Quehanna Wild Area is a wildlife area in Cameron, Clearfield, and Elk counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. At 48,186 acres (75 sq mi; 195 km2), it is the largest state forest wild area in Pennsylvania, and hosts herds of native elk. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the logging industry cut the area's virgin forests. In 1955 the Curtiss- Wright Corporation bought 80 square miles (210 km2) of state forest for a facility developing nuclear-powered jet engines. A succession of tenants further contaminated the nuclear reactor facility and its hot cells with radioactive isotopes, including strontium-90 and cobalt-60. Pennsylvania reacquired the land in 1963 and 1967, and in 1965 established Quehanna as a wild area, but retained the nuclear facility and industrial complex. The facilities were used to treat hardwood flooring with radiation until 2002. The cleanup of the reactor and hot cells took over eight years and cost $30 million. Quehanna Wild Area has many sites with radioactive and toxic waste; some have been cleaned up, but others have been dug up by black bears and white-tailed deer.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quehanna_Wild_Area

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1576:

The cornerstone of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe's observatory Uraniborg was laid on the island of Hven. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uraniborg

1956:

A major mining disaster killed 262 workers, mainly Italian nationals, at the Bois du Cazier coal mine in Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bois_du_Cazier

1963:

The Zimbabwe African National Union was formed when Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe, and others decided to split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe_African_National_Union

1998:

The Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, was raided by Taliban leading to the death of 10 Iranian diplomats and an Iranian journalist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_killing_of_Iranian_diplomats_in_Afghanistan

2009:

Nine people died when a tour helicopter and a small private airplane collided over the Hudson River near Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Hudson_River_mid-air_collision

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

filch: (transitive) To illegally take possession of (especially items of low value); to pilfer, to steal. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/filch

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

O lovely chance, what can I do To give my gratefulness to you? You rise between myself and me With a wise persistency; I would have broken body and soul, But by your grace, still I am whole.   --Sara Teasdale https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sara_Teasdale