The 2003 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually active, with tropical
cyclone activity both before June and after November for the first time
in 50 years. There were three major hurricanes, and the sixteen named
storms tied for the sixth highest total on record. The strongest
hurricane of the season was Isabel, which reached Category 5 on the
Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale northeast of the Lesser Antilles, and
later struck North Carolina at Category 2, causing damage worth
$3.6 billion and 51 deaths across the Mid-Atlantic United States. In
early September, Hurricane Fabian struck Bermuda as a Category 3
hurricane, the strongest since 1926; it caused four deaths and
$300 million in damage (example pictured) on the island. Hurricane Juan
wreaked considerable destruction on Nova Scotia, particularly Halifax,
as a Category 2 hurricane, the first of significant strength there
since 1893. The minimal hurricanes Claudette and Erika struck Texas and
Mexico, respectively.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Atlantic_hurricane_season>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1712:
In New York City, a group of 23 slaves set a building on fire
and escaped, but were soon recaptured.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Revolt_of_1712>
1812:
Peninsular War: After a three-week siege, the Anglo-Portuguese
Army, under the Earl of Wellington, captured Badajoz, Spain, and forced
the surrender of the French garrison.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Badajoz_(1812)>
1886:
Vancouver, one of British Columbia's youngest cities, was
incorporated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver>
1945:
Second World War: The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville
Island concluded with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th
Brigade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Slater%27s_Knoll>
2005:
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was elected by the Iraqi National
Assembly as the first non-Arab President of Iraq.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalal_Talabani>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
pornocracy:
1. (Roman Catholicism, historical, sometimes capitalized) The period of the
papacy known as the saeculum obscurum (Latin for “dark age”), and
also as the “Rule of the Harlots”, which began with the installation
of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasted for sixty years until the death of
Pope John XII in 964, during which time the popes were strongly
influenced by the Theophylacti, a powerful and corrupt aristocratic
family.
2. (derogatory, often figuratively) A government by, or dominated by,
prostitutes or corrupt persons.
3. (derogatory) A societal culture dominated by pornography.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pornocracy>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of the laws of nature on which the condition of man depends, that
which is attended with the greatest number of consequences is the
necessity of labor for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as
the means of the greatest part of our pleasures. This is no doubt the
primary cause of government; for if nature had produced spontaneously
all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the
desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury
among men, nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring
authority over another. The results are exceedingly different when
nature produces the objects of desire not in sufficient abundance for
all. The source of dispute is then exhaustless, and every man has the
means of acquiring authority over others in proportion to the quantity
of those objects which he is able to possess. In this case the end to be
obtained through government as the means, is to make that distribution
of the scanty materials of happiness which would insure the greatest sum
of it in the members of the community taken altogether, preventing every
individual or combination of individuals from interfering with that
distribution or making any man to have less than his share.
--James Mill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Mill>