Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 May 6

The 2002 Pacific typhoon season, covering the Pacific north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, was very active, with many tropical cyclones affecting the Philippines, Japan, and China, especially from July to October. Overall, there were 37 tropical depressions declared officially or unofficially, of which 26 became named storms, including 15 typhoons (hurricanes). The season began early: Tapah developed on January 10 east of the Philippines. Two months later, Typhoon Mitag became the first recorded super typhoon in March. In June, Typhoon Chataan dropped heavy rainfall in the Federated States of Micronesia, killing 48 people and becoming the deadliest natural disaster in the state of Chuuk. Chataan later left heavy damage in Guam before striking Japan. In August, Typhoon Rusa became the deadliest typhoon in South Korea in 43 years, causing 238 deaths and $4.2 billion in damage. Typhoon Higos (pictured) in October was the third-strongest typhoon to strike Tokyo since World War II. Typhoon Pongsona, the last of the season, became one of the costliest storms ($700 million) on record in Guam; it dissipated on December 11. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Mount Yamato Katsuragi (pictured) has four other historical names: Mount Kaina, Mount Tenshin, Mount Kamo, and Shinoga Peak?
• ... that Lizzy Hawker bought her first pair of trail running shoes just 10 days before running the 100-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc for the first time, and winning?
• ... that the Port Jackson glassfish gets its common name from its transparent body?
• ... that Harriet Newell Noyes founded the first school for women in Guangdong Province?
• ... that Gellner's theory has been called "the best-known modernist explanatory theory of nationalism"?
• ... that Clover Hill Creek has splash pools and rock ledge falls in its upper reaches, but is severely channelized in its lower reaches?
• ... that Qi Jianguo is one of the few serving Chinese generals with actual battle experience?
• ... that Stan Winston's special effects studio cut its prices in half to meet the budget for the film Tank Girl, as it was desperate to work on the project?

• In snooker, Stuart Bingham (pictured) wins the World Championship.
• In English association football, Chelsea win the Premier League.
• In boxing, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. defeats Manny Pacquiao to unify the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring welterweight titles.
• In horse racing, American Pharoah, ridden by Victor Espinoza, wins the Kentucky Derby.
• Following a week of protests in Baltimore, Maryland, six police officers are charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
• More than 500 women and children are freed during military operations against Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest, Nigeria.
• NASA's MESSENGER probe purposely crashes into the surface of Mercury, completing an eleven-year mission.

Ongoing:

Nepal earthquake – Yemeni Civil War

Recent deaths: Ruth Rendell – Maya Plisetskaya – Ben E. King

May 6: St George's Day in Bulgaria

• 1757 – English poet Christopher Smart (pictured) was admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six-year confinement to mental asylums.
• 1882 – U.S. President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law, implementing a ban on Chinese immigration to the United States that remained until the Magnuson Act was enacted in 1943.
• 1937 – The German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during an attempt to dock at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing 36 people.
• 1991 – Time magazine published "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", an article highly critical of the Scientology organization, leading to years of legal conflict that ended when the Church of Scientology's petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case was denied in 2001.
• 2013 – Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, US, home of her captor Ariel Castro after having been held there with two other women for ten years.

More anniversaries: May 5 – May 6 – May 7

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