U.S. Route 491 is a north–south U.S. Highway serving the Four Corners
region of the United States. One of the newest designations in the U.S.
Highway System, it was created in 2003 as a renumbering of U.S. Route
666. With the 666 designation, this road was nicknamed Devil's Highway
because of the common Christian belief that 666 is the Number of the
Beast. This satanic connotation, combined with a high fatality rate
along the New Mexico portion, convinced some people the highway was
cursed. The problem was compounded with persistent sign theft. These
factors led to two efforts to renumber the highway, by officials in
Arizona and then in New Mexico. Since the renumbering, as a result of
safety improvement projects, fatality rates have decreased. The highway
runs through Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as the tribal
nations of the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Features along
the route include an extinct volcanic core named Shiprock, Mesa Verde
National Park, and the self-proclaimed pinto-bean capital of the world,
Dove Creek, Colorado.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_491>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1054:
Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star",
which was in actuality the supernova that created the Crab Nebula.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula>
1776:
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of
Independence, announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no
longer a part of the British Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence>
1862:
In a rowing boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author
Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would
eventually form the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland>
2005:
The NASA space probe Deep Impact impacted the nucleus of the comet
Tempel 1, excavating debris from its interior so that its composition
could be studied.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Impact_%28spacecraft%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
auteur (n):
A creative artist, especially a film director, seen as having a
specific, recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen as the single
or preeminent ‘author’ of their works
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/auteur>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not
be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist
the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be
resisted, and when to be obeyed.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne>