The Queen Elizabeth Way is a 400-Series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels 139.1 kilometres (86.4 mi) around the western shore of Lake Ontario, ending at Highway 427, where the roadway continues as the Gardiner Expressway into downtown Toronto. The freeway's history dates back to 1931, when work began to widen the Middle Road as a relief project during the Great Depression, to bring it up to the quality of the nearby Dundas Highway and Lakeshore Road. In 1934, the design was modified to resemble German autobahns. When it was initially opened in 1937, it was the first intercity divided highway in North America and featured the longest stretch of consistent illumination in the world. While not a true freeway at the time, it was gradually upgraded, widened and modernized beginning in the 1950s, taking on more or less its current form by 1975. Since then, various projects have continued to widen the route.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_Way
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1572:
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots, began, lasting for several months and resulting in an estimated tens of thousands deaths across France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre
1650:
General George Monck founded "Monck's Regiment of Foot", the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards, in England's New Model Army, making the regiment the oldest one in the Regular Army in continuous active service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldstream_Guards
1896:
Andrés Bonifacio and his Katipunan comrades in modern-day Quezon City rose up in revolt against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Philippine Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_of_Pugad_Lawin
1927:
After a controversial trial, and despite worldwide protests, Italian-born American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti (both pictured) were executed via electrocution in Massachusetts for the charges of murder and theft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti
1939:
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 10-year, mutual non-aggression treaty, which also included a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
budgie smugglers: (Australia, New Zealand, informal, plural only) A style of tightfitting men's swimming costume cut like underwear briefs that covers the buttocks and groin but not the legs, especially worn in surf lifesaving and in swimming races. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/budgie_smugglers
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I can not be a traitor, for I owe him no allegiance. He is not my Sovereign; he never received my homage; and whilst life is in this persecuted body, he never shall receive it. To the other points whereof I am accused, I freely confess them all. As Governor of my country I have been an enemy to its enemies; I have slain the English; I have mortally opposed the English King; I have stormed and taken the towns and castles which he unjustly claimed as his own. If I or my soldiers have plundered or done injury to the houses or ministers of religion, I repent me of my sin; but it is not of Edward of England I shall ask pardon. --William Wallace https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wallace