Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 February 26

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Middle Teton and Grand Teton in the winter

Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park in northwestern Wyoming, established on February 26, 1929. Approximately 310,000 acres (130,000 ha), it includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range and most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. Human history dates back 11,000 years, when the first nomadic Paleo-Indians migrated into the region. The area was explored by mountain man John Colter in 1807, but permanent white settlers did not inhabit it until the 1880s. Efforts to preserve the area as a national park began in the late 19th century and the eventual expansion of the park in 1950 was a watershed in the land conservation movement. Though the Teton Range is the youngest mountain chain in the Rocky Mountains, some of the rocks in the park are the oldest found in any U.S. National Park, at nearly 2.7 billion years. More than 1000 species of vascular plants, dozens of species of mammals, 300 species of birds, more than a dozen fish species and a few species of reptiles and amphibians exist. The park is a popular destination for mountaineering, camping and fishing, and has over 200 miles (320 km) of hiking trails. (Full article...)

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  • On this day...

    February 26: Ayyám-i-Há begins (Bahá'í calendar); Liberation Day in Kuwait (1991); Saviours' Day (Nation of Islam)

    Coin featuring bust of Valentinian I

  • 747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar began and with it, a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
  • 364 – Following the death of the Roman emperor Jovian, officers of the army at Nicaea in Bithynia selected Flavius Valentinianus (pictured) to succeed him.
  • 1815Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba, an island off the coast of Italy where he had been exiled after the signing of the Treaty of Fontainebleau one year earlier.
  • 1935Adolf Hitler ordered the German air force Luftwaffe reinstated, violating the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the First World War.
  • 1991 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee introduced WorldWideWeb, the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor.

    More anniversaries: February 25 February 26 February 27

    It is now February 26, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page
  • Today's featured picture

    Ames ProcessLoweringRemnant slagUranium biscuit
    Ames Process
    The Ames process was developed during the Manhattan Project to refine uranium. Left to right:
  • Pressure vessel containing uranium halide and sacrificial metal being lowered into a furnace
  • After the reaction, remnant slag in the container
  • Uranium metal "biscuit" end product
  • Photographs: Unknown

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