Carleton College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, the college enrolled 2,105 undergraduate students and employed 269 faculty members in fall 2016; the 200-acre main campus is located between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowling Arboretum, which became part of the campus in the 1920s. In its 2019 edition of national liberal arts college rankings, U. S. News & World Report ranked Carleton fifth-best first for undergraduate teaching. From 2000 through 2016, the institution has produced 122 National Science Graduate Fellows, 112 Fulbright Scholars, 22 Watson Fellows, 20 NCAA Postgraduate Scholars, 13 Goldwater Scholars, 2 Rhodes Scholars. Carleton is one of the largest sources of undergraduate students pursuing doctorates per one hundred students for bachelors institutions; the school was founded in 1866, when the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches unanimously accepted a resolution to locate a college in Northfield. Two Northfield businessmen, Charles Augustus Wheaton and Charles Moorehouse Goodsell, each donated 10 acres of land for the first campus.

The first students enrolled at the preparatory unit of Northfield College in the fall of 1867. In 1870, the first college president, James Strong, traveled to the East Coast to raise funds for the college. On his way from visiting a potential donor, William Carleton of Charlestown, Strong was badly injured in a collision between his carriage and a train. Impressed by Strong's survival of the accident, Carleton donated $50,000 to the fledgling institution in 1871; as a result, the Board of Trustees renamed the school in his honor. The college graduated its first college class in 1874, James J. Dow and Myra A. Brown, who married each other that year. On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger Gang, led by outlaw Jesse James, tried to rob the First National Bank of Northfield. Joseph Lee Heywood, Carleton's Treasurer, was acting cashier at the bank that day, he was killed for refusing to open the safe. Carleton named a library fund after Heywood; the Heywood Society is the name for a group of donors. In its early years under the presidency of James Strong, Carleton reflected the theological conservatism of its Minnesota Congregational founders.

In 1903, modern religious influences were introduced by William Sallmon, a Yale Divinity School graduate, hired as college president. Sallmon was opposed by conservative faculty members and alumni, left the presidency by 1908. After Sallmon left, the trustees hired Donald J. Cowling, another theologically liberal Yale Divinity School graduate, as his successor. In 1916, under Cowling's leadership, Carleton began an official affiliation with the Minnesota Baptist Convention, it lasted until 1928, when the Baptists severed the relationship as a result of fundamentalist opposition to Carleton's liberalism, including the college's support for teaching evolution. Non-denominational for a number of years, in 1964 Carleton abolished its requirement for weekly attendance at some religious or spiritual meeting. In 1927, students founded the first student-run pub in The Cave. Located in the basement of Evans Hall, it continues to host live music shows and other events several times each week. In 1942, Carleton purchased land in Stanton, about 10 miles east of campus, to use for flight training.

During World War II, several classes of male students went through air basic training at the college. Since being sold by the college in 1944, the Stanton Airfield has been operated for commercial use; the world premiere production of the English translation of Bertolt Brecht's play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, was performed in 1948 at Carleton's Nourse Little Theater. In 1963 the Reformed Druids of North America was founded by students at Carleton as a means to be excused from attendance of then-mandatory weekly chapel service. Within a few years, the group evolved to engage in legitimate spiritual exploration. Meetings continue to be held in the Carleton College Cowling Arboretum. President Bill Clinton gave the last commencement address of his administration at Carleton, on June 10, 2000, marking the first presidential visit to the college. Carleton is a small, liberal arts college offering 33 different majors and 31 minors, is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Students have the option to design their own major.

There are ten languages offered: Spanish, German, Japanese, Arabic, Latin and Hebrew. The academic calendar follows a trimester system where students take three classes per 10-week term. Degree students are required to take an Argument & Inquiry Seminar in their first year, a writing course, three quantitative reasoning encounters, international studies, intercultural domestic studies, humanistic inquiry, literary/artistic analysis, arts practice, formal or statistical reasoning, social inquiry, physical education; the average class sizes at Carleton are as follows: 16.48% of classes have 10–19 students, 24% have 2–9 students, 21% have 20–29 students, 5% have 30 or more students. The most popular areas of study are biology, political science and international relations, chemistry, psychology and computer science. Carleton is one of the few liberal arts colleges. Studying abroad is common at Carleton: 76% of the senior class of 2018 studied abroad at least once over their four years. Carleton offers a number of its own programs each year, which are led by Carleton faculty and available only to Carleton students.

In 2017-2018 there were 17 of such programs offered. Although many students opt to go on a

First Unitarian Church of Providence is a Unitarian Universalist congregation located at the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets in Providence, Rhode Island. The congregation was founded in 1723, the current church building was dedicated in 1816. For many years it was known as the First Congregational Church of Providence; the first churches in Providence were Baptist. It wasn't until 1721 that the First Congregational Society was formed, it erected its first house of worship in 1723; this building was known as the "Old Town House", stood where the Providence County Courthouse now stands. By 1728, there were nine members of the congregation, led by Josiah Cotton as pastor. A new, larger building was built on the corner of Benefit and Benevolent Streets, where the current church now stands; this building was destroyed by fire June 14, 1814. The current building was designed by local architect John Holden Greene, who designed many buildings in Providence; the design scheme of a pedimented portico in front of a tower and tall spire was similar to Charles Bulfinch's design for Boston's New South Church.

The building was dedicated October 13, 1816. It was built with white stone quarried in Rhode Island; the original floor plan was 77 x 80 feet. The spire is 189 feet, 11 inches tall; the original cost was over $50,000. The bell in the church's bell tower is the largest cast by the Paul Revere foundry in Canton, Massachusetts. Renovations were made to the building in 1868 and 1916. In 1966, a bolt of lightning started a fire. Plaster detailing was destroyed along with the church's organ; the architect for the restoration was Irving B. Haynes, of Johnson & Haynes. Although founded as a congregationalist church, the church became explicitly Unitarian in theology under the leadership of Rev. Henry Edes. For many years it was known as The First Congregational Church. In April 1953 the congregation voted to change the name to The First Unitarian Church of Providence. On March 26, 2017, the church voted to become a Sanctuary Church, a policy which would allow non-citizens to stay in the church and claim protection against deportation.

Providence Mayor Thomas A. Doyle's memorial funeral service was held at the church on June 14, 1886. A funeral mass for Sarah Elizabeth Doyle, suffragist and sister of Mayor Thomas Doyle, was held in December 1922. Frank F. Olney, 18th mayor of Providence, was a member of the church. First Unitarian Church of Providence official website

The 1868 Ecuador earthquakes occurred at 19:30 UTC on August 15 and 06:30 UTC on 16 August 1868. They caused severe damage in southwestern Colombia, they together caused up to 70,000 casualties. The earthquake of 15 August occurred near El Ángel, Carchi Province, close to the border with Colombia, while that of August 16 occurred near Ibarra in Imbabura Province. Reports of these earthquakes are confused with the effects of the earthquake of 13 August at Arica; the active tectonics of Ecuador is dominated by the effects of the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate. The high degree of coupling across the plate boundary where the Carnegie Ridge is being subducted beneath northern Ecuador causes unusually intense intraplate deformation. Known faults within the area of the earthquake epicenters are the SSW-NNE trending San Isidro, El Ángel, Río Ambi and Otavalo Faults, all considered to be dextral strike-slip faults, sometimes with reverse movement. All these faults are interpreted to have moved in the last 1.6 million years.

The towns of El Ángel and La Concepcion were shaken by the first earthquake and El Ángel was described as "ruined". Ibarra was devastated, with every building destroyed and only a few walls left standing. Nearby Otavalo was left without a single house standing and 6,000 people died. In Imbabura, there were 15–20,000 casualties. There was a minor foreshock the previous afternoon, with the mainshock occurring at 01:30 local time early on the morning of 16 August; the shaking lasted for one minute. The relief efforts were organised by Gabriel García Moreno, appointed to that role by the federal government. On 26 April each year, in the'El Retorno' festival, Ibarra celebrates the return of the inhabitants in 1872 after a four-year absence following the earthquake. List of earthquakes in Colombia List of earthquakes in Ecuador List of historical earthquakes