The Colorado River is the principal river of the Southwestern United
States and northwest Mexico. Rising in the western Rocky Mountains, the
1,450-mile (2,330 km) river drains a vast arid region of the Colorado
Plateau and the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts as it heads towards the Gulf
of California. Known for its dramatic scenery (Horseshoe Bend pictured)
and its whitewater, the Colorado carves numerous gorges, including the
Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. For 8,000 years, the Colorado Basin
was only sparsely populated by Native Americans, though some of their
ancient civilizations employed advanced irrigation techniques. Even
after becoming part of the U.S. in the 1800s, the Colorado River country
remained extremely remote until John Wesley Powell's 1869 river-running
expedition, which began to open up the river for future development.
Since the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935, the Colorado has been tamed
by an extensive system of dams and canals, providing for irrigation,
cities, and hydropower. Today the Colorado supports 40 million people in
seven U.S. and two Mexican states; with every drop of its water
allocated, it no longer reaches the sea except in years of heavy runoff.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
Norman conquest of England: The forces of William the Conqueror
defeated the English army at Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson, the
last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings>
1888:
French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene,
the earliest surviving motion picture, in Roundhay, Leeds, West
Yorkshire, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Le_Prince>
1939:
Second World War: The German submarine U-47 torpedoed and sank
the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak while the latter was
anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_(08)>
1944:
Having been linked to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler,
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was forced to commit suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel>
1964:
Leonid Brezhnev succeeded Nikita Khrushchev as General
Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Brezhnev>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
iatrogenic:
(of a medical condition) Induced by the words or actions of the
physician.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iatrogenic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not
be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love, there is Fear: But
perfect Love casts out Fear.
--William Penn
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Penn>