From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From today's featured article
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 Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, about 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Salt Lake City in the United States. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The fortunes of the town were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline. Just downstream from Thistle, a slump had been in slow motion for years, with no serious thought of investigation. The landslide situation deteriorated rapidly in April 1983, with the town evacuated on April 17. The landslide dammed the Spanish Fork River and almost completely destroyed the town; only a few structures were left partially standing (schoolhouse pictured). It also severed key transportation arteries and left parts of eastern Utah isolated for months until replacements could be built. Federal and state government agencies have claimed that it was the most costly landslide in U.S. history, and it resulted in the first presidential declared disaster area in the state of Utah. The remains of Thistle are visible from U.S. Route 6 or from the California Zephyr passenger train. (Full article...)
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April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)
1797 – Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces.
1912 – Soldiers of the Russian Empire's army fired upon striking gold miners in northeast Siberia near the Lena River, killing at least 150 people.
1951 – The Peak District was designated the first national park in the United Kingdom.
1961 – Armed Cuban exiles backed by the CIA invaded Cuba, landing in the Bay of Pigs, with the aim of overthrowing the Cuban government under Fidel Castro.
1975 – The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh, ending the Cambodian Civil War, and established Democratic Kampuchea.
1982 – A new patriated Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (pictured), a bill of rights intended to protect certain political and civil rights of people in Canada, was signed into law by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
More anniversaries: April 16 – April 17 – April 18
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