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Today's featured article

Section of the trail in Shawangunk, New York

The Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail, also known as the Jesse McHugh Rail Trail, is a 3.22-mile (5.18 km) rail trail between the village of Walden and the hamlet of Wallkill. The two communities are located in Orange County and Ulster County, respectively, in upstate New York. The trail is part of the former Wallkill Valley Railroad's rail corridor. The railway was the first to operate in Ulster County. Passenger service ended in 1937; the opening of the New York State Thruway and decreased freight traffic caused the line to close in 1957. The land was purchased by the towns of Montgomery and Shawangunk in 1985 and converted to a public trail. The portion of the trail in Shawangunk was formally opened in 1993 and named after former town supervisor Jesse McHugh. After seven years of discussion, the route was paved between 2008 and 2009. The trail includes an unofficial, unimproved section to the north of Wallkill, and is bounded by NY 52 and NY 208. (Full article...)

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Sherman's March to the Sea

Engraving. credit: Alexander Hay Ritchie; restored by Adam Cuerden

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In the News

Justin Welby

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured) announces his resignation as a result of the John Smyth abuse scandal in the Church of England.
In Zhuhai, China, 35 people are killed in a vehicle-ramming attack.
Alliance for Change, led by Navin Ramgoolam, wins the Mauritian general election.
A suicide bombing by the Balochistan Liberation Army at the Quetta railway station, Pakistan, kills 32 people.
The German ruling coalition collapses over disagreements on economic policies.

Did you know?

Reverse of History Instructing Youth, featuring Martha Washington

... that Martha Washington's portrait on the 1896 US one-dollar silver certificate (pictured) is the most recent time that a woman has been featured on US paper money?
... that Dalibor Riccardi, a head of state of San Marino, has played more than 70 matches in the country's football league?
... that at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was booed for visiting the "wrong" Pennsylvanian gas station chain?
... that Eunus, a Syrian slave and reputed prophet, led a slave revolt in Sicily against the Roman Republic?
... that China was once the "Kingdom of Bicycles"?
... that Alan Rosen once sold 2,400 cheesecakes in four minutes to television shoppers?
... that Checheyigen's political acumen ensured that her family became one of the most powerful in the Mongol Empire?
... that the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies houses a John Steinbeck archive of more than 50,000 items?
... that "Buy Cash" is the speaker of the House of Assembly of Eswatini?

{{{Image text}}} On this day...

November 15

Deodoro da Fonseca

1760 – The chapel of the newly constructed Castellania in Valletta, Malta, was consecrated.
1859 – Sponsored by Greek businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens.
1889 – Brazilian emperor Pedro II was overthrown in a coup led by Deodoro da Fonseca (pictured), while the country was proclaimed a republic.
1922 – During a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fired into a crowd, killing at least 300 people.
1959 – Two men murdered a family in Holcomb, Kansas; the events became the subject of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, a pioneering work of the true crime genre.

Madeleine de Scudéry (b. 1607)
Sara Josephine Baker (b. 1873)
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (d. 1959)
Margaret Mead (d. 1978)

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