1046: Hurricanes Oct 20, 2017

Every year, a number of natural disasters occur, but unlike earthquakes and other phenomena, hurricanes are given names. This has been done since the mid-20th century with names that would be associated with people, but until the 1950's they were marked by the year and order in which they occurred therein. The reason for this is that unlike earthquakes that occur only in one place for which it can be named, hurricanes move quite large distances. Starting in 1953, the United States began using female names for these storms as it was simpler to remember, and reduced confusion when multiple occur at the same time, as errors when using radio-communications were common. In 1978 and 1979 respectively, both men's and women's names were used for storms in the North Pacific and then the Atlantic basin based off of the names are designated by the World Meteorological Organization. Some names are retired if the storms that are associated with them are so disastrous that it could cause confusion, but also if there is an excess of hurricanes—more than 21 in a season—the World Meteorological Organization can use the Greek alphabet.