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Today's featured article
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Hurricane Eloise was the most destructive tropical cyclone of the 1975 Atlantic hurricane season. Eloise formed as a tropical depression on September 13 to the east of the Virgin Islands. The depression tracked westward as it intensified into a tropical storm, and after passing north Puerto Rico, Eloise briefly attained hurricane intensity. However, the storm quickly weakened back into a tropical storm upon making landfall over Hispaniola. After eventually striking the northern Yucatan Peninsula, the cyclone entered the Gulf of Mexico and became a Category 3 hurricane on September 23. Eloise made landfall along the Florida Panhandle west of Panama City before moving inland across Alabama and eventually dissipating on September 24. The storm produced torrential rainfall throughout Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, causing extensive flooding, over 40 deaths, and severe damage. Thousands in these areas were left homeless. As Eloise progressed westward, it affected Cuba, though to a lesser extent. Upon making landfall in Florida, Eloise generated winds reportedly gusting to 155 mph (249 km/h). Hundreds of buildings were demolished by the powerful winds and strong storm surge. Torrential rains along the entire East Coast of the United States created an unprecedented and far-reaching flooding event, especially into the Mid-Atlantic States. The storm killed 80 people along its entire track, and due to its severe impacts, the name "Eloise" was retired from the list of Atlantic tropical cyclone names. (more...)
Recently featured: Admiralty Islands campaign – Charlie Macartney – Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
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In the news
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On this day...
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March 27: Tatmadaw Day in Burma
1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, a leading British Whig Party statesman, began his second non-consecutive term as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first person to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, was placed into quarantine, where she would spend the rest of her life.
1977 – Two Boeing 747 airliners collided (CGI rendering pictured) on a foggy runway at Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people in the worst aircraft accident in aviation history.
1980 – Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother failed in their attempt to corner the world market in silver, causing panic in commodity and futures exchanges.
1998 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil, better known by the trade name Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
2009 – A suicide bomber killed at least 48 people at a mosque in Jamrud, in the Khyber Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
More anniversaries: March 26 – March 27 – March 28
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Today's featured picture
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The Southern Red Bishop (Euplectes orix) is a small passerine bird in the weaver family native to wetlands and grassland in Africa south of the Equator. It is 10–11 cm (3.9–4.3 in) long and has a thick conical bill. Breeding males are brightly coloured with red or orange and black plumage. The non-breeding male and female have streaky brown plumage, paler below.
Photo: JJ Harrison
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