Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday in town will be cloudy with a high of fifty-eight. Sunrise is 5:59 AM and sunset 7:46 PM, for 13h 46m 34s of daytime. It’s a full moon today, with 100% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is Earth Day, and Google has a series of doodles to mark the day, one of which I’ve embedded below:
The day has always had a strong Wisconsin connection:
1970 – First Earth Day Celebrated
On this date the first Earth Day was celebrated. The event was organized by a 33-member committee in Philadelphia. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson advocated Earth Day to focus national attention on ecological issues. [Source: Earth Day Information Center]
On this day in 1778, John Paul Jones leads a raid:
At 11 p.m. on this day in 1778, Commander John Paul Jones leads a small detachment of two boats from his ship, the USS Ranger, to raid the shallow port at Whitehaven, England, where, by his own account, 400 British merchant ships are anchored. Jones was hoping to reach the port at midnight, when ebb tide would leave the shops at their most vulnerable.
Jones and his 30 volunteers had greater difficulty than anticipated rowing to the port, which was protected by two forts. They did not arrive until dawn. Jones’ boat successfully took the southern fort, disabling its cannon, but the other boat returned without attempting an attack on the northern fort, after the sailors claimed to have been frightened away by a noise. To compensate, Jones set fire to the southern fort, which subsequently engulfed the entire town.
Here’s JigZone‘s Friday puzzle: