Iron Gwazi is a steel-track hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens in
Tampa, Florida, U.S. The ride first opened in 1999 as Gwazi, a wooden
roller coaster with two tracks in a dueling configuration. It was built
by Great Coasters International on the former site of an Anheuser-Busch
brewery at the park. Although well received initially, Gwazi became
difficult to maintain over time, leading to the closure of one track in
2012 followed by the other in 2015. It remained closed until Busch
Gardens, in 2019, announced that Rocky Mountain Construction would
transform Gwazi into a hybrid roller coaster. Its two wooden tracks were
replaced by a single steel track, with portions of the original support
structure reused. The ride reopened as Iron Gwazi on March 11, 2022,
becoming North America's tallest, steepest, and fastest hybrid roller
coaster. Iron Gwazi received positive reviews from critics and won Best
New Roller Coaster in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards
publication.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Gwazi>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
Peking opera was born with the introduction of Hui opera to
Beijing by the "Four Great Anhui Troupes" in honour of the Qianlong
Emperor's 80th birthday.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_opera>
1890:
Sequoia National Park was established to conserve giant sequoia
trees in an area affected by logging in the southern Sierra Nevada in
California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_National_Park>
1983:
In one of the largest prison escapes in British history, 38
Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners hijacked a prison meals
lorry and broke out of HM Prison Maze in County Antrim, Northern
Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_Prison_escape>
2005:
Typhoon Longwang, the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit China
in that year, formed just north of the Mariana Islands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Longwang>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
altercation:
1. (countable) An angry or heated dispute.
2. (countable, law, historical) An act of posing questions to, and
obtaining answers from, a witness in a court of law.
3. (uncountable) Angry or heated disputation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/altercation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he
has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely.
--Christopher Reeve
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve>
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