Glacier National Park, located in the American state of Montana, was
designated a national park on May 11, 1910. It borders the Canadian
provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. The park encompasses over
1,000,000 acres (4,047 km2) and includes parts of two mountain ranges
(sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), over 130 named lakes, more than
1,000 different species of plants and hundreds of species of animals.
This vast pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been
referred to as the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem", a region of
protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles (41,440 km2). The
mountains of Glacier National Park began forming 170 million years ago
when ancient rocks were forced eastward up and over much younger rock
strata. Known as the Lewis Overthrust, these sedimentary rocks are
considered to have some of the finest fossilized examples of extremely
early life found anywhere on Earth. Of the estimated 150 glaciers which
existed in the park in the mid 1800s, only 25 remained by 2010. Glacier
National Park borders Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada—the two
parks are known as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and
were designated as the world's first International Peace Park in 1932.
Both parks were designated by the United Nations as Biosphere Reserves
in 1976, and in 1995 as World Heritage sites.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_National_Park_%28U.S.%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1745:
War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeated the
Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian "Pragmatic Army" at the Battle of Fontenoy in
the Austrian Netherlands in present day Belgium.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fontenoy>
1792:
Merchant sea captain Robert Gray first entered the Columbia River,
becoming the first recorded European to navigate the largest river
flowing into the Pacific Ocean from North America.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gray%27s_Columbia_River_expedition>
1812:
In the lobby of the British House of Commons, Spencer Perceval became
the first, and to date only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Perceval>
1858:
Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory
and admitted as the thirty-second U.S. state.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota>
1946:
The United Malays National Organisation, today Malaysia's largest
political party, was founded, originally to oppose the constitutional
framework of the Malayan Union.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Malays_National_Organisation>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
neither (determ):
Not one of two; not either
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neither>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge
of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a
flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.
--Richard Feynman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman>