Good morning, Whitewater.

It’s a cloudy day in town, with the sky giving way later to sunshine and a high of sixty-one.

Today is the UN-sponsored International Peace Day, yet unobserved (even if known) in the many places around the planet where war rages, including among this places eastern Europe.

Over night, SpaceX successfully launched a cargo mission to the International Space Station.

Earlier this week, NASA selected SpaceX to be one of two companies (Boeing being the other) to receive a contract for building manned spacecraft for America.

On this day in 1780 Benedict Arnold becomes a Benedict Arnold:

Once he established himself at West Point, Arnold began systematically weakening its defenses and military strength. Needed repairs on the chain across the Hudson were never ordered. Troops were liberally distributed within Arnold’s command area (but only minimally at West Point itself), or furnished to Washington on request. He also peppered Washington with complaints about the lack of supplies, writing, “Everything is wanting.”[79] At the same time, he tried to drain West Point’s supplies, so that a siege would be more likely to succeed. His subordinates, some long-time associates, grumbled about Arnold’s unnecessary distribution of supplies and eventually concluded that Arnold was selling supplies on the black market for personal gain.[79]….

Arnold and [British Major John] André finally met on September 21 at the Joshua Hett Smith House. On the morning of September 22, James Livingston, the colonel in charge of the outpost at Verplanck’s Point, fired on HMS Vulture, the ship that was intended to carry André back to New York. This action did sufficient damage that she retreated downriver, forcing André to return to New York overland. Arnold wrote out passes for André so that he would be able to pass through the lines, and also gave him plans for West Point.[82]

On Saturday, September 23, André was captured, near Tarrytown, by three Westchester militiamen named John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart and David Williams;[83] the papers exposing the plot to capture West Point were found and sent to Washington, where Arnold’s intentions came to light after Washington examined them.[84] Meanwhile, André convinced the unsuspecting commanding officer to whom he was delivered, Colonel John Jameson, to send him back to Arnold at West Point. However, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, a member of Washington’s secret service, insisted Jameson order the prisoner intercepted and brought back. Jameson reluctantly recalled the lieutenant, who had been delivering André into Arnold’s custody, but then sent the same lieutenant as a messenger to notify Arnold of André’s arrest.[85]….

When presented with evidence of Arnold’s activities, it is reported that Washington remained calm. He did, however, investigate its extent, and suggested in negotiations with General Clinton over the fate of Major André that he was willing to exchange André for Arnold. This suggestion Clinton refused; after a military tribunal, André was hanged at Tappan, New York on October 2. Washington also infiltrated men into New York in an attempt to capture Arnold; this plan, which very nearly succeeded, failed when Arnold changed living quarters prior to sailing for Virginia in December.[90]

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have scattered thunderstorms this Saturday in Whitewater, with a high of seventy-seven.

One always hopes for good days – here’s someone who, if he were to hope, would probably see those wishes fulfilled every day:

Via YouTube, one reads that he’s a “three-month-old fennec fox [who] is full of energy and ready to play in the Children’s Zoo Nursery at the San Diego Zoo. The young male, who weighs just 1.5 pounds, is in quarantine before training to serve as an animal ambassador for his species.”

On this day in 1777, British troops engage in a massacre of sleeping Americans:

On the evening of September 20, 1777, near Paoli, Pennsylvania, General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to empty their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness.

With the help of a Loyalist spy who provided a secret password and led them to the camp, General Grey and the British launched the successful attack on the unsuspecting men of the Pennsylvania regiment, stabbing them to death as they slept. It was also alleged that the British soldiers took no prisoners during the attack, stabbing or setting fire to those who tried to surrender. Before it was over, nearly 200 Americans were killed or wounded. The Paoli Massacre became a rallying cry for the Americans against British atrocities for the rest of the Revolutionary War.

Less than two years later, Wayne became known as “Mad Anthony” for his bravery leading an impressive Patriot assault on British cliff-side fortifications at Stony Point on the Hudson River, 12 miles from West Point. Like Grey’s attack at Paoli, Wayne’s men only used bayonets in the 30-minute night attack, which resulted in 94 dead and 472 captured British soldiers.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in the city will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-four, with a probability of rain later tonight.

On this day in 1881, Pres. Garfield dies:

…President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, succumbs to wounds inflicted by an assassin 80 days earlier, on July 2.

Garfield’s assassin was an attorney and political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was a relative stranger to the president and his administration in an era when federal positions were doled out on a “who you know” basis. When his requests for an appointment were ignored, a furious Guiteau stalked the president, vowing revenge.

On the morning of July 2, 1881, Garfield headed for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station on his way to a short vacation. As he walked through the station toward the waiting train, Guiteau stepped behind the president and fired two shots. The first bullet grazed Garfield’s arm; the second lodged below his pancreas. Doctors made several unsuccessful attempts to remove the bullet while Garfield lay in his White House bedroom, awake and in pain. Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of Garfield’s physicians, tried to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet, but failed.

Historical accounts vary as to the exact cause of Garfield’s death. Some believe that his physicians’ treatments—which included the administration of quinine, morphine, brandy and calomel and feeding him through the rectum–may have hastened his demise. Others insist Garfield died from an already advanced case of heart disease. By early September, Garfield, who was recuperating at a seaside retreat in New Jersey, appeared to be recovering. He died on September 19. Autopsy reports at the time said that pressure from his internal wound had created an aneurism, which was the likely cause of death.

Guiteau was deemed sane by a jury, convicted of murder and hanged on June 30, 1882. Garfield’s spine, which shows the hole created by the bullet, is kept as a historical artifact by the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

On this day in 1832, the Sauk and Fox sign a treat with the United States:

On this date Sauk and Fox Indians signed the treaty ending the Black Hawk War. The treaty demanded that the Sauk cede some six million acres of land that ran the length of the eastern boundary of modern-day Iowa. The Sauk and Fox were given until June 1, 1833 to leave the area and never return to the surrendered lands. Some sources place the date as September 21.[Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark, p. 160-161]

Google-a-Day asks a question about the law:

Whose decision in Marbury v Madison established the principle of judicial review?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in the city will be partly cloudy with a high of sixty-seven. Sunrise today is 6:38 AM and sunset 6:59 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with twenty-six percent of its visible disk illuminated.

A little video editing, like that of Argentina’s Fernando Lipschitz, can make ordinary traffic at an intersection seem like a ballet of near-miss encounters:

RUSH HOUR from Black Sheep Films on Vimeo.

On this day in 1973, another – yet not just another – UFO report:

…future President Jimmy Carter files a report with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), claiming he had seen an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in October 1969.

During the presidential campaign of 1976, Democratic challenger Carter was forthcoming about his belief that he had seen a UFO. He described waiting outside for a Lion’s Club Meeting in Leary, Georgia, to begin, at about 7:30 p.m., when he spotted what he called “the darndest thing I’ve ever seen” in the sky. Carter, as well as 10 to 12 other people who witnessed the same event, described the object as “very bright [with] changing colors and about the size of the moon.” Carter reported that “the object hovered about 30 degrees above the horizon and moved in toward the earth and away before disappearing into the distance.” He later told a reporter that, after the experience, he vowed never again to ridicule anyone who claimed to have seen a UFO.

During the presidential campaign of 1976, Carter promised that, if elected president, he would encourage the government release “every piece of information” about UFOs available to the public and to scientists. After winning the presidency, though, Carter backed away from this pledge, saying that the release of some information might have “defense implications” and pose a threat to national security.

Google-a-Day asks a question about finance:

Because the company increased shareholder dividends for 25 years in a row, what S&P designation was granted the world’s largest distributor of toys?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will be sunny with a high of sixty-nine. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset is 7:01 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with thirty-four percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1787, delegates at the the Constitutional Convention sign their finished product:

Once the final modifications had been made, the Committee of Style and Arrangement was appointed “to revise the style of and arrange the articles which had been agreed to by the house.” Unlike other committees, whose members were named so the committees included members from different regions, this final committee included no champions of the small states. Its members were mostly in favor of a strong national government and unsympathetic to calls for states’ rights.[12]:229–230 They were William Samuel Johnson (Connecticut), Alexander Hamilton (New York), Gouverneur Morris (Pennsylvania), James Madison (Virginia), and Rufus King (Massachusetts). On Wednesday, September 12, the report of the “committee of style” was ordered printed for the convenience of the delegates. For three days, the Convention compared this final version with the proceedings of the Convention. The Constitution was then ordered engrossed on Saturday, September 15 by Jacob Shallus, and was submitted for signing on September 17. It made at least one important change to what the Convention had agreed to; King wanted to prevent states from interfering in contracts. Although the Convention never took up the matter his language was now inserted, creating the contract clause.[12]:243

Gouverneur Morris is credited, both now and then, as the chief draftsman of the final document, including the stirring preamble. Not all the delegates were pleased with the results; thirteen left before the ceremony, and three of those remaining refused to sign: Edmund Randolph of Virginia, George Mason of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. George Mason demanded a Bill of Rights if he was to support the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was not included in the Constitution submitted to the states for ratification, but many states ratified the Constitution with the understanding that a bill of rights would soon follow.[14] Shortly before the document was to be signed, Gorham proposed to lower the size of congressional districts from 40,000 to 30,000 citizens. A similar measure had been proposed earlier, and failed by one vote. George Washington spoke up here, making his only substantive contribution to the text of the Constitution in supporting this move. The Convention adopted it without further debate. Gorham would sign the document, although he had openly doubted whether the United States would remain a single, unified nation for more than 150 years.[12]:112 Ultimately, 39 of the original 55 delegates ended up signing, but it is likely that none were completely satisfied. Their views were summed up by Benjamin Franklin, who said,

“I confess that There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. … I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. … It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies…[15]”

Google-a-Day asks a geography question:

What famous Alexandrian was responsible for the most popular map printed from movable type in the fifteenth century?