Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, about 65 miles (105 km)
southeast of Salt Lake City in the United States. During the era of
steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for
the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The fortunes of the town
were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to
diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline. Just downstream
from Thistle, a slump had been in slow motion for years, with no serious
thought of investigation. The landslide situation deteriorated rapidly
in April 1983, with the town evacuated on April 17. The landslide
dammed the Spanish Fork River and almost completely destroyed the town;
only a few structures were left partially standing (schoolhouse
pictured). It also severed key transportation arteries and left parts of
eastern Utah isolated for months until replacements could be built.
Federal and state government agencies have claimed that it was the most
costly landslide in U.S. history, and it resulted in the first
presidential declared disaster area in the state of Utah. The remains of
Thistle are visible from U.S. Route 6 or from the California Zephyr
passenger train.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thistle,_Utah>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1797:
Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day
rebellion against the French occupying forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronese_Easter>
1912:
Soldiers of the Russian Empire's army fired upon striking gold
miners in northeast Siberia near the Lena River, killing at least 150
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_massacre>
1951:
The Peak District was designated the first national park in the
United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_District>
1961:
Armed Cuban exiles backed by the CIA invaded Cuba, landing in
the Bay of Pigs, with the aim of overthrowing the Cuban government under
Fidel Castro.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion>
1975:
The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh, ending the
Cambodian Civil War, and established Democratic Kampuchea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Civil_War>
1982:
A new patriated Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms (pictured), a bill of rights intended to
protect certain political and civil rights of people in Canada, was
signed into law by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Act,_1982>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
kasha:
A porridge made from boiled buckwheat groats, or sometimes from other
cereal groats.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kasha>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If rules make you nervous and depressed, and not desirous of
participating in the Wiki, then ignore them and go about your business.
--Lee Daniel Crocker
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Daniel_Crocker>