The 1966 New York City smog (November 23–26) was an air-pollution
event, with damaging levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, smoke,
and haze. Coming during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, it was the
third major smog in New York City, after a similar event in 1953
(pictured) and another in 1963. Leaders of local and state governments
announced an alert and asked residents and industry to take voluntary
steps to minimize emissions. Health officials advised people with
respiratory or heart conditions to stay indoors. The alert ended after a
cold front dispersed the smog. It was an environmental disaster with
severe public health effects, including 168 deaths, according to a
statistical analysis. The smog catalyzed greater national awareness of
air pollution as a serious health problem, and became a political issue.
With support from presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, a
series of bills and amendments aimed at regulating air pollution
culminated in the 1967 Air Quality Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_New_York_City_smog>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for
killing a police officer while helping two Irish nationalists escape
from police custody.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs>
1876:
William "Boss" Tweed, a New York City politician who had been
arrested for embezzlement, was handed to U.S. authorities after having
escaped from prison to Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed>
1924:
Edwin Hubble published evidence in a newspaper that the
Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is
actually another galaxy, one of many in the universe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble>
1992:
IBM introduced the Simon, a handheld, touchscreen mobile phone
and PDA that is considered the first smartphone.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon>
2007:
MS Explorer became the first cruise ship to sink in the
Antarctic Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Explorer_(1969)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ratfink:
1. An informer or spy; a traitor.
2. (also attributive) A dislikable or contemptible person.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ratfink>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of
life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are;
nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of
that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as
vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown
up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other
hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good
book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he
who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God,
as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a
good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and
treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can
restore a life, whereof perhaps there is no great loss; and revolutions
of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of
which whole nations fare the worse.
--Areopagitica
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Areopagitica>