The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR;) was a
railway company that constructed the deep-level underground railway that
is now the core central section of London's Piccadilly line. The
GNP&BR;, formed in 1902 through a merger of two older companies, was a
subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL). A number of different routes were planned, but most were
rejected by Parliament. When it opened in 1906, the GNP&BR;'s line
served 22 stations (Russell Square pictured) and ran for 14.17
kilometres (8.80 mi) between its western terminus at Hammersmith and
its northern terminus at Finsbury Park. A short branch connected Holborn
to the Strand. Most of the route was in a pair of tunnels, with 1.1
kilometres (0.68 mi) at the western end above ground. Within a year of
opening it became apparent to the management and investors that the
estimated passenger numbers for the GNP&BR; and the other UERL lines
were over-optimistic. Despite improved integration and cooperation with
the other tube railways, the GNP&BR; struggled financially, and in 1933
it and the rest of the UERL were taken into public ownership.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern,_Piccadilly_and_Brompton_Railway>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
320:
Pappus of Alexandria, one of the last great Greek mathematicians
of antiquity, observed an eclipse that allowed historians to calculate
the approximate dates of his life.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappus_of_Alexandria>
1009:
Under orders from Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church now within the walled
Old City of Jerusalem, was destroyed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre>
1851:
Moby-Dick, a novel by American writer Herman Melville, was
first published as The Whale.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
1967:
The Soviet space probe Venera 4 performed direct analysis of
the environment of Venus and became the first spacecraft to land on
another planet, although it stopped working before that.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_4>
2004:
SPDC Chairman Senior General Than Shwe announced that Burmese
Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was "permitted to retire on health grounds",
but then had him arrested.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khin_Nyunt>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stipulate:
(botany; not comparable) Having stipules; that is, having outgrowths
borne on either side of the base of the leafstalk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stipulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what
rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary?
Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those
orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our
paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>