SheiKra is a steel Dive Coaster roller coaster at the Busch Gardens
Tampa Bay amusement park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The name is
derived from "shikra", an Asian-African hawk that is known to dive
vertically for its prey. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, the ride
was planned to reach a height of approximately 160 feet (49 m), but
this was later changed to 200 feet (61 m). It reaches a maximum speed
of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h), and has a total track length of 3,188
feet (972 m). It opened in 2005, and was converted to a floorless
roller coaster in 2007, following the opening of its sister Dive Coaster
Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. SheiKra was the first Dive
Coaster to be constructed in North America; it was also the first of its
kind to feature a vertical drop, a splashdown and an Immelmann loop. It
broke the records for the world's longest, tallest, and fastest Dive
Coaster, but has since lost these records. In 2005, Amusement Today's
annual Golden Ticket Awards voted it the fourth-best new steel roller
coaster of that year (in a three-way tie) and the 28th-best steel roller
coaster. It was voted the 30th-best steel roller coaster in 2012.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheiKra>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1687:
The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac
Newton was first published, describing his laws of motion and his law of
universal gravitation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophi%C3%A6_Naturalis_Principia_Mathematica>
1937:
The Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam, the canned
precooked meat product that would eventually enter into pop culture,
folklore, and urban legend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam>
1950:
Korean War: In the first encounter between North Korean and
American forces, the unprepared and undisciplined U.S. Army task force
was routed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Osan>
2006:
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting
hours after North Korea reportedly tested at least seven separate
ballistic missiles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_missile_test>
2009:
A series of violent riots broke out in Ürümqi, the capital
city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_riots>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gruntled:
(humorous) Satisfied.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gruntled>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Beauty is always the result of an accident. Of a violent lapse
between acquired habits and those yet to be acquired. It baffles and
disgusts. It may even horrify. Once the new habit has been acquired, the
accident ceases to be an accident. It becomes classical and loses its
shock value.
--Jean Cocteau
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Cocteau>