Hurricane Bret was the first of five Category 4 hurricanes in the 1999
Atlantic hurricane season and the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane
Jerry in 1989 to make landfall in Texas at hurricane intensity. After
forming from a tropical wave on August 18, Bret began to track
northward, and on August 21 it underwent rapid intensification. It
attained its peak intensity with winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) and a
barometric pressure of 944 mbar (hPa; 27.88 inHg). Bret turned
northwestward on August 22 and weakened to a Category 3 hurricane,
making landfall on Padre Island, Texas. It caused relatively little
damage in comparison to its intensity, but seven people died from the
storm, four in Texas and three in Mexico. Most of the deaths were due to
car accidents caused by slippery roads. Heavy rains produced by Bret
peaked at 13.18 inches (335 mm) in Texas and were estimated at over
14 inches (360 mm) in Mexico. Roughly 150 people were left homeless
after their homes were damaged or destroyed.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bret>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1868:
Astronomer Pierre Jules Janssen discovered helium while
analysing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in
Guntur, India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium>
1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was
ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
1948:
Australia won their fifth consecutive Test of the 1948 Ashes
series, becoming the first Test cricket team to go undefeated in
England, earning them the nickname "The Invincibles".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Test,_1948_Ashes_series>
2008:
President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigned under
impeachment pressure.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_to_impeach_Pervez_Musharraf>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
honey plant:
1. (beekeeping) Any plant, all of them eudicots, from which bees usually
collect nectar, pollen, or both for making honey.
2. (botany) The name of a number of unrelated plants. A plant of the
genus Hoya, especially the porcelainflower or waxplant (Hoya carnosa)
from the tendency for excess nectar to drip from its flowers. A plant of
the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). Bishop's
weed or false Queen Anne's lace (Ammi majus).
3. A plant of the genus Hoya, especially the porcelainflower or waxplant
(Hoya carnosa) from the tendency for excess nectar to drip from its
flowers.
4. A plant of the genus Melissa, especially lemon balm (Melissa
officinalis).
5. Bishop's weed or false Queen Anne's lace (Ammi majus).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/honey_plant>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Perhaps the first fire, the first tool, the first wheel, the
first carving in a limestone cave, had each possessed a symbolic rather
than a practical value, had each been pressed to serve distortion rather
than reality. It was a sort of madness that had driven man from his
humble sites on the edges of the woods into towns and cities, into arts
and wars, into religious crusades, into martyrdom and prostitution, into
dyspepsia and fasting, into love and hatred, into this present cul-de-
sac; it had all come about in pursuit of symbols. In the beginning was
the symbol, and darkness was over the face of the Earth.
--Brian Aldiss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss>
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