Chat Moss is a large area of peat bog that makes up 30 per cent of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. North of the River Irwell, 5 miles (8 km) to the west of Manchester, it occupies an area of about 10.6 square miles (27.5 km2). Peat development seems to have begun there at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, and the depth of peat ranges from 24 to 30 feet (7 to 9 m). A great deal of reclamation work has been carried out, but a large network of drainage channels is required to keep it from reverting to bog. In 1958 peat extractors discovered the severed head of what is believed to be a Romano-British Celt, possibly a sacrificial victim. Much of Chat Moss is now prime agricultural land, although farming in the area is in decline. A 228-acre (92 ha) area of Chat Moss, notified as Astley and Bedford Mosses, has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Chat Moss threatened the completion of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, until George Stephenson succeeded in constructing a railway line through it in 1829; his solution was to "float" the line on a bed of bound heather and branches topped with tar and covered with rubble stone.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

838:

Arab–Byzantine wars: The forces of the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Byzantine Empire troops, led by Emperor Theophilos himself, at the Battle of Anzen near present-day Dazman, Turkey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzen

1864:

American Civil War: Confederate forces unsuccessfully attacked Union troops at the Battle of Atlanta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Atlanta

1933:

Wiley Post became the first pilot to fly solo around the world, landing after a seven-day, nineteen-hour flight at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post

1992:

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxurious private prison and spent the next 17 months on the run. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar

2011:

Two sequential terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøya claimed the lives of 77 people, in the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

roundelay: (music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundelay

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

 I've lived most of my entire adult life outside the law, and never have I compromised with authority. But neither have I gone out and picked fights with authority. That's stupid. They're waiting for that; they invite it; it helps keep them powerful. Authority is to be ridiculed, outwitted and avoided. And it's fairly easy to do all three. If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid — but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself.   --Tom Robbins https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins