Good morning, Whitewater.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy and windy with a high of thirty-seven. Sunrise is 6:37 and sunset 5:38, for 11h 00m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1942, Californians worried over a possible Japanese invasion fight the Battle of Los Angeles:
Page B of the February 26, 1942, Los Angeles Times, showing the coverage of the so-called Battle of Los Angeles and its aftermath (lots of articles on people finding dud shells, unexploded ordnance, etc.).
The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as The Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to the rumored enemy attack and subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late 24 February to early 25 February 1942 over Los Angeles, California.[2][3]The incident occurred less than three months after the United States entered World War II as a result of the Japanese Imperial Navy‘s attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood on 23 February.
Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward,Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the incident a “false alarm.” Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up. Some modern-day UFOlogists have suggested the targets were extraterrestrial spacecraft.[4] When documenting the incident in 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of “war nerves” likely triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries.
Steven Spielberg’s 1941 is loosely based on nervous reactions like the one in February 1942.
JigZone‘s midweek puzzle is of a gazania: