When I take a break from selling houses in San Jose, Cupertino and Santa Clara, Calif., I love learning new facts. Here are three thrilling tales from this date in history, August 28, courtesy of Wikipedia.
1565 -- On the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, commander of the Spanish Treasure Armada, sights land near St. Augustine, Florida. He establishes what will become the oldest continuously occupied city founded by a European in the continental United States. He will also become the first governor of Florida.
1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published. 
1859 – The solar storm of 1859, also known as the Carrington Event, was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm. The magnetic storm associated with the Carrington Super Flare took about 17 hours and 45 minutes. The storm caused strong auroral displays and wrought havoc with telegraph systems.
The associated white light flare in the solar photosphere was observed and recorded by two separate English astronomers Richard C. Carrington and Richard Hodgson. This event also inspired several science fiction stories.
If a solar storm of this magnitude happened today it would likely cause widespread problems for modern civilization, in particular to communications, especially loss of cell phone coverage, as well as electric grid failures and blackouts.
The solar storm of 2012 was of similar magnitude to the Carrington Event, but it fortunately passed Earth's orbit without striking the planet, missing it by nine days.
Images courtesy of the United States Library of Congress and STEREO.
Thank you for reading "Three Thrilling Tales From History August 28".
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