It is difficult to pin down a number, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association estimates that between one third and one half million people died in Atlantic hurricanes between 1492 and 1994. More than a thousand of those lives were lost on July 31st, 1715, in a tragedy more remembered for treasure than people.
On October 19, 1762 the day was so dark at Fort Detroit that candles were needed to see at noon. A British officer called the day "The most extraordinary dark day perhaps ever seen in the world." Some would take the darkness as a sign.
Solenopsis invicta, the “Red Imported Fire Ant”, native to South America, has proven a tenacious and destructive pest in the United States, costing Americans billions of dollars every year. That is why, in the late 1950s, the United States embarked on an all out war against the six-legged menace.