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I-196 entering downtown Grand Rapids

Interstate 196 (I-196) is an auxiliary interstate highway that runs for 80.6 miles (129.7 km) in the US state of Michigan. It is a state trunkline highway that links Benton Harbor, South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids. I-196 is known as the Gerald R. Ford Freeway in Kent, Ottawa, and Allegan counties, after the 38th president of the United States, who was raised in Grand Rapids and served Michigan in the House of Representatives. There are two business loops (BL I-196) and one business spur (BS I-196) that serve the South Haven, Holland, and Grand Rapids areas. The current I-196 is the second in the state to bear the number. The Benton Harbor–Grand Rapids freeway was designated I-96 in the 1950s while another interstate, between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, was numbered I-196. That I-196 was built in the late 1950s and completed in the early 1960s. Michigan officials requested a change in 1963, which switched the two numbers. (This article is part of a featured topic: Interstate 96.)

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Did you know ...

Male crimson-headed partridge

... that the scientific name of the crimson-headed partridge (pictured) translates to "blood-headed blood quail"?
... that disability-rights activist Edith Prentiss objected to the title of a documentary about her, Edith Prentiss: Hell on Wheels, for being too mild?
... that "Es tönen die Lieder", a German round about greeting spring with songs, first appeared in 1869 in a collection of works by Adolf Spieß, who developed a series of school-gymnastics steps to it?
... that Nigerian footballer Chibuzor Nwakanma was among the first few foreign players to play for all the "big three" Kolkata-based football clubs, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, and Mohammedan Sporting?
... that LACE found a pre-dawn breeze on the Moon?
... that messianic rebel Abu al-Umaytir's attempt to restore the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus was defeated by the forces of the Abbasid loyalist Ibn Bayhas?
... that Ukrainian science fiction and fantasy is written both in Ukrainian and Russian?
... that Shining Spark has sired 1,300 foals?

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On this day

May 8: World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day; Anniversary of the birth of Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico (1753); Victory in Europe Day (1945)

The remains of Tollund Man shortly after his discovery

1821 – Greek War of Independence: At the Battle of Gravia Inn, a 120-man Greek force led by Odysseas Androutsos repulsed an Ottoman army of 8,000 soldiers.
1927 – French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli aboard the biplane L'Oiseau Blanc took off from Paris, attempting to make the first non-stop flight to New York, only to disappear before arrival.
1942 – World War II: The Axis launched a major counteroffensive, turning the tide of the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula.
1950 – The Tollund Man (pictured), a naturally mummified corpse, was discovered in a peat bog near Silkeborg, Denmark.
1972 – Four members of Black September hijacked Sabena Flight 571 to demand the release of 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists.

Thomas Drury (b. 1551)
Helena Blavatsky (d. 1891)
Beatrice Worsley (d. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

Engraving of Hernando de Soto discovering the Mississippi

Hernando de Soto (c. 1500 – 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatán Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in present-day Peru, but is best known for leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States. He was the first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River, which he did on May 8, 1541, depicted in this engraved vignette, an example of art on United States banknotes. Produced for the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the engraving is of William Henry Powell's painting Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto, which hangs in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.

Engraving credit: Frederick Girsch, after William Henry Powell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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