Hurricane Iniki was the most powerful hurricane to strike the state of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history. Forming during the strong El Niño of 1991-1994, Iniki was one of eleven Central Pacific tropical cyclones during the 1992 season. The eye of Hurricane Iniki passed directly over the island of Kauai on September 11, 1992 as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It was the first hurricane to hit the state since Iwa in the 1982 season, and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Dot in 1959. Iniki caused around $1.8 billion (1992 US dollars) in damage and 6 deaths. At the time, Iniki was among the costliest United States hurricanes and remains one of the costliest hurricanes on record in the eastern Pacific.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

44 BC: Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March)

1311: The Catalan Company defeated Walter V of Brienne in the Battle of Halmyros and took control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halmyros)

1877: History of cricket: Cricketers representing England and Australia began the first match in Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Test_cricket_from_1877_to_1883)

1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was forced to abdicate in the February Revolution, ending three centuries of Romanov rule. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia)

1939: German troops began the occupation of Czechoslovakia; the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed the following day. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Czechoslovakia)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. -- Andrew Jackson (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson)