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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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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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Picture of the Day

Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began on November 15, 1864, with Sherman's troops leaving Atlanta, recently taken by Union forces, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy's economy and transportation networks. The operation debilitated the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender. This picture shows an engraving by Alexander Hay Ritchie depicting Sherman's March to the Sea.

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

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