The Kansas Turnpike is a tolled freeway that lies entirely within the U.S. state of Kansas. The road runs in a general southwest-northeast direction from the Oklahoma border south of Wichita via Wichita, Topeka, and Lawrence to Kansas City, Kansas. The Kansas Turnpike Act defined the turnpike to be built from Oklahoma to Kansas City, Kansas. The turnpike is owned and maintained by the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA), headquartered in Wichita. The Kansas Turnpike was built from 1954 to 1956, predating the Interstate Highway System. The turnpike presently has 27 interchanges and two barrier toll plazas. Exit numbers are assigned by mileage from south to east. After passing the Bonner Springs interchange, exit numbers change to match the mileage of Interstate 70 east from the Colorado border. In the median at mile 97 is the Matfield Green Service Area, which contains a memorial to football coach Knute Rockne, who died in a plane crash near Bazaar, Kansas.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1204: Alexios V fled Constantinople as forces under Boniface the Marquess of Montferrat and Enrico Dandolo the Doge of Venice entered and sacked the Byzantine capital, effectively ending the Fourth Crusade. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade)

1606: A royal decree established the Union Flag to symbolise the Union of the Crowns, merging the designs of the Flag of England and the Flag of Scotland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Flag)

1861: Confederate forces began firing at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter)

1927: Chinese Civil War: A large-scale purge of communists from the nationalist Kuomintang began in Shanghai. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_12_Incident)

1961: Aboard Vostok 3KA-2, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108 minutes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

concomitant: Following as a consequence, especially secondarily or incidentally. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/concomitant)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments. -- Henry Clay (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Clay)