The Christmas 1994 nor'easter was an intense cyclone along the East
Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. It developed from an
area of low pressure in the southeast Gulf of Mexico near the Florida
Keys, and moved across the state of Florida. As it entered the warm
waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean, it began to rapidly
intensify, exhibiting traits of a tropical system, including the
formation of an eye. It attained a pressure of 970 millibars on
December 23 and 24, and after moving northward, it came ashore near New
York City on Christmas Eve. Due to the uncertain nature of the storm,
the National Hurricane Center (NHC) did not classify it as a tropical
cyclone. Heavy rain from the developing storm contributed to
significant flooding in South Carolina. Much of the rest of the East
Coast was affected by high winds, coastal flooding, and beach erosion.
New York State and New England bore the brunt of the storm; damage was
extensive on Long Island, and in Connecticut, 130,000 households lost
electric power during the storm. Widespread damage and power outages
also occurred throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts, where the
storm generated 30-foot (9.1 m) waves along the coast.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_1994_nor%27easter>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
800:
In Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, Frankish King Charlemagne was crowned
Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III as a rival of the Byzantine Emperor
in Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne>
1100:
Baldwin of Boulogne was crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I_of_Jerusalem>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: George Washington and his army crossed the
Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian mercenaries at
the Battle of Trenton.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s_crossing_of_the_Delaware_River>
1927:
The Vietnamese Nationalist Party, a revolutionary socialist political
party that sought independence from French colonial rule in Vietnam,
was formed in Hanoi.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Nam_Quoc_Dan_Dang>
1941:
World War II: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began after Mark
Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, surrendered the territory
to Japan after 18 days of fierce fighting.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_Hong_Kong>
2003:
The Beagle 2 space probe, part of the European Space Agency's Mars
Express mission, disappeared shortly before its scheduled landing on
Mars.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
chiliasm (n):
Belief in an earthly thousand-year period of peace and prosperity,
sometimes equated with the return of Jesus for that period
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chiliasm>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not
Christmas in his heart.
--Helen Keller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Helen_Keller>