Good morning, Whitewater.
The first day of a new month brings to town morning thundershowers but thereafter gradual clearing and a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:27 PM, for 15h 09m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 18.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets today at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1779, a court martial (about charges before later treason) of Benedict Arnold begins (only to conclude months after beginning):
The court martial to consider the charges against Arnold began meeting on June 1, 1779, but was delayed until December 1779 by General Clinton’s capture of Stony Point, New York, throwing the army into a flurry of activity to react.[67] A number of members of the panel of judges were ill-disposed to Arnold over actions and disputes earlier in the war, yet Arnold was cleared of all but two minor charges on January 26, 1780.[68] Arnold worked over the next few months to publicize this fact; however, in early April, just one week after Washington congratulated Arnold on the March 19 birth of his son, Edward Shippen Arnold, Washington published a formal rebuke of Arnold’s behavior.[69]
The Commander-in-Chief would have been much happier in an occasion of bestowing commendations on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his country as Major General Arnold; but in the present case, a sense of duty and a regard to candor oblige him to declare that he considers his conduct [in the convicted actions] as imprudent and improper.
— Notice published by George Washington, April 6, 1780[70]
On June 1, 1980, television news in America moves to cable:
…CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks–ABC, CBS and NBC–and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally….
Here’s a recording of CNN’s first hour from that first day: