Busch Gardens Tampa amusement park in Tampa, Florida. Manufactured by
Intaride, a subsidiary of Intamin, the ride is North America's tallest
freestanding drop tower, at a maximum height of 335 feet (102 m). It is
also the first drop tower to use 90-degree tilting seats, facing riders
straight down through five seconds of free fall. They reach a speed of
60 miles per hour (100 km/h) before rotating back into a vertical
position and decelerating at about 3.5 Gs. The ride's name is meant to
suggest a falcon's ability to dive steeply at high speed to capture
prey. Due to the height of the attraction, approval from the Federal
Aviation Administration was required. Construction was delayed until
2013, and the opening date was also delayed by mechanical and technical
issues. Falcon's Fury opened to park employees in August before a soft
opening on August 16, 2014, and an official opening on September 2,
2014.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon%27s_Fury>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
475:
Basiliscus became Byzantine Emperor after Zeno was forced to
flee Constantinople.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basiliscus>
1816:
Inventor Humphry Davy first tested his Davy lamp (examples
pictured), a safety lamp containing a candle for use in coal mines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_lamp>
1909:
Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, planted the
British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km) from the South Pole, the
furthest south anyone had ever reached at that time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farthest_South>
1991:
Representatives from the United States and Iraq met at the
Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Peace_Conference_(1991)>
1996:
First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launched raids in the
city of Kizlyar, Republic of Dagestan, which turned into a massive
hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye_hostage_crisis>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
strife:
Conflict, sometimes violent, usually brief or limited in scope.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/strife>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
You can't decide how you're going to die. Or when. What you can
decide is how you're going to live now.
--Joan Baez
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joan_Baez>
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