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Meteorologists today use a tornado intensity scale called the Enhanced Fujita Scale to assess a tornado's strength, use satellites and doppler radar to track storm cells and see tornadoes form, and and use “storm chasers” to follow the paths of tornadoes. But none of that was around in 1884. In 1884 there was nothing but the reports by survivors. Those reports suggest a tornado outbreak on a massive scale, and damage that devastated whole communities, but leave a picture of what might have been one of the worst tornado outbreaks in history that is so incomplete that the true scale of the storm is a mystery, and so is called “the enigma tornado outbreak.”
In 1891, British humorist Jerome K. Jerome wrote that “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories.”
The plot of the Rue of Saint Nicaise and its use of an infernal machine played a vital role in the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, and transformed the very concept of assassination, resulting in a new definition of a word all too familiar today: terrorist.
Stories of the suffering, and attempts to celebrate Christmas among soldiers at the front during war, including the 1914 “Christmas truce,” remind us of the blessings of Christmas even in the worst of times. But one Christmas stands out for sheer desperation.
On December 19, 1944 the submarine USS Redfish accomplished a rare feat in the second world war, sinking a Japanese fleet aircraft carrier. It was just one event in the service of a submarine that entered the second world war rather late in the game, but found distinguished service during the second world war and beyond. In fact, there is a good chance you’ve seen USS Redfish, even if you didn’t know it at the time.
