North Cascades National Park is a US national park in the state of
Washington, established October 2, 1968. Covering more than 500,000
acres (200,000 ha), it features the rugged mountain peaks of the North
Cascades Range, the most expansive glacial system in the contiguous
United States, and vast forests with the highest degree of flora
biodiversity of any US national park. It is bisected by the Skagit
River, which flows through Ross Lake National Recreation Area. The
region was first settled by Paleo-Indian Native Americans; when white
explorers and fur trappers arrived, Skagit tribes lived there. In the
1920s several dams were built in the Skagit River valley to generate
hydroelectric power. The park has one of the earliest and longest-
lasting research programs dedicated to studying climate change, focusing
on glacial retreat. With almost all of the park protected as wilderness,
there are few structures, roads or other improvements. Heavy snows and a
high risk of avalanches severely limit visitation in the winter.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cascades_National_Park>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1835:
Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales,
Mexican Texas, encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia in the
Battle of Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gonzales>
1928:
Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei (logo
pictured), a worldwide organization of the Catholic Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei>
1941:
World War II: Nazi German forces began Operation Typhoon, an
all-out offensive to begin the three-month-long Battle of Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow>
1990:
A hijacked airliner collided with two other planes while
attempting to land at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China,
resulting in a total of 128 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Guangzhou_Baiyun_airport_collisions>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Chanakya:
(India) A shrewd politician or, in general, a cunning person; a
Machiavelli.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chanakya>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In childhood we live under the brightness of immortality —
heaven is as near and actual as seaside. Behind the complicated details
of the world stand the simplicities: God is good, the grown-up man or
woman knows the answer to every question, there is such a thing as
truth, and justice is as measured and faultless as a clock. Our heroes
are simple: they are brave, they tell the truth, they are good swordsmen
and they are never in the long run really defeated. That is why no later
books satisfy us like those which were read to us in childhood — for
those promised a world of great simplicity of which we knew the rules,
but the later books are complicated and contradictory with experience;
they are formed out of our own disappointing memories…
--Graham Greene
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Graham_Greene>