Highway 401 is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario
stretching 817.9 kilometres (508.2 mi). The portion that passes through
Toronto is the busiest highway in the world, and one of the widest
(18 lanes pictured near Toronto Pearson International Airport). By the
end of 1952, three individual highways were numbered "Highway 401": the
partially completed Toronto Bypass between Weston Road and Highway 11;
Highway 2A between West Hill and Newcastle; and the Scenic Highway
between Gananoque and Brockville. The route was expanded across the
province, and became fully navigable from Windsor to the Quebec border
on November 10, 1964. In 1965 it was designated the Macdonald–Cartier
Freeway, in honour of the Fathers of Confederation, and it became a
freeway for its entire length in 1968. A portion of the highway was
designated the Highway of Heroes in 2007, as the road is travelled by
funeral convoys for fallen Canadian Forces personnel from CFB Trenton to
the coroner's office in Toronto. In 2011 construction began on a
westward extension of Highway 401 that will be known as the Herb Gray
Parkway and extend to Interstate 75 via a new international crossing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_401>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1202:
The first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first
attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, the Siege of Zara,
began in Zadar, Croatia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Zara>
1871:
Journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley located missing
missionary and explorer David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika
in present-day Tanzania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone>
1940:
A magnitude 7.7 ML earthquake struck the Vrancea region of
Romania, the country's strongest earthquake in the 20th century.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Vrancea_earthquake>
1958:
Merchant Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond (pictured), the
"most famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond>
2006:
Prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politician and human rights lawyer
Nadarajah Raviraj was assassinated in Colombo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadarajah_Raviraj>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
xoanon:
(historical) A wooden statue, used as a cult image in Ancient Greece.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xoanon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if
one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself
out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow or other,
work out for the best.
--The Sandman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sandman#The_Wake>