Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that
protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades. It is the
largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the third-largest
national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and
Yellowstone. The park was established in 1934 when canal-building
projects in South Florida were threatening the quickly vanishing
Everglades, a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing out
of Lake Okeechobee into Florida Bay. It was the first national park
created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The park is the most significant
breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains
the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. It is home to
36 threatened or protected species including the Florida panther, the
American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee, and supports
350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish,
40 species of mammals, and 50 species of reptiles. Most of South
Florida's fresh water comes from the Biscayne Aquifer, which is
replenished by the Everglades.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades_National_Park>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
The fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the
Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies
calling for independence from Britain during the American Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Resolves>
1831:
Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, collapsed,
reportedly because of mechanical resonance induced by troops marching in
step over the bridge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge>
1910:
SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the
Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Zr%C3%ADnyi>
1980:
Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and began running his "Marathon
of Hope" towards the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia, to
raise funds across Canada for cancer research.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox>
2007:
The canteen of the Council of Representatives of Iraq building
was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing one Member of Parliament and
wounding 23 other people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Iraqi_Parliament_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
grandcat:
(humorous, affectionate) A cat owned by one's child, having a status
comparable to a grandchild.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grandcat>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The average guy is smart enough to know the difference between
what works and what doesn't, and if you have bad information, sooner or
later, you figure it out and you get onto something else.
--Tom Clancy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy>
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