The 2003 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually active, with tropical cyclone activity both before June and after November for the first time in 50 years. There were three major hurricanes, and the sixteen named storms tied for the sixth highest total on record. The strongest hurricane of the season was Isabel, which reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale northeast of the Lesser Antilles, and later struck North Carolina at Category 2, causing damage worth $3.6 billion and 51 deaths across the Mid-Atlantic United States. In early September, Hurricane Fabian struck Bermuda as a Category 3 hurricane, the strongest since 1926; it caused four deaths and $300 million in damage (example pictured) on the island. Hurricane Juan wreaked considerable destruction on Nova Scotia, particularly Halifax, as a Category 2 hurricane, the first of significant strength there since 1893. The minimal hurricanes Claudette and Erika struck Texas and Mexico, respectively.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Atlantic_hurricane_season

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1712:

In New York City, a group of 23 slaves set a building on fire and escaped, but were soon recaptured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Revolt_of_1712

1812:

Peninsular War: After a three-week siege, the Anglo-Portuguese Army, under the Earl of Wellington, captured Badajoz, Spain, and forced the surrender of the French garrison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Badajoz_(1812)

1886:

Vancouver, one of British Columbia's youngest cities, was incorporated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver

1945:

Second World War: The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville Island concluded with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Slater%27s_Knoll

2005:

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was elected by the Iraqi National Assembly as the first non-Arab President of Iraq. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalal_Talabani

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pornocracy: 1. (Roman Catholicism, historical, sometimes capitalized) The period of the papacy known as the saeculum obscurum (Latin for “dark age”), and also as the “Rule of the Harlots”, which began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasted for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964, during which time the popes were strongly influenced by the Theophylacti, a powerful and corrupt aristocratic family. 2. (derogatory, often figuratively) A government by, or dominated by, prostitutes or corrupt persons. 3. (derogatory) A societal culture dominated by pornography. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pornocracy

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Of the laws of nature on which the condition of man depends, that which is attended with the greatest number of consequences is the necessity of labor for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as the means of the greatest part of our pleasures. This is no doubt the primary cause of government; for if nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men, nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another. The results are exceedingly different when nature produces the objects of desire not in sufficient abundance for all. The source of dispute is then exhaustless, and every man has the means of acquiring authority over others in proportion to the quantity of those objects which he is able to possess. In this case the end to be obtained through government as the means, is to make that distribution of the scanty materials of happiness which would insure the greatest sum of it in the members of the community taken altogether, preventing every individual or combination of individuals from interfering with that distribution or making any man to have less than his share.   --James Mill https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Mill