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Cleveland is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the U.S. state of Ohio. It was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and became a manufacturing center owing to its location at the head of numerous canals and railroad lines. With the decline of heavy manufacturing, Cleveland's businesses have diversified into the service economy, including the financial services, insurance, and healthcare sectors. As of the 2000 Census, the city proper had a total population of 478,403, making it the 33rd largest city in the nation. Recent investments have provided the city with tourist attractions in the downtown area, such as Jacobs Field, the and Roll Hall of Fame">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Playhouse Square Center. In studies conducted by The Economist in 2005, Cleveland and Pittsburgh were ranked as the most livable cities in the United States, and the city was ranked as the best city for business meetings in the continental U.S. Nevertheless, the city faces continuing challenges, in particular from concentrated poverty in some neighborhoods and difficulties in the funding and delivering of high-quality public education. (more...)

Recently featured: Pashtun people – or the Gospel of the Witches">Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches – Finnish Civil War

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that the records of English herald Thomas Hawley (pictured) contain the first preserved account of a heraldic visitation?
...that, during the Great Depression, the Romanian politician Grigore Iunian proposed devaluing the leu as a means to curb peasant insolvency?
...that the 3rd Earl of Radnor, wanting the borough of Downton to be free from his own influence, successfully pushed for its complete disenfranchisement?
...that Crveni Krst, a neigborhood of Belgrade, Serbia, was built around the alleged burial site of Saint Sava?
...that it was recently discovered that about 10,000 Muslim graves in Cebeci Asri Cemetery, Ankara, Turkey were not oriented in the direction required by Islam?
...that Oscar Kiss Maerth asserted in his 1971 book was the End">The Beginning was the End that humankind evolved from cannibalistic apes?

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In the news

Following a provincial general election which saw no party win more than 39% of the seats, the Liberal Party retains power in Quebec (flag pictured) as the province's first minority government in 129 years.
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is declared the winner of the Mauritanian presidential election.
In Northern Ireland, members of the DUP and Sinn Féin, led respectively by Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, meet face-to-face for the first time, and agree on a timetable for implementing the St Andrews Agreement.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards detain fifteen British Royal Navy personnel assigned to HMS Cornwall, alleging they illegally entered Iranian waters.
Jamaican police are treating the death of Pakistan cricket team coach Bob Woolmer during the ongoing Cricket World Cup as a case of murder.
More than one hundred coal miners are confirmed dead in the Ulyanovskaya Mine disaster, Russia's worst mining accident in a decade.

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On this day...

March 29:

1638 - Swedish settlers founded New Sweden near Delaware Bay, the first Swedish colony in America.
1809 - At the Diet of Porvoo, the Four Estates of Finland pledged allegiance to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.
1831 - Bosniak general Husein Gradaščević began an uprising against Sultan Mahmud II and the Ottoman Empire.
1871 - The Royal Albert Hall (pictured) in Albertopolis was officially opened by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
1974 - NASA spaceprobe Mariner 10 flew by the planet Mercury.

Recent days: March 28 – March 27 – March 26

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Today's featured picture

Aisles of packaged food in a Fred Meyer hypermarket in Portland, Oregon. A hypermarket is a combination of a supermarket and a department store, and the Fred Meyer chain is one of the pioneers of the hypermarket format in the United States. Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, is the top grocery retailer and the third largest general retailer in the country.

Photo credit: Lyza Danger
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