The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles (58 km) long
in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near
Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey
and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire.
Major landmarks along its route include the Barton Swing Aqueduct and
Trafford Park. By the late 19th century the Mersey and Irwell Navigation
had fallen into disrepair and was often unusable, and Manchester's
business community viewed Liverpool's dock and the railway companies'
charges as excessive. A ship canal was proposed as a way of giving
ocean-going vessels direct access to Manchester. Construction began in
1887; it took six years and cost about £15 million. When the ship
canal opened in January 1894 it was the largest river navigation canal
in the world. Although it enabled the newly created Port of Manchester
to become Britain's third busiest port—despite the city being about 40
miles (64 km) inland—the canal never achieved the commercial success
its sponsors had hoped for. Ships often returned to sea loaded with
ballast rather than goods for export, and gradually the balance of
traffic moved to the west, resulting in the closure of the terminal
docks at Salford. As of 2011, traffic had decreased from its peak in
1958 of 18 million long tons (20 million short tons) of freight each
year to about 7 million long tons (7.8 million short tons). The canal
is now privately owned by Peel Ports.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish–Saxon army
of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive
position, was defeated by a Swedish army half its size in the Battle of
Klissow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Klissow>
1843:
SS Great Britain (pictured), the first ocean-going ship that
had both an iron hull and a screw propeller, launched from Bristol, UK.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain>
1848:
The two-day Women's Rights Convention, the first women's rights
and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca
Falls, New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention>
1908:
Feyenoord Rotterdam, today one of the "big three" professional
football teams in the Netherlands, was founded as the club Wilhelmina in
a pub.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feyenoord>
1947:
Burmese nationalist Aung San and six members of his newly
formed cabinet were assassinated during a cabinet meeting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San>
1997:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army permanently resumed its
ceasefire to end its 25-year campaign against British rule in Northern
Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_campaign_1969%E2%80%931997>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
reliquary:
A container to hold or display religious relics.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reliquary>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We didn't start the fire — It was always burning Since the world's
been turning. We didn't start the fire — No we didn't light it But we
tried to fight it.
--Billy Joel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Billy_Joel>