Hurricane Claudette was the third tropical storm and first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. A fairly long-lived July Atlantic hurricane, Claudette began as a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. It moved quickly westward, brushing past the Yucatán Peninsula before moving northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette remained a tropical storm until just before making landfall in Port O'Connor, Texas, when it quickly strengthened to a strong Category 1 hurricane. Forecasting its path and intensity was uncertain, resulting in widespread and often unnecessary preparations along its path. Claudette was the first hurricane to make landfall in July in the United States since Hurricane Danny in the 1997 season. The hurricane caused one death and moderate damage in Texas, mostly from strong winds, as well as extensive beach erosion. Because of the damage, President George W. Bush declared portions of South Texas as a Federal Disaster Area, allowing the affected citizens to apply for aid. Claudette also caused significant rainfall and minor damage in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, as well as minor damage on Saint Lucia.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Claudette_(2003)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1776:

American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured Fort Washington from the Patriots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Washington

1885:

After a five-day trial following the North-West Rebellion, Louis Riel (pictured), Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and "Father of Manitoba", was executed by hanging for high treason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Riel

1944:

Operation Queen commenced in Düren, Germany, with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombing attacks of the Second World War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Queen

1959:

The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music

1989:

Eight employees of Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" in San Salvador, including six Catholic priests, were murdered by a Salvadoran Army "death squad". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_UCA_scholars

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

kraal: 1. In Central and Southern Africa, a rural village of huts surrounded by a stockade. 2. An enclosure for livestock. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kraal

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

There is a spiritual obligation, there is a task to be done. It is not, however, something as simple as following a set of somebody else's rules. The noetic enterprise is a primary obligation toward being. Our salvation is linked to it. Not everyone has to read alchemical texts or study superconducting biomolecules to make the transition. Most people make it naively by thinking clearly about the present at hand, but we intellectuals are trapped in a world of too much information. Innocence is gone for us. We cannot expect to cross the rainbow bridge through a good act of contrition; that will not be sufficient. We have to understand.   --Terence McKenna https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna