Hurricane Irene was a long-lived tropical cyclone of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. After forming near Cape Verde on August 4, it crossed the Atlantic, turned northward near Bermuda, and was absorbed by an extratropical cyclone southeast of Newfoundland. Irene persisted for 14 days as a tropical system, longer than any other storm of the 2005 season. It was the ninth named storm and fourth hurricane of what became the most active Atlantic hurricane season since record-keeping began. Irene proved to be a difficult storm to forecast due to oscillations in strength. After almost dissipating on August 10, it peaked as a Category 2 hurricane on August 16. Because of uncertainty in predicting the storm's track, there were initial fears of a landfall in the United States, but Irene never approached land and caused no recorded damage. One person died in Long Beach, New York, from swells up to 8 feet (2.4 m) and strong rip currents. (Full article...)

Constantin Cantacuzino around 1820

• ... that when Constantin Cantacuzino (pictured) was made Caimacam of Wallachia, his own son reportedly shouted in protest?
• ... that the Deccan Chargers, winners of the 2009 Indian Premier League, finished last in the league stage in the previous season with just two wins in fourteen matches?
• ... that before becoming a Yad Vashem historian, Shmuel Krakowski worked for Polish communist intelligence and security organizations?
• ... that viewers have watched 1.5 billion minutes of BuzzFeed's Worth It in 2018 alone?
• ... that a letter authored by Ali, the first Shia Imam, to Malik al-Ashtar, governor of Egypt, includes a model for governing based on justice for every place and every time?
• ... that Peter Bielik was nominated for director of the National Memory Institute, despite having blamed Jewish Holocaust survivors for the 1945 Topoľčany pogrom?
• ... that the sea hedgehog hydroid is predated by the nudibranch Zelentia pustulata, which feeds on it and winds egg coils around its branches?
• ... that Lukas Radovich believed his audition for the Home and Away character Ryder Jackson went so badly that he booked a flight to Perth, but was then offered the role?

Joey Logano

• In U.S. stock car racing, Joey Logano (pictured) wins the NASCAR Cup Series.
• The wreck of Argentinian submarine San Juan, which disappeared in November 2017, is found in the South Atlantic.
• David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sells for more than US$90 million, the highest price for a work by a living artist at auction.
• The General Conference on Weights and Measures confirms new definitions for the units kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole.

November 21: World Hello Day; Armed Forces Day in Bangladesh

• 1894 – First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the city of Lüshunkou, the Japanese Second Army began a massacre of the residents of the city—soldiers and civilians.
• 1918 – Polish troops and civilians began a three-day pogrom against Jews and Christians in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine).
• 1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, albeit for only one day.
• 1977 – "God Defend New Zealand" (audio featured) became New Zealand's second national anthem, on equal standing with "God Save the Queen", which had been the traditional anthem since 1840.
• 2012 – A remote-controlled bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, injuring at least 28 people on board.

Anne de Xainctonge (b. 1567) · Alexander Berkman (b. 1870) · Leopold Berchtold (d. 1942)