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From today's featured article

Hilary near peak intensity off Mexico

Hurricane Hilary was a large and intense Pacific hurricane in August 2023 that brought torrential rainfall to the Pacific Coast of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, resulting in widespread flooding. It was the eighth named storm, sixth hurricane, and fourth major hurricane of the active and highly destructive 2023 Pacific hurricane season. Hilary originated from a tropical wave south of Mexico on August 16, and became a hurricane a day later. It underwent rapid intensification, reaching maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h) on August 18, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Thousands of people evacuated to shelters as ports closed along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. In anticipation of "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding", the National Hurricane Center issued its first-ever tropical storm warning for Southern California, extending from the Mexico–U.S. border to just north of Los Angeles. Death Valley National Park closed for two months. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Alide Topp between 1865 and 1878

... that the pianist Alide Topp (pictured) once responded to claims that women lacked the "biceps of a man" for great music by stating she broke her pianos as well as any man?
... that the first writing system for Tlingit, a Native American language, was based on the Cyrillic alphabet?
... that some players who obtained Stardew Valley illegally were so impressed they planned to buy it?
... that a 1987 referendum to repeal Mississippi's unenforceable interracial marriage ban was opposed by more than 48 percent of voters?
... that VTuber Clear Usui is the ambassador of Japan's satellite navigation system?
... that Kaija Saariaho's Quatre instants have been described as "a quasi-operatic monologue" in "erotic, extreme territory"?
... that Peter Suder said that the toughest basketball player he had faced was a National Football League player?
... that King Binnya Ran launched a war against Ava after his sister fled the Ava capital?
... that Courtaud, an infamous man-eating beast described as a "terrible and horrible wolf", was named for its stumpy tail?

In the news

Maikel García

The World Baseball Classic concludes with Venezuela defeating the United States in the championship (MVP Maikel García pictured).
More than 100 people are killed by a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan.
At the Academy Awards, One Battle After Another wins six Oscars, including Best Picture.
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at the age of 96.
Chilean architect Smiljan Radić Clarke is awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

On this day

March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity)

March of the Family with God for Liberty

1563 – The Edict of Amboise was signed, ending the first war in the French Wars of Religion and inaugurating a period of official peace that lasted until 1567.
1808 – King Charles IV of Spain was forced to abdicate in favour of his son Ferdinand VII as a result of the Tumult of Aranjuez.
1964 – Between 300,000 and 500,000 Brazilians attended the March of the Family with God for Liberty (pictured), in protest against the government of João Goulart and against communism.
1979 – The American cable television network C-SPAN, covering government proceedings and public-affairs programming, was launched.
2008 – The gamma-ray burst GRB 080319B was observed, setting a record for the farthest event from Earth observable with the naked eye.

Alonso Cano (b. 1601)
Felix Jacoby (b. 1876)
Heather Robertson (b. 1942; d. 2014)
Virginia Henderson (d. 1996)

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Today's featured picture

The magpie goose (Anseranas semipalmata) is a species of waterfowl found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. The only living species of the family Anseranatidae, it inhabits open wetlands and is not truly migratory, although it sometimes travels long distances to find food and water. The magpie goose has black-and-white plumage in both sexes, with a long neck and legs and a long hooked bill, and is typically 75 to 90 centimetres (30 to 35 in) long. It feeds on vegetation, both in water and on land, and breeds colonially, often forming large flocks and laying five to fourteen eggs. Populations remain plentiful overall, although reduced from their historical range. The species was formerly widespread in southern Australia but declined there after wetlands used for breeding were drained. The magpie goose is important to Aboriginal Australians as a seasonal food source and for recreational hunting and tourism. This pair of magpie geese was photographed at East Point, a suburb of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

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