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From today's featured article

Claudette making landfall in Texas

Hurricane Claudette was the third tropical storm and first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. A fairly long-lived July Atlantic hurricane, Claudette began as a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. It moved westward past the Yucatán Peninsula before moving northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette remained a tropical storm until just before making landfall in Port O'Connor, Texas, on July 15, when it quickly strengthened to a strong Category 1 hurricane. Forecasting its path and intensity was uncertain, resulting in widespread and often unnecessary preparations. Claudette caused one death and moderate damage in Texas, mostly from strong winds, as well as extensive beach erosion. Because of the damage, President George W. Bush declared portions of South Texas as a Federal Disaster Area. Claudette also caused significant rainfall and minor damage in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, as well as minor damage on Saint Lucia. (This article is part of a featured topic: 2003 Atlantic hurricane season.)

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Did you know ...

Mackenzie Hall, previously the Essex County Courthouse

... that the former Essex County Courthouse (pictured) was designed by an American and built by Canada's future prime minister?
... that Patriarch Arnulf's "niece" Emma probably really was just his niece?
... that some medical professionals run clinics dedicated to illegal abortions in Ivory Coast?
... that NFL player Adolph Bieberstein was later an attorney who argued before the United States Supreme Court?
... that four uninhabited islands triggered a dispute between the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra?
... that Sangay Tenzin started his international swimming career at the World Championships?
... that no major hurricane has hit Mexico earlier in the year than Hurricane Erick since records began?
... that the identity of "Barbara O'Brien", the author of Operators and Things, a 1958 autobiographical account of schizophrenia, has not been publicly revealed?
... that Saiyuud Diwong's cookbook "Cooking with Poo" won an Oddest Title of the Year award?

In the news

Abdul Hakim Haqqani

The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani (pictured) over their alleged persecution of women in Afghanistan.
Flooding in Central Texas, United States, leaves at least 130 people dead.
Astronomers announce the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through the Solar System.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope.

On this day

July 17: Constitution Day in South Korea (1948); World Emoji Day

A vehicle on the Manchester Metrolink

1453 – The Battle of Castillon, the last engagement of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all holdings in France except the Pale of Calais.
1918 – RMS Carpathia, which had rescued survivors of the 1912 Titanic sinking, was sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of five crew.
1948 – In Olympia, Greece, the Summer Olympics torch relay, nicknamed the "relay of peace", began.
1992 – The Manchester Metrolink (pictured), the first modern street-running light-rail system in the United Kingdom, was officially opened.
1996 – TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.

Queen Camilla (b. 1947)
Billie Holiday (d. 1959)
Wonwoo (b. 1996)
Edward Heath (d. 2005)

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Today's featured picture

The clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) is a species in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, which is found in the Palearctic realm. It is a large butterfly, which inhabits meadows and deciduous woodland clearings with plenty of flowering plants, but cannot survive in denser forest. The species has white wings, on which thin black veins are found, with blackish fringes. The forewing has two black spots. Its abdomen, antenna and legs are black. The female lays whitish conical eggs with a granular surface. This clouded Apollo male was photographed at the top of Slivnica, in the Dinaric Alps of Slovenia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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