Typhoon Pongsona was the last typhoon of the 2002 Pacific typhoon
season, and was the second-costliest United States disaster in 2002
behind Hurricane Lili. The name "Pongsona" was contributed by North
Korea for the Pacific tropical cyclone list and is the Korean name for
the garden balsam. Pongsona developed out of an area of disturbed
weather on December 2, and steadily intensified to reach typhoon status
on December 5. On December 8 it passed through Guam and the Northern
Marianas Islands while near its peak winds of 175 km/h (110 mph
10-min). It ultimately turned to the northeast, weakened, and became
extratropical on December 11. It left the entire island of Guam without
power and destroyed about 1,300 houses (damage pictured). With strong
building standards and experience from repeated typhoon strikes, there
were no fatalities directly related to Pongsona, although there was one
indirect death from flying glass. Damage on the island totaled over
$700 million (2002 USD), making it among the five costliest typhoons
on Guam. The typhoon also caused heavy damage on Rota and elsewhere in
the Northern Marianas Islands, and as a result of its impact the name
was retired.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Pongsona>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1813:
Creek War: A force of Creeks, belonging to the Red Sticks
faction killed hundreds of settlers in Fort Mims in Alabama.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mims_massacre>
1835:
European settlers landing on the north banks of the Yarra River
in Southeastern Australia founded the city of Melbourne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne>
1909:
American paleontologist Charles Walcott discovered the Burgess
Shale, one of the world's most celebrated fossil fields (Marrella fossil
pictured), in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgess_Shale>
1959:
The title of National Hero of Indonesia was first given, to the
writer-cum-politician Abdul Muis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hero_of_Indonesia>
1995:
Bosnian War: NATO began its bombing campaign against the Army
of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_NATO_bombing_campaign_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
leech:
1. (transitive) To apply a leech medicinally, so that it sucks blood from
the patient.
2. (transitive) To drain (resources) without giving back.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leech>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that
this delicate motion should reside in all the things around us,
revealing itself only to him who looks for it. I remember, in the winter
of our first experiments, just seven years ago, looking on snow with new
eyes. There the snow lay around my doorstep — great heaps of protons
quietly precessing in the earth's magnetic field. To see the world for a
moment as something rich and strange is the private reward of many a
discovery.
--Edward Mills Purcell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Mills_Purcell>