Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The Park is located in the arid and inhospitable Four Corners region of New Mexico, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash. Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling 15 major complexes which remained the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century. Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with the "Sun Dagger" petroglyph at Fajada Butte a popular example. Many Chacoan buildings may have been aligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles, requiring generations of astronomical observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction. Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginning with a 50-year drought in 1130. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is considered sacred ancestral homelands by the Hopi and Pueblo people, who maintain oral accounts of their historical migration from Chaco and their spiritual relationship to the land. Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 312: Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome, leading him to end the Tetrarchy and become the only ruler of the Roman Empire. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge> 1919: The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, reinforcing Prohibition in the United States. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volstead_Act> 1954: The Kingdom of the Netherlands was re-founded as a federacy with the proclamation of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Netherlands> 1965: Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, absolving the Jews of the killing of Jesus, and calling for increased relations with all non-Christian religions. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostra_Aetate> 2007: In the Argentine general election, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the first female to be elected President of Argentina, winning with a 22 percent lead over her nearest rival, one of the widest margins obtained by a candidate since the collapse of the National Reorganization Process in 1983. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_Kirchner> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: gregarious (adj): 1. Describing one who enjoys being in crowds and socializing. 2. (zoology) Of animals that travel in herds or packs <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gregarious> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens. --Jigoro Kano <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jigoro_Kano>