Hurricane Bret was the first of five Category 4 hurricanes in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season and the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Jerry in 1989 to make landfall in Texas at hurricane intensity. After forming from a tropical wave on August 18, Bret began to track northward, and on August 21 it underwent rapid intensification. It attained its peak intensity with winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 944 mbar (hPa; 27.88 inHg). Bret turned northwestward on August 22 and weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, making landfall on Padre Island, Texas. It caused relatively little damage in comparison to its intensity, but seven people died from the storm, four in Texas and three in Mexico. Most of the deaths were due to car accidents caused by slippery roads. Heavy rains produced by Bret peaked at 13.18 inches (335 mm) in Texas and were estimated at over 14 inches (360 mm) in Mexico. Roughly 150 people were left homeless after their homes were damaged or destroyed.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bret
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1868:
Astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen discovered helium while analysing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium
1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
1948:
Australia won their fifth consecutive Test of the 1948 Ashes series, becoming the first Test cricket team to go undefeated in England, earning them the nickname "The Invincibles". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Test,_1948_Ashes_series
2008:
President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigned under impeachment pressure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_to_impeach_Pervez_Musharraf
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
honey plant: 1. (beekeeping) Any plant, all of them eudicots, from which bees usually collect nectar, pollen, or both for making honey. 2. (botany) The name of a number of unrelated plants. A plant of the genus Hoya, especially the porcelainflower or waxplant (Hoya carnosa) from the tendency for excess nectar to drip from its flowers. A plant of the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). Bishop's weed or false Queen Anne's lace (Ammi majus). 3. A plant of the genus Hoya, especially the porcelainflower or waxplant (Hoya carnosa) from the tendency for excess nectar to drip from its flowers. 4. A plant of the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). 5. Bishop's weed or false Queen Anne's lace (Ammi majus). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/honey_plant
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Perhaps the first fire, the first tool, the first wheel, the first carving in a limestone cave, had each possessed a symbolic rather than a practical value, had each been pressed to serve distortion rather than reality. It was a sort of madness that had driven man from his humble sites on the edges of the woods into towns and cities, into arts and wars, into religious crusades, into martyrdom and prostitution, into dyspepsia and fasting, into love and hatred, into this present cul-de- sac; it had all come about in pursuit of symbols. In the beginning was the symbol, and darkness was over the face of the Earth. --Brian Aldiss https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss