Hurricane Connie was the first of three hurricanes to strike North Carolina in 1955. It formed on August 3 in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, and killed three people in the United States Virgin Islands while passing nearby. Connie reached reported maximum sustained winds of 120 knots (140 mph, 220 km/h), making it a Category 4 hurricane, before it weakened and moved ashore on August 12. It tracked north through the Chesapeake Bay region, and was later absorbed by a cold front over Lake Huron on August 15. The hurricane caused around $86 million in damage, and at least 295,000 people nationwide lost power during the storm. In North Carolina, the storm killed 27 people. In the Chesapeake Bay, Connie capsized a boat, killing 14 people. There were also 4 deaths in Washington, D.C., 6 deaths each in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 14 in New York, and 3 in Ontario. Connie was followed days later by Hurricane Diane, which caused $700 million in flood damage.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Connie

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1847:

Mexican–American War: American and Mexican forces clashed at the Battle of San Pasqual, a series of skirmishes near San Diego, California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Pasqual

1912:

The Nefertiti Bust, listed among the "Top 10 Plundered Artifacts" by Time magazine, was found in Amarna, Egypt, before being taken to Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti_Bust

1989:

Claiming to be "fighting feminism", 25-year-old Marc Lépine killed fourteen women before committing suicide at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre

1999:

The Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against the peer-to-peer file sharing network Napster, alleging that the service facilitated widespread copyright infringement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

picaresque: 1. Of or pertaining to adventurers or rogues. 2. (literature) Characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/picaresque

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

There will be and can be no rest till we admit, what cannot be denied, that there is in man a third faculty, which I call simply the faculty of apprehending the Infinite, not only in religion, but in all things; a power independent of sense and reason, a power in a certain sense contradicted by sense and reason; but yet, I suppose, a very real power, if we see how it has held its own from the beginning of the world — how neither sense nor reason has been able to overcome it, while it alone is able to overcome both reason and sense.   --Max Müller https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller