The 1966 New York City smog (November 23–26) was an air-pollution event, with damaging levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, smoke, and haze. Coming during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, it was the third major smog in New York City, after a similar event in 1953 (pictured) and another in 1963. Leaders of local and state governments announced an alert and asked residents and industry to take voluntary steps to minimize emissions. Health officials advised people with respiratory or heart conditions to stay indoors. The alert ended after a cold front dispersed the smog. It was an environmental disaster with severe public health effects, including 168 deaths, according to a statistical analysis. The smog catalyzed greater national awareness of air pollution as a serious health problem, and became a political issue. With support from presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, a series of bills and amendments aimed at regulating air pollution culminated in the 1967 Air Quality Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_New_York_City_smog

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1867:

The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while helping two Irish nationalists escape from police custody. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs

1876:

William "Boss" Tweed, a New York City politician who had been arrested for embezzlement, was handed to U.S. authorities after having escaped from prison to Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed

1924:

Edwin Hubble published evidence in a newspaper that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is actually another galaxy, one of many in the universe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble

1992:

IBM introduced the Simon, a handheld, touchscreen mobile phone and PDA that is considered the first smartphone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon

2007:

MS Explorer became the first cruise ship to sink in the Antarctic Ocean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Explorer_(1969)

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

ratfink: 1. An informer or spy; a traitor. 2. (also attributive) A dislikable or contemptible person. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ratfink

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a life, whereof perhaps there is no great loss; and revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.   --Areopagitica https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Areopagitica