Daily Pic 06/11/18 (Great Barrier Reef from above)

Dick Sweeney/Gallery Stock

A ‘Great’ view from above

At 132,974 square miles, the Great Barrier Reef is about half the size of Texas, a statistic that becomes even more amazing when you learn the reef was created by teeny, tiny marine invertebrates. Coral reefs are formed when colonies of coral polyps secrete hard exoskeletons made of calcium carbonate, slowly building an underwater home that supports marine life of all shapes and sizes. That’s a feat worth protecting.

Today in History 06/11 (Great Barrier Reef Found)

Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef (© Getty Images)(1770) Captain James Cook makes an accidental discovery
English explorer Captain James Cook's ship runs aground off the coast of Australia, in the world's largest coral reef system. The Great Barrier Reef was already well-known to the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
Area: 132,974 sq miles (344,400 km²)

Satelite image of the Great Barrier Reef
Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef adjacent to the Queensland coastal areas of Airlie Beach and Mackay.
wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef
4.12.j18

(1770) Captain James Cook makes an accidental discovery.
Also on this day,
1949 | Hank Williams makes his rapturous Grand Ole Opry debut
'Lovesick Blues' is a huge hit and is Hank Williams' ticket to country music's Mecca, the Grand Ole Opry, where Hank and his Drifting Cowboys wow the crowd and play a record six encores. Williams' meteoritic rise will flame out when he dies, due in part to alcohol abuse, at the age of 29.
1962 | Inmates escape from 'The Rock' and disappear into the bay
The infamous Alcatraz Island penitentiary has been thought escape-proof, but The Rock loses three of its inmates today as they pose dummy heads in their bunks, crawl through spoon-dug holes, scale the prison fence, and shove off into San Francisco Bay on rafts made with prison raincoats.
1986 | 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' released
John Hughes' comedy about a high school student's elaborate plan to skip school hits theaters. It will become a box office success and produce quotes and catch phrases that will permeate pop culture for years to come. It's over. Go home. Go.

Daily Pic 06/11/17

Pretty in Pink
© Norbert Wu/Minden Pictures

Pink skunk clownfish in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia



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