Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will rainy in the afternoon with a daytime high of thirty-eight. Sunrise is 6:15 AM and sunset 5:54 PM, for 11h 38m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the eight hundred fiftieth day.
There is a scheduled forum for common council candidates at 10 AM, and another for school board candidates at 1 PM, at Whitewater’s city hall.
On this day in 1862, two ironclad warships (each under steam power) fight for the first time:
The major significance of the battle is that it was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, i.e., USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia (built from the remnants of the under-construction steam frigate USS Merrimack, newest warship for the United States Navy / Union Navy) and several supporting vessels. On the first day of battle, they were opposed by several conventional, wooden-hulled ships of the Union Navy. On that day, Virginia was able to destroy two ships of the federal flotilla, USS Congress and USS Cumberland, and was about to attack a third, USS Minnesota, which had run aground. However, the action was halted by darkness and falling tide
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During the night, however, the ironclad Monitor had arrived and had taken a position to defend Minnesota. When Virginia approached, Monitor intercepted her. The two ironclads fought for about three hours, with neither being able to inflict significant damage on the other. The duel ended indecisively, Virginia returning to her home at the Gosport Navy Yard for repairs and strengthening, and Monitor to her station defending Minnesota.
Recommended for reading in full:
Paul C. Light considers How the House should investigate the Trump administration (“Lessons from the most important House probes since WWII”):
- Longer investigations had roughly equal levels of moderate to very significant impact as shorter (33 percent and 32 percent respectively), but longer investigations produced a higher count of very significant impact than shorter (three to one).
- Bipartisan investigations had twice the impact of partisan investigations (50 percent to 26 percent).
- Broader investigations had more than three times the impact of narrower investigations (67 percent to 18 percent).
- Thorough investigations had almost six times the impact of narrower investigations (62 percent to 11 percent).
- Investigations with high freedom had 10 times the impact of investigations with less freedom (60 percent to six percent).
- Highly visible investigations had twice the impact than of visible investigations (40 percent to 18 percent).
- Investigations led by experienced chairs had almost twice the impact of investigations with less experienced chairs (50 percent to 28 percent).
- Serious investigations had more than four times the impact of less serious investigations (53 percent to 12 percent).
- High- and low-leverage investigations had roughly equal levels of impact (33 percent to 30 percent), but high-leverage produced a higher count of very significant investigations (seven to three).
- Durable investigations had almost five times the impact of less durable investigations (70 to 15 percent).