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SS Edward L. Ryerson is a steel-hulled American Great Lakes freighter which entered service in 1960. Built between 1959 and 1960 for the Inland Steel Company, she was a member of the so-called 730-class of lake freighters, which shared the unofficial title of "Queen of the Lakes" due to their record-breaking length of 730 feet (222.5 m). The last steam-powered freighter built on the lakes, she began her maiden voyage on August 4, 1960, heading from Escanaba, Michigan, for Indiana Harbor, Indiana, with a cargo of iron ore. Edward L. Ryerson quickly became popular, to the point that there were rumors she would regularly be directed through the lock closest to the shore, the MacArthur Lock, for the benefit of boat watchers. She set two Great Lakes cargo haulage records during the 1960s, with the latter, set on August 28, 1962, being broken in 1965. Edward L. Ryerson has been laid up in Superior, Wisconsin, since 2009. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that Baer's pochard (example pictured), found in eastern Asia, has seen a population decline of more than 99 percent in past decades, and is no longer migratory in central and eastern China?
- ... that ballerina Ashley Ellis started her own dancewear brand after her colleagues at Boston Ballet asked her to make leg warmers for them?
- ... that as the reality of Venus's harsh surface conditions became known from the mid-20th century, the early tropes of adventures in Venusian tropics gave way to more realistic stories?
- ... that Mario Fiorentini was Italy's most decorated World War II resistance fighter?
- ... that Lechmere station was proposed for replacement in 1924 – yet was in use until 2020?
- ... that after suffering life-changing injuries as a baby, five-year-old Tony Hudgell raised £1.7 million for a London children's hospital, and inspired English law changes on child abuse?
- ... that George Balanchine's ballet Scotch Symphony, set to Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony, evokes the style of La Sylphide, a romantic ballet set in Scotland?
- ... that Suay Sew Shop plans to be owned by its sewers?
In the news
- Floods in Pakistan kill more than 1,000 people and over 700,000 livestock.
- Incumbent president João Lourenço (pictured) and his party, the MPLA, are declared winners of the general election in Angola.
- William Ruto is elected President of Kenya.
- In Giza, Egypt, a church fire spreads to a nursery, killing 41 people, including at least 18 children.
On this day
- 475 – Orestes took control of Ravenna, the capital of the Western Roman Empire, forcing Emperor Julius Nepos to flee.
- 1640 – Bishops' Wars: Scottish Covenanter forces led by Alexander Leslie defeated the English army near Newburn, England.
- 1950 – In tennis, Althea Gibson became the first African-American woman to compete at the U.S. National Championships.
- 1987 – Construction on the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, the tallest structure in North Korea, began.
- 1993 – The NASA spacecraft Galileo flew by the asteroid 243 Ida and took photographs that later revealed the first known asteroid moon (both pictured).
- Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine (d. 1793)
- Lindsay Hassett (b. 1913)
- Jack Kirby (b. 1917)
Today's featured picture
$1: Edwin Stanton
$10: Philip Sheridan
$20: John Marshall
$50: William H. Seward
$100: David Farragut
$500: William Tecumseh Sherman
$1000: George Meade
The Treasury Note (also known as a Coin Note) was a type of representative money issued by the United States government from 1890 until 1893 to individuals selling silver bullion to the Treasury. A distinguishing feature of the 1890 series of Treasury Notes (and one that greatly appeals to collectors) is the extremely ornate designs on the reverse of the banknotes. It was intended to make counterfeiting much more difficult, but opponents argued that the extensive detail would make it more difficult to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit notes. Consequently, the designs for the reverse were simplified on the 1891 series of Treasury Notes, of which a complete set, comprising nine denominations from $1 to $1000, is pictured here. Each bears the engraved signatures of James Fount Tillman (Register of the Treasury) and Daniel N. Morgan (Treasurer of the United States), and a portrait of a different individual, identified above. The banknotes are part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Banknote design credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; scanned by Andrew Shiva
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