Browsing: Nature

A Brief History On November 9, 1913, The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the North American lakes, destroyed 19 ships and killed more than 250 people. Digging Deeper Generally, speaking when we think of cyclonic storms to cause catastrophic damage in North America, we think of hurricanes.  Nevertheless, today marks the 100-year anniversary of an extratropical cyclone, i.e. a cyclonic storm that did not originate in the ocean, but rather from the convergence of two major storm fronts.  Making matter worse, the Great Lakes’ warm waters helped fuel the storm to such…

A Brief History On November 5, 1530, The St. Felix’s Flood destroyed the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands and killed over 100,000 people, making it the fifth deadliest flood in human history. Digging Deeper Over the past month, we have seen one city destroyed by a tornado, another by an earthquake, and another by an army.  For our fourth city to experience near total devastation, we go back to mother nature. The now lost city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands is our victim this time around.  Reimerswaal was granted city rights in 1374 during the reign of Holy Roman…

A Brief History On November 1, 1896, a picture showing the unclad or bare breasts of a woman appeared in National Geographic magazine for the first time in the publication’s long history. Digging Deeper National Geographic is one of the world’s most respected and outright useful magazines.  Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society has expanded to have a magazine with a U.S. readership of 4,125,152 and international readership of 875,962 (as of December 2012) in addition to its own television network and even video games.  The scientific and historical work done by its members have brought about numerous breakthroughs…

A Brief History On October 18, 1356, Basel, Switzerland was destroyed by what may have been the most significant historic earthquake ever to occur north of the Alps. Digging Deeper Basel, Switzerland is currently a city of nearly 200,000 people.  Its origins date back to at least Roman times and possibly even pre-Roman Celtic times.  During its perhaps 2,000 odd years history, the town and then city has risen and fallen a number of times due to both man made and natural catastrophes.  For example, in 917 A.D., Magyars (the ancestors of Hungarians) destroyed Basel, eventually burning down notable monasteries…

A Brief History On October 17, 1091, a tornado with a strength thought to be about T8/F4, which means a severely devastating tornado with winds over 200 miles per hour, struck the heart of London, England. Digging Deeper When Americans think of tornadoes, they tend to envision twisters striking mostly flat ground in the American mid-west or accompanying Atlantic hurricanes.  We do not generally imagine tornadoes wrecking havoc on major capital cities of medieval kingdoms.  Nevertheless, on October 17, 1091, one such twister did just that! The London Tornado of 1091 is Britain’s earliest reported tornado.  Although nowhere near as…