Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary interstate highway that runs for 80.6 miles (129.7 km) in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids. I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway in Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, after the 38th president of the United States, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives. There are two business loops (BL I-196) and one business spur (BS I-196) that serve the South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids areas. The current I-196 is the second in the state to bear the number. The Benton Harbor–Grand Rapids freeway was designated I-96 in the 1950s while another interstate, between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, was numbered I-196. That I-196 was built in the late 1950s and completed in the early 1960s. Michigan officials requested a change in 1963, which switched the two numbers. (This article is part of a featured topic: Interstate 96.).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Interstate_96

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1927:

French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard the biplane L'Oiseau Blanc took off from Paris, attempting to make the first non-stop flight to New York, only to disappear before arrival. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Oiseau_Blanc

1942:

World War II: The Axis launched a major counteroffensive, turning the tide of the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Kerch_Peninsula

1950:

The Tollund Man, a naturally mummified corpse, was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tollund_Man

1972:

Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to demand the release of 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_571

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

megapolitan: Of or pertaining to a megapolis (“a very large city or urban complex”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/megapolitan

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The knife cuts through the apple like a knife cutting an apple. Everything is where it is, no clearer than usual, but certainly more present. So much has to be left behind now, so quickly.   --Thomas Pynchon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon