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Exit A, the southbound-only exit to the Midtown and Downbeach districts

The Atlantic City–Brigantine Connector is a connector freeway in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is a 2.37-mile (3.81 km) extension of the Atlantic City Expressway, connecting it to Route 87 and Brigantine via the Marina district of Atlantic City. It is locally known as "the Tunnel" due to its tunnel underneath the Westside neighborhood. It is a state highway owned and operated by the South Jersey Transportation Authority. Proposals for a similar road date to 1964; planning began in 1995 after businessman Steve Wynn proposed a new casino in the Marina district. It was supported by Governor Christine Todd Whitman and Mayor Jim Whelan, but opposed by residents whose homes would be destroyed, and competing casino owner Donald Trump, who filed lawsuits. Its construction took almost three years and it opened in July 2001 at a total cost of $330 million. The connector serves up to 30,000 vehicles daily, and it has brought business to the casinos in the Marina district. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Luten Petrowsky

... that in 1973 Luten Petrowsky (pictured) played the saxophone in a quartet that made the first record with jazz musicians from both East and West Germany?
... that after Texaco accused the academic publishers suing it for copyright infringement of profiteering, the judge called it "an odd argument ... to be made by an oil company"?
... that after Luigi Galleani was deported from the United States, his followers retaliated by carrying out a series of bomb attacks against government officials?
... that Tropicana was reportedly the first building in Singapore to contain nightclubs, restaurants, and a theatre?
... that in August 2021 Sheika Scott became the youngest player to score in the Costa Rican Women's Premier Division, at just 14 years old?
... that the newly discovered red tigrina may already be extinct?
... that Emi Wong, the Hong Kong YouTuber with the most subscribers, used a carpet sweeper to do lunges and bottles of laundry detergent to do squats?
... that the 100 gecs tree was listed as a "place of worship" on Google Maps?

In the news

Mohamed Bazoum

In Niger, the presidential guard successfully mounts a coup d'état, deposing Mohamed Bazoum (pictured).
The Israeli Knesset approves a judicial reform bill after months of protests against it.
In cycling, Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France.
In Spain, the People's Party, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, receives a plurality of votes in the general election.

On this day

July 27

Signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement in Panmunjom

678 – Unable to penetrate the city's defences, the Sclaveni gave up their siege of the Byzantine city of Thessalonica.
1225 – Saint Mary's Church on Gotland, later to become Visby Cathedral, was consecrated.
1943 – As the Surprise Hurricane struck Texas, a United States Army Air Forces pilot made the first reconnaissance flight into a hurricane.
1953 – An armistice was signed (pictured) to end hostilities in the Korean War, officially making the division of Korea indefinite by creating a 4 km wide (2.5 mi) demilitarized zone across the Korean Peninsula.
2010 – Police in Tokyo found the mummified remains of Sogen Kato, thought to have died in 1978, leading to widespread inquiries into the status of isolated elderly people in Japan.

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Lennox (b. 1578)
Elizabeth Plankinton (b. 1853)
Wu Zhonghua (b. 1917)
Alfred Duraiappah (d. 1975)

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Today's featured picture

The bombing of Hamburg in World War II by the Allies included numerous attacks on German civilians and civic infrastructure. As a large city and industrial centre, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens and oil refineries were attacked throughout the war. In late July 1943, as part of a campaign of strategic bombing, the Allies launched Operation Gomorrah, an eight-day bombing campaign in Hamburg. In particular, during the 27/28 July raid carried out by the Royal Air Force (RAF), concentrated bombing created one of the largest firestorms of the war. Operation Gomorrah killed more than 37,000 people and destroyed 60% of the city's houses. An unexpected consequence of the raid was the reallocation of some German resources away from the fighting fronts. Large numbers of anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft were redeployed back to Germany, so aiding the Allies in their conduct of the ground war.

This United States propaganda newsreel (above), released in August 1943, covers the Eighth Air Force's bombing of Hamburg during Operation Gomorrah. The newsreel's narrator states that Hamburg is "Germany's principal seaport and number-one war center" and that the bombing caused "devastation of war plants", but does not mention the deliberate destruction of entire residential neighborhoods. The intent was to reduce German industrial production for the war effort by making workers homeless – an opinion based on study of the effect on British factories of German bombing during the Blitz.

This aerial photograph (below), taken by an RAF officer, shows part of the Hamburg district of Eilbek after this dehousing campaign; it was probably taken after the end of the war and certainly after rubble and other debris had been cleared.

Video credit: United States Office of War Information
Photograph credit: J. Dowd, Royal Air Force

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