From today's featured article
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Bonneville Dam
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, it flows south into Washington, then turns west to form most of that state's border with Oregon before emptying into the Pacific, 1,243 miles (2,000 km) from its source. By volume it is the fourth-largest river in the US and the largest in North America that enters the Pacific. The river system hosts salmon and other fish that migrate between freshwater habitats and the saline waters of the Pacific Ocean. In the late 18th century, a private American ship became the first non-indigenous vessel to enter the river. Overland explorers entered the Willamette Valley through the scenic but treacherous Columbia River Gorge. Railroads were built in the valley in the late 19th century, many running along the river. Since the early 20th century, the river has been dammed for power generation, navigation, irrigation, and flood control. The 14 hydroelectric dams on the Columbia (Bonneville Dam pictured), the Snake River, and the Columbia's other tributaries produce more than 44 percent of total US hydroelectric power. (Full article...)
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Did you know...
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Georg Philipp Telemann
- ... that in the opera Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho, Georg Philipp Telemann (pictured) characterized the noble people by elements from the opera seria, and the peasants by Spanish folk music?
- ... that the SS Pere Marquette was the first steel train ferry built in the world?
- ... that when Elissa P. Benedek was named president of the American Psychiatric Association in 1990, she was only the second woman to fill that post since the group's founding in 1844?
- ... that the real-life subject of the film The Broken Cord, diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, was struck by a car and died before the film's release?
- ... that Byattaba, the rebel ruler of Martaban, was paid in gold by King Binnya U so that he would acknowledge the King as his overlord?
- ... that Tropical Storm Winona, which struck Japan in August 1990, originated from a northerly displaced monsoon trough?
- ... that Women Wage Peace held a 50-day hunger strike outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's formal residence in 2015?
- ... that 35 years ago today, Tucson, Arizona, radio station KIKX shut down after losing its FCC license over a 1974 kidnapping hoax involving one of the station's DJs?
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In the news
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
- Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to receive the Fields Medal, dies at the age of 40.
- Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese pro-democracy activist, political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at the age of 61.
- Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (pictured) is sentenced to nearly ten years in prison over the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal.
- A giant iceberg, covering approximately 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi), breaks away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
- After covering 450 kilometres (280 mi), the Turkish March for Justice concludes in Istanbul at a rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
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On this day...
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July 18
Ted Kennedy in 1967
- 1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, killed around 200 people.
- 1841 – Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil, having reigned in minority since 1831, was acclaimed, crowned and consecrated.
- 1969 – After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United States Senator Ted Kennedy (pictured) drove his car off a bridge, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker.
- 1976 – At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics event.
- 2012 – A suicide bomber attacked an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria, which led the European Union to list the military branch of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Boniface of Savoy (d. 1270) · Jane Austen (d. 1817) · Clare Stevenson (b. 1903)
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