Good morning, Whitewater.
We’ll have a mild Sunday with afternoon showers and a high of fifty-seven. Sunrise is 6:41 and sunset 5:43, for 11h 11m 57s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 72.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Friday’s FW poll asked readers which movie they favored in the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards ceremony tonight. Of the eight nominees, 29.27% of respondents chose The Revenant, 26.83% chose The Martian, 14.63% chose Bridge of Spies, with remaining contenders each receiving fewer than ten percent of responses.
Here’s schedule of posts for the week ahead, with other posts possible (if there are changes to these scheduled posts I’ll explain why):
- Today: DB, a post about UW-Whitewater and Title IX, evening post
- Monday: DB, weekly music post, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN post, evening post
- Tuesday: DB, weekly education post, evening post
- Wednesday: DB, weekly film post, a post on relative sizes among demographic groups, evening post
- Thursday: DB, a food post, a post on Whitewater’s economy, evening post
- Friday: DB, weekly poll, weekly cataloging, a post on Whitewater’s economy
- Saturday: DB, weekly Animation post, evening post
On this day in 1844, Pres. Tyler survives a shipboard explosion:
Contemporary lithograph depicting the explosion.
On February 28, she departed Alexandria, Virginia on a pleasure and demonstration cruise down the Potomac with President John Tyler, his Cabinet, former first lady Dolley Madison, and approximately four hundred guests on board. The guests viewed the firing of the ship’s guns and then retired below decks for lunch and refreshments. When they were summoned once more to view another test firing, the firing of Stockton’s Peacemaker caused the gun to burst, sending shrapnel into the crowd. Instantly killed were Secretary Upshur, Secretary Gilmer, Capt. Beverly Kennon, who was Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs, Virgil Maxcy of Maryland, who had served as Chargé d’Affaires to Belgium from 1837 to 1842, Colonel David Gardiner of New York, the father of Julia Gardiner (who afterwards became the President’s fiancée), the President’s valet, a black slave named Armistead, and two sailors. It also injured about 20 people, including Capt. Stockton. The President was unharmed, having been below decks when the gun exploded.[1] When Julia Gardiner, who was aboard, found out her father had died in the explosion she fainted, not waking up until Tyler was carrying her off the ship.[2]
