Steamtown, U.S.A. was a steam locomotive museum that ran steam
excursions out of North Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls,
Vermont, from the 1960s to 1983. The museum was founded by millionaire
seafood industrialist F. Nelson Blount and was operated by the Steamtown
Foundation after his death in 1967. Due to Vermont's air quality
regulations restricting steam excursions, declining visitor attendance,
and track use disputes, some of the collection was relocated to
Scranton, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s and the rest was sold.
Steamtown, U.S.A. failed to attract the expected 200,000–400,000
visitors in Scranton and, facing bankruptcy, it sold more of the
collection. In 1986, the U.S. House of Representatives approved funding
to begin the process of making it a National Historic Site. Historical
research was carried out by the National Park Service (NPS) on the
remaining equipment. By 1995, Steamtown had been acquired and developed
by the NPS as the Steamtown National Historic Site with a $66 million
allocation. Several more pieces have been removed from the collection as
a result of the government acquisition. Part of the Blount collection is
still on display in Scranton.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamtown,_U.S.A.>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1780:
American Revolutionary War: The British Royal Navy gained their
first major naval victory over their European enemies in the war when
they defeated a Spanish squadron in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_St._Vincent_(1780)>
1862:
The beam of a pumping engine broke at the Hartley Colliery in
Northumberland, England, and fell down the shaft trapping the men below,
resulting in the deaths of 204 men.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Colliery_Disaster>
1920:
The League of Nations, the first intergovernmental organisation
whose principal mission was to maintain world peace, held its first
council meeting in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations>
1942:
TWA Flight 3 crashed into Potosi Mountain in Nevada, killing
actress Carole Lombard and all of the other 21 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_3>
1964:
The musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on
Broadway, and would go on to win ten Tony Awards, a record that stood
for 35 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello,_Dolly!_(musical)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
smurf account:
(Internet slang) An alternate account used by a known or experienced
user to appear to be someone else.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smurf_account>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
From now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task
of defending art.
--Susan Sontag
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag>