The 1999 Sydney hailstorm was the costliest natural disaster in Australian history at the time as measured by insured damage. The storm developed south of Sydney, New South Wales, on the afternoon of 14 April 1999 and struck the city's central business district and its eastern suburbs later that evening. It dropped an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones on Sydney and its suburbs. The insured damage bill was roughly A$1.7 billion, with the total bill (including uninsured damage) estimated to be around $2.3 billion. Lightning claimed one life, and the storm caused approximately 50 injuries. The storm was classified as a supercell following further analysis of its erratic nature and extreme attributes. The time of year and general conditions in the region were not seen as conducive for an extreme storm cell to form, and the Bureau of Meteorology was repeatedly surprised by its changes in direction, its duration, and the severity of the hail.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Sydney_hailstorm

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1943:

The Neoclassical Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Memorial

1946:

Nakam, a Jewish organization seeking revenge for the Holocaust, attempted to poison thousands of SS prisoners at Langwasser internment camp, but did not kill anyone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakam

1953:

Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale was published as the first work to feature the British spy character James Bond. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_%28literary_character%29

2017:

War in Afghanistan: In an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb used in combat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_MOAB

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

archaic smile: (Ancient Greece, art, sculpture, historical) A smiling facial expression commonly found on Greek statues of the Archaic period (circa 700–500 B.C.E.). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/archaic_smile

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I have ever deemed it more honorable and profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.   --Thomas Jefferson https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson