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Part of the Coventry ring road at sunset

The Coventry ring road (A4053) is a 2.25-mile (3.62 km) ring road in Coventry, England, forming a dual-carriageway loop around the city centre. The road encloses Coventry Cathedral, the shopping areas, and much of Coventry University. Except junction 1, all junctions are entirely grade-separated and closely spaced, with weaving sections between them. The road connects with three other A roads: the A4114, the A4600 and the A429. From the 1930s, Coventry City Council began replacing its medieval streets with modern roads, and Donald Gibson, the city architect, began work in 1939 on a plan that was expanded after the Coventry Blitz during the Second World War. The ring road was constructed in six stages from 1959, initially with at-grade junctions, cycle tracks and footpaths, but in the early 1960s the council amended the design to include grade separation and the weaving sections. The road was completed in 1974, with an overall cost of £14.5 million (equivalent to £191 million in 2023). (Full article...)

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In the news (For today)

Philip Pierre

In Saint Lucia, the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre (pictured), retains its majority in the House of Assembly.
Playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard dies at the age of 88.
In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais win the World Rally Championship.
The New Democratic Party, led by Godwin Friday, wins the Vincentian general election.

In two days

December 8: Rōhatsu in Japan; Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day in Ethiopia; Liberation Day in Syria

Portrait of Margaret Hughes by Peter Lely, 1672

1660 – Margaret Hughes (pictured) appeared professionally on the English stage; she is thought to have been the first woman to do so.
1880 – At an assembly of 10,000 Boers, Paul Kruger announced the fulfilment of the decision to restore the government and volksraad of the South African Republic.
1987 – A man shot and killed eight people at the Australia Post building in Melbourne, before jumping to his death.
2010 – The Japanese experimental spacecraft IKAROS flew by Venus at a distance of 80,800 km (50,200 mi), completing its planned mission to demonstrate solar-sail technology.
2024 – The Syrian civil war ends when Bashar al-Assads' party, the Syrian Ba'ath Party, surrenders to the Syrian opposition.

Adolph Menzel (b. 1815)
Georges Feydeau (b. 1862)
Ann T. Bowling (d. 2000)
Robert Austin Markus (d. 2010)

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London King's Cross, the busiest and the only Grade I listed station on the route

There are fifty-five stations on the Great Northern route, a suburban rail route in London and the East of England. The route consists of services on the southern end of the East Coast Main Line, which is the main railway link between the cities of London and Edinburgh, as well as its associated branches, including the Cambridge line, Fen line, Hertford Loop line, and Northern City Line. The route is currently operated by Great Northern, which is one brand under the umbrella of Govia Thameslink Railway. Services originating at London King's Cross operate to Peterborough, Letchworth Garden City, Cambridge, Ely, and King's Lynn, whereas services originating at Moorgate operate to Welwyn Garden City, Hertford North, Gordon Hill, and Stevenage. (Full list...)

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Tomorrow's featured picture (Check back later for the day after tomorrow's.)

Hugh McCulloch (December 7, 1808 – May 24, 1895) was an American financier who played a central role in financing the American Civil War. He served two non-consecutive terms as United States Secretary of the Treasury under three presidents. He was originally opposed to the creation of a system of national banks, but his reputation as head of the Bank of Indiana from 1857 to 1863 persuaded the Treasury to bring him in to supervise the new system as Comptroller of the Currency from 1863 to 1865. As Secretary of the Treasury from 1865 to 1869 under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, McCulloch reduced and funded the gigantic Civil War debt of the Union, and reestablished the federal taxation system across the former Confederate States of America. He served another six months as Secretary of the Treasury from 1884 to 1885, at the close of Chester A. Arthur's term as president. This line-engraved portrait of McCulloch was created by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation book of the first 42 secretaries of the treasury; McCulloch's portrait was used on the 1902 United States twenty-dollar bill.

Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew Shiva

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