds of Oregon's population. The state's largest
city, Portland, surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia. Due to
prolific rainfall in the basin and sediments from the glacial Missoula
Floods, the Willamette Valley is one of the most fertile agricultural
regions in North America, and was thus the destination of many 19th-
century pioneers traveling west along the Oregon Trail. Since 1900, more
than 15 large dams and many smaller ones have been built in the
Willamette's drainage basin. They are used primarily to produce
hydroelectricity, to store water for irrigation, and to prevent
flooding. The river and its tributaries support 60 fish species,
including many species of salmon and trout; this is despite the dams,
other alterations, and pollution (especially on the river's lower
reaches).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_River>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1529:
Sancti Spiritu, the first European settlement in Argentina, was
destroyed by local natives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sancti_Spiritu_(Argentina)>
1774:
Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts
Bay, ordered soldiers to remove gunpowder from a magazine, causing
Patriots to prepare for war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_Alarm>
1880:
The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan was routed by the British at the
Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Afghan_War>
1923:
The Great Kantō earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter
scale, struck the Kantō region of Japan, devastating Tokyo and
Yokohama, and killing over an estimated 100,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake>
1983:
Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean
Air Lines Flight 007 (artist's rendition pictured) near Sakhalin Island
in the North Pacific, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
diaperhood:
(informal) The period of time for which one wears a diaper as a child;
babyhood.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diaperhood>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Why is it when we talk to God we're said to be praying — but
when God talks to us, we're said to be schizophrenic?
--Lily Tomlin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lily_Tomlin>
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