120px|Tumbler Ridge Town Hall
Tumbler Ridge is a small town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains
in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of
the Peace River Regional District. The municipality, with its
population of 2,454 people, incorporates a townsite and a large area of
mostly Crown Land. The housing and municipal infrastructure were built
simultaneously in 1981 by the provincial government to service the coal
industry. In 1981, a consortium of Japanese steel mills agreed to
purchase 100 million tonnes of coal from two mining companies that were
to operate the Quintette mine and the Bullmoose mine. Declining global
coal prices after 1981, and weakening Asian markets in the late 1990s,
made the town's future uncertain. When price reductions were forced
onto the mines, the Quintette mine was closed in 2000 and the town lost
about half its population. Since 2000 rising coal prices have led to
the opening of new mines. After dinosaur footprints, fossils, and bones
were discovered in the municipality, the Peace Region Paleontology
Research Centre opened in 2003. Economic diversification has also
occurred with oil and gas exploration, forestry, and recreational
tourism. Nearby recreational destinations include numerous trails,
mountains, waterfalls, snowmobiling areas and provincial parks.
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1028:
Future Byzantine empress Zoe first took the throne as empress consort
to Romanos III Argyros.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Porphyrogenita>
1893:
Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India, and Abdur Rahman
Khan, Amir of Afghanistan, signed the Durand Line Agreement,
establishing what is now the international border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durand_Line>
1936:
The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, connecting San Francisco and
Oakland, California across San Francisco Bay, opened to traffic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_%E2%80%93_Oakland_Bay_Bridge>
1942:
World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal , the decisive engagement
in a series of naval battles between Allied and Japanese forces during
the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, began.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Battle_of_Guadalcanal>
1991:
In Dili, East Timor, Indonesian forces opened fire on student
demonstrators protesting the occupation of East Timor, killing at least
250 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
eclaircissement (n):
An explanation of something obscure or unknown; clarification,
enlightenment
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eclaircissement>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind
to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding
heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the
secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.
--Bahá'u'lláh
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h>
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