From the day before yesterday's featured article
Tropical Storm Hanna was the ninth tropical cyclone and eighth named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season. Hanna formed through the complex interaction of a surface trough, a tropical wave, and an upper-level low pressure system. Initially designated a tropical depression, it attained tropical storm status and a peak intensity of 1,001 mbar (29.6 inHg), with winds of 60 miles per hour (100 km/h). Hanna crossed southeastern Louisiana, and made a second landfall along the Alabama–Mississippi border. On Dauphin Island, Alabama, the storm caused coastal flooding which closed roads and forced the evacuation of residents. Florida received high wind gusts, heavy rainfall, and strong surf that resulted in the deaths of three swimmers. 20,000 homes in the state lost electricity. In Georgia, significant flooding occurred. Crop damage was extensive, and about 335 structures were damaged by the flooding. The storm caused a total of about $20 million USD in damage. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
- ... that the Austin J. Tobin Plaza (pictured) was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, but one of the sculptures on it survived?
- ... that in 1884 Motibai Kapadia's father allowed her to study alongside men in India?
- ... that in the late 1940s the steam tug Brent removed war-related debris, including naval mines, from the River Thames?
- ... that Lorena Peril, who once cleaned toilets at a nursing home, beat out over 3,000 people to sing the national anthem for the San Francisco 49ers?
- ... that Mohammad Bhar, a Palestinian man with Down syndrome and autism, died following a dog attack in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war?
- ... that Héctor Germán Oesterheld repurposed his initial plans for a sequel of the comic The Eternaut as a novel?
- ... that Helen Hornbeck Tanner was part of a major case supporting the Ojibwe before the Supreme Court of the United States while in her 80s?
- ... that the title of the documentary Wolfman's Got Nards is derived from a memorable line in the 1987 film The Monster Squad?
- ... that USA Boxing's head coach said that Olympian Jajaira Gonzalez's return to boxing was "like Lazarus coming back from the dead"?
In the news (For today)
- Typhoon Yagi (satellite image shown) leaves more than 790 people dead across seven Asian countries.
- Michel Barnier is appointed prime minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron, leading to nationwide anti-government protests.
- An attempted jailbreak at Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaves 129 people dead.
- A Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashes in Kamchatka, Russia, killing all 22 people on board.
Two days ago
- 379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I took the throne as the ruler (ajaw) of the Mayan city of Tikal.
- 1846 – The English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (both pictured) married in secret to avoid their disapproving families before moving to Italy.
- 1933 – Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while waiting for a traffic light in Bloomsbury, London.
- 1948 – The People's Liberation Army launched the Liaoshen campaign, the first of the three major military campaigns during the late stage of the Chinese Civil War.
- 1995 – Hurricane Ismael formed off the southwest coast of Mexico; it went on to kill over a hundred people in the country.
- Parsley Peel (d. 1795)
- Alice Ayres (b. 1859)
- Ion Agârbiceanu (b. 1882)
- Steve Biko (d. 1977)
The day before yesterday's featured picture
The smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani) is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. The smooth-billed ani is a mid-sized species, larger on average than the groove-billed ani but smaller than the greater ani. It measures approximately 35 centimetres (14 inches) in overall length. Males weigh around 115 grams (4.1 ounces), while females are lighter at around 95 grams (3.4 ounces). Adults are mainly glossy black, with a long tail, deep ridged black bill and a brown iris. This smooth-billed ani was photographed in George Town, on the island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. Photograph Charles J. Sharp
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