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From today's featured article

Saline Valley salt tram summit

The Saline Valley salt tram is located in Inyo County, California. The electric aerial tramway was constructed from 1911 to 1913 to carry salt from the Saline Valley, over the Inyo Mountains, and into the Owens Valley. Covering a distance of 13.4 miles (21.6 km), it operated sporadically from 1913 to 1935 for four different companies. The tram was built for the Saline Valley Salt Company (SVSC) by the Trenton Iron Company, but the costs of its construction and operation were ruinously expensive for the SVSC. The salt mining operation and tram were leased in 1915 to the Owens Valley Salt Company until the latter went bankrupt in 1918. In 1920, the tram was taken over by the Trenton Iron Company, which sold it to the Sierra Salt Company in 1928. The Sierra Salt Company put it back into service until the company went bankrupt in 1935. During its operation, it was the steepest tram in the United States. The tram was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Southern Magazine cover, 1872

... that The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine (cover pictured), printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that Serhiy Kot was the editor of Ukrainian Question, a collection of articles on the status of Ukraine in the 1930s?
... that Jacqueline Kennedy did not want to make her clothes the focus of her 1962 goodwill tour of India and Pakistan, but still wore 22 different outfits in the first nine days?
... that all but one of the court astrologers at the accession of King Minye Kyawswa I of Ava prophesied that he would rule for three years?
... that the first studio of Indiana high school radio station WETL was a cedar closet that had once stored furs?
... that British barristers are on strike to protest against underfunding in the criminal justice system?
... that both the Qurm Nature Reserve and the surrounding city of Qurm are named for the grey mangroves protected by the reserve?
... that The Art of Cooking with Cannabis by Tracey Medeiros was praised by the Los Angeles Times for showcasing a wide range of recipes outside of the "tired pot-brownie cliché"?

In the news

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (pictured) is elected as President of Somalia.
In the United States, ten people are killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Ukraine, represented by Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan inherits the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and becomes President of the United Arab Emirates after the death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

On this day

May 16

Flag of Sikkim, prior to its 1975 annexation by India

1811 – Peninsular War: Allied British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces clashed with French troops at the Battle of Albuera fought south of Badajoz, Spain.
1832 – Prospector Juan Godoy discovered a silver outcrop in Chañarcillo, sparking the Chilean silver rush.
1925 – The first modern performance of Claudio Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria occurred in Paris.
1958 – The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a supersonic interceptor aircraft, set a world flight airspeed record of 1,404.012 mph (2,259.538 km/h).
1975 – Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, the Kingdom of Sikkim (flag pictured) abolished its monarchy and was annexed to become the 22nd state of India.

Andrew Bobola (d. 1657)
Horace Hutchinson (b. 1859)
Nancy Roman (b. 1925)

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From today's featured list

1895–96 champions Club Français, pictured in 1898

French football champions are the winners of the highest league of association football in France, Ligue 1. Since the National Council of the French Football Federation voted in support of professionalism in French football in 1930, the professional football championship of France has been contested through Ligue 1, formerly known as Division 1 from 1933 to 2002. The first champions of French football were Standard Athletic Club, who defeated The White Rovers 2–0 in Courbevoie on 6 May 1894. The first French football champions of the professional era were Olympique Lillois, a predecessor of Lille, who defeated Cannes 4–3 on 14 May 1933 at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes. Sète were crowned champions the following season and, in 1939, became the first professional club in France to win two titles. Saint-Étienne, Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain have the most titles in French football, with ten each. Paris Saint-Germain won seven of their ten titles in a ten-year span from 2013 to 2022. Nantes and Monaco are jointly fourth, with eight titles each, while Lyon has seven. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Government House of Baku is a government building housing various state ministries of Azerbaijan. Construction took place between 1936 and 1952 and led to the formation of Lenin Square (later renamed to Azadliq Square) seen here. In 1955, a monument to Vladimir Lenin was installed in front of the building, but this was removed in 1990 during the Azerbaijani independence movement in the aftermath of bloody Black January. A large Azerbaijan flag now flies where Lenin's statue once stood.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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