Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 May 9

The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season was unusually active, with 17 tropical cyclones, 15 tropical storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. The first named storm, Subtropical Storm Andrea, developed on May 9, and the last, Tropical Storm Olga, dissipated on December 13. The season was one of only four on record with more than one Category 5 hurricane, Dean and Felix. Tied for the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane of all time, Dean hit Mexico as the third most intense Atlantic hurricane at landfall. Felix also made landfall at Category 5 intensity, in Central America. None of the season's other hurricanes exceeded Category 1. Five cyclones made landfall in the US: Hurricane Humberto, Tropical Storm Gabrielle, and three tropical depressions. Three storms directly affected Canada, although none severely. The combined storms killed at least 423 people and caused about $3 billion in damage. The names Dean, Felix and Noel were later retired from the list of Atlantic tropical storm names. (Full article...)

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• In horse racing, Nyquist, ridden by Mario Gutierrez (pictured), wins the Kentucky Derby.
• Enda Kenny of Fine Gael is re-elected Taoiseach of Ireland and forms a minority coalition government.
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• In association football, Leicester City win the English Premier League for the first time.
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• The Kenyan government burns the largest-ever pile of ivory to combat illegal ivory trade.

May 9: Europe Day/Schuman Day in the European Union; Victory Day in various Eastern European countries

• 1662 – The figure who later became Mr. Punch of the Punch and Judy show (pictured) made his first recorded appearance in England.
• 1877 – Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Mihail Kogălniceanu made a speech in the Parliament that declared Romania was discarding Ottoman suzerainty.
• 1918 – First World War: Germany repelled Britain's second attempt to blockade the Belgian port of Ostend.
• 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration announced it would approve the use of Searle's Enovid for birth control, making it the first oral contraceptive pill.
• 1977 – The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, leaving 33 people dead and 21 injuried.

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The El Atazar Dam is an arch dam near Madrid, Spain, on the Lozoya River, close to where the Lozoya joins the Jarama. Built in a narrow gorge between 1968 and 1972, the dam is 134 metres (440 ft) high and 62.3 metres (171.6 feet) wide at the foundation. It has a reservoir capacity of 424,000,000 cubic metres (344,000 acre·ft).

Photograph: Carlos Delgado

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