Word: verrier
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Modern scientific meteorology was founded on the telegraph, with an assist from the Crimean War. On Nov. 14, 1854, a violent storm sank key vessels of a Franco-British fleet in Balaklava harbor. At the request of the French Minister of War, the famed Astronomer Urbain Le Verrier studied the storm and reported that it could have been tracked across Europe by the new-fangled telegraph. Soon after his report sank in, most of Europe (and later the U.S.) had a telegraphic storm-warning service...
...more than 50 years after Le Verrier, weather forecasting consisted principally of watching the cyclones as they drifted majestically, dragging the weather with them. Trouble was that the cyclones did not always behave. They were always ringed by counterclockwise winds, but the winds were sometimes gentle and sometimes violent. Sometimes the cyclones stood still, or even moved backward...
After four minutes, the silence was broken by a bloodcurdling "Yeeeeooowwhh!" France's Guy Verrier, uttering the cry to 1) unnerve his opponent, and 2) give added power to his stomach muscles, caught his opponent with a hip hold, gave a mighty heave and hurled Austria's Robert Jaquemond to the mat. The toss earned France's Verrier, 24, a strapping 202-pounder, the individual title at the European Judo championships, and helped France win the team crown (over Austria, 2-0). The fall gave Austria's burly Jaquemond the only injury of the tournament...