The 1968 Illinois earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in the
"Prairie State", measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale. Although there
were no fatalities, the earthquake caused considerable structural
damage to buildings, including the toppling of chimneys. The earthquake
was one of the most widely felt in U.S. history, affecting 23 states
over an area of 580,000 square miles (1,500,000 km2). In studying its
cause, scientists discovered the Cottage Grove Fault in the Southern
Illinois Basin. Within the region, millions felt the rupture. Reactions
to the earthquake varied: some people near the epicenter did not react
to the shaking, while others panicked. A future earthquake in the
region is extremely likely; seismologists and geologists estimate a 90%
chance of a magnitude 6–7 tremor before 2055, likely originating in the
Wabash Valley seismic zone on the Illinois–Indiana border, or the New
Madrid fault zone.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Illinois_earthquake>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1520:
Following a successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under
Christian II of Denmark, scores of Swedish leaders were executed
despite Christian's promise of general amnesty.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath>
1576:
The provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands signed the Pacification of
Ghent, a peace treaty with the rebelling provinces Holland and Zeeland,
and also an agreement to form an alliance to drive the occupying
Spanish out of the country.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacification_of_Ghent>
1861:
American Civil War: The USS San Jacinto stopped the British mailship
Trent and arrested two Confederate envoys enroute to Europe, sparking a
major diplomatic crisis between Great Britain and the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Affair>
1895:
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen produced and detected
electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range that is known today as
X-rays .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Conrad_R%C3%B6ntgen>
1987:
A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded during a Remembrance
Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing at least
eleven people and injuring sixty-three others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
psychosomatic (adj):
1. Pertaining to physical diseases, symptoms, etc. which have mental
causes.
2. (now rare) Pertaining to both the mind and the body
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/psychosomatic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Once and for all
the idea of glorious victories
won by the glorious army
must be
wiped out
Neither side is glorious
On either side they're just frightened men
messing their pants
and they all want the same thing
Not to lie under the earth
but
to walk upon it
without crutches
--Peter Weiss
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Weiss>
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