Alcántara Bridge, a Roman arch bridge in Spain

A bridge is a structure designed to span an obstacle, such as a river or valley, allowing vehicles, pedestrians, and other loads to pass across. Simple bridge structures include beam bridges made from logs, and suspension bridges made of ropes or vines. The Romans and ancient Chinese built major arch bridges (example pictured) of timber, stone, and brick. The longest spans use suspension or cable-stayed designs. Bridge design is an important discipline within the field of civil engineering. A bridge must be strong enough to support its own weight as well as the weight of the traffic passing over it. It must also tolerate violent, unpredictable stresses imposed by the environment, including winds, floods, and earthquakes. Many bridges are admired for their beauty, and some spectacular bridges serve as iconic landmarks that provide a sense of pride and identity for the local community. In art and literature, bridges are frequently used as metaphors to represent connection or transition. (Full article…)

The Nile near Aswan, Egypt

• … that the Nile (pictured) is the longest river in the world, but the volume of water it carries is only about 1% of the Amazon, 6% of the Congo, and 12% of the Yangtze?
• … that although one ancient source reports that the city of Antigoneia was destroyed in 300 BC, another records that it still existed almost 250 years later?
• … that Pope John Paul II’s brother died from scarlet fever after contracting it from one of his patients?
• … that Missouri did not repeal its school segregation laws until 22 years after Brown v. Board of Education?
• … that Singapore’s “most-medaled SEA Games archer” was twice banned from competitive archery?
• … that the 2013 Liechtenstein general election marked a shift from a two-party system towards a multi-party system?
• … that South Aceh regent Husin Yusuf removed his traditional ceremonial outfit in anger after the president of Indonesia failed to attend an exhibition of South Aceh’s culture?
• … that every year in July, a whole German town is taken over by the Rudolstadt-Festival and swept up in “folk fever”?
• … that Don McGowan once arranged a streaking incident on his talk show?

Romuald Wadagni

• Two separate school shootings in Siverek and in Onikişubat, Turkey, leave 12 people dead and 35 others injured.
• Romuald Wadagni (pictured) wins the Beninese presidential election.
• In golf, Rory McIlroy wins the Masters Tournament.
• The Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, wins the Hungarian parliamentary election, ending sixteen years of rule by Viktor Orbán‘s Fidesz.

April 17: Independence Day in Syria (1946); Malbec World Day

Cross-section of the Mechanical Turk

• 1362 – Lithuanian Crusade: After a month-long siege, the Teutonic Order captured and destroyed Kaunas Castle, which was defended by troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
• 1783 – The Mechanical Turk (pictured), a fraudulent chess-playing “machine” by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controlled by a hidden human, began a tour of Europe.
• 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the assassination of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy.
• 1986 – The Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace, having hypothetically been at war for 335 years without a single shot being fired and no casualties incurred.
• 2006 – A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives in a restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 11 people and injuring 70 others.