The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned almost 47,000 acres
(19,000 ha) of the U.S. state of Arizona. It began on April 23, 2017,
at a gender reveal party held in the Coronado National Forest with the
detonation by gunshot of a target packed with blue powder and tannerite.
Because of hot and arid conditions in the area, the fire spread rapidly
and forced the closure of Arizona State Route 89 and Interstate 10 and
the evacuation of 100 people. By April 30, the fire was fully contained
and evacuation orders were lifted. No injuries or fatalities resulted
from the fire, which cost $8,200,000 and required the deployment of over
800 first responders to contain and suppress. No buildings were
destroyed by the fire, though the historic Empire Ranch was as little as
50 feet (15 m) from the flames at times. When the source of the fire
became public knowledge, it resulted in widespread ridicule of gender
reveal parties in concept and practice.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawmill_Fire_%282017%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1869:
Jay Gould, James Fisk and other speculators plotted but failed
to control the United States gold market, causing prices to plummet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%281869%29>
1945:
Dozens of Jews were injured in the Topoľčany pogrom, one of
the worst episodes of anti-Jewish violence in postwar Czechoslovakia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topo%C4%BE%C4%8Dany_pogrom>
1992:
After his neighbor identified handwriting samples placed on
local billboards by police, Oba Chandler was arrested three years after
he committed a triple murder in the Tampa Bay area in Florida.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oba_Chandler>
2019:
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruled that
advice given by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Queen Elizabeth II that
Parliament should be prorogued was unlawful.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_British_prorogation_controversy>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
veld:
(chiefly South Africa) The open grassland or pastureland of South Africa
and neighbouring countries.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/veld>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
None of us chose this war. Not the Ukrainians, who knew the
crushing toll it would take. Not the United States, which warned that it
was coming and worked to prevent it. Not the vast majority of countries
at the United Nations. And neither did our people, or the people of
virtually every UN member-state, who are feeling the war's consequences
in greater food insecurity and higher energy prices. Nor did the
Russian mothers and fathers whose children are being sent off to fight
and die in this war, or the Russian citizens who continue to risk their
freedom to protest against it, including those who came out into the
streets of Moscow after President Putin announced his mobilization to
chant, "Let our children live!" Indeed, it must be asked: How has this
aggression against Ukraine by President Putin improved the lives or
prospects of a single Russian citizen? One man chose this war. One man
can end it. Because if Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine
stops fighting, Ukraine ends.
--Antony Blinken
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antony_Blinken>