The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually active, with
17 tropical cyclones, 15 tropical storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major
hurricanes. The first named storm, Subtropical Storm Andrea, developed
on May 9, and the last, Tropical Storm Olga, dissipated on
December 13. The season was one of only four on record with more than
one Category 5 hurricane, Dean and Felix. Tied for the seventh most
intense Atlantic hurricane of all time, Dean hit Mexico as the third
most intense Atlantic hurricane at landfall. Felix also made landfall at
Category 5 intensity, in Central America. None of the season's other
hurricanes exceeded Category 1. Five cyclones made landfall in the US:
Hurricane Humberto, Tropical Storm Gabrielle, and three tropical
depressions. Three storms directly affected Canada, although none
severely. The combined storms killed at least 423 people and caused
about $3 billion in damage. The names Dean, Felix and Noel were later
retired from the list of Atlantic tropical storm names.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Atlantic_hurricane_season>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1662:
The figure who later became Mr. Punch of the Punch and Judy
show made his first recorded appearance in England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_and_Judy>
1877:
Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Mihail Kogălniceanu made a
speech in the Parliament that declared Romania was discarding Ottoman
suzerainty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Kog%C4%83lniceanu>
1918:
First World War: Germany repelled Britain's second attempt to
blockade the Belgian port of Ostend.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Ostend_Raid>
1960:
The United States Food and Drug Administration announced it
would approve the use of Searle's Enovid for birth control, making it
the first oral contraceptive pill.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill>
1977:
The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, which
resulted in 33 deaths and 21 injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Polen_fire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hillman:
A native or inhabitant of hilly or mountainous country; a tribesman who
lives in the mountains.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hillman>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We can know America through our flag which is its symbol … In
our flag the barriers of time and space vanish. All America that ever
was and ever will be lives every moment in our flag. Wherever in the
world two or three of us stand together under our flag, all America is
there. When we stand proudly and salute our flag, that is what we know
wordlessly in the passing moment. … Understand that our flag is not
the cloth but the pattern of form and color manifested in the cloth …
It could have been any pattern once, but our fathers chose that one.
History has made it sacred. The honor paid it in uncounted acts of
individual reverence has made it live. Every morning in American
schoolrooms children present their hearts to our flag. Every morning and
evening we render it our military salutes. And so the pattern lives and
it can manifest itself in any number of bits of perishable cloth, but
the pattern is indestructible.
--Richard McKenna
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_McKenna>