How 209 Deaths Changed Weather Forever - Videos from The Weather Channel
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How 209 Deaths Changed Weather Forever

February 9, 2026

In 1869, The Milwaukee Sentinel reported 1,914 shipwrecks and 209 deaths on the Great Lakes. Dr. Increase Lapham read it and pitched Congress a revolutionary idea: Use telegraphs to track storms and warn ships. Two months later, President Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law, creating the National Weather Service.