Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of sixty, and an even chance of afternoon showers. Sunrise is 6:50 AM and sunset is 6:39 PM, for 11h 49m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 6% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Tech Park Board meets at 8 AM today, and the Community Development Authority at 5 PM.

On this day in 1941, Ted Williams becomes the last player to hit .400:

On this day in 1941, the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams plays a double-header against the Philadelphia Athletics on the last day of the regular season and gets six hits in eight trips to the plate, to boost his batting average to .406 and become the first player since Bill Terry in 1930 to hit .400. Williams, who spent his entire career with the Sox, played his final game exactly 19 years later, on September 28, 1960, at Boston’s Fenway Park and hit a home run in his last time at bat, for a career total of 521 homeruns.

Williams was born on August 30, 1918, in San Diego, and began his major league career with the Red Sox in 1939. 1941 marked Williams’ best season. In addition to his .406 batting average–no major league player since him has hit .400–the left fielder led the league with 37 homers, 135 runs and had a slugging average of .735. Also that season, Williams, whose nicknames included “The Splendid Splinter” and “The Thumper,” had an on-base percentage of .553, a record that remained unbroken for 61 years, until Barry Bonds achieved a percentage of .582 in 2002.

In 1942, Williams won the American League Triple Crown, for highest batting average and most RBIs and homeruns. He duplicated the feat in 1947. In 1946 and 1949, he was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player and in June 1960, he became the fourth player in major league history to hit 500 homers. He was selected to the All-Star team 17 times.

Williams played his last game on September 28, 1960, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .344, a .483 career on-base percentage and 2,654 hits. His achievements are all the more impressive because his career was interrupted twice for military service: Williams was a Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean War and as a result missed a total of nearly five seasons from baseball.

On this day in 1925, a noted computer engineer is born:

On this date Seymour R. Cray was born in Chippewa Falls. Cray received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He established himself in the field of large-scale computer design through his work for Engineering Associates, Remington Rand, UNIVAC, and Control Data Corporation.

In 1957 Cray built the first computer to use radio transistors instead of vacuum tubes. This allowed for the miniaturization of components which enhanced the performance of desktop computers.

In the 1960s he designed the world’s first supercomputer at Control Data. In 1972 he founded Cray Research in his hometown of Chippewa Falls where he established the standard for supercomputers with CRAY-1 (1976) and CRAY-2 (1985). He resigned from the company in 1981 to devote himself to computer design in the areas of vector register technology and cooling systems.

Cray died in a automobile accident on October 5, 1996. [Source: MIT and Cray Company]

JigZone serves up a dragonfly puzzle for Wednesday:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be mild, with a high of sixty-three, and an even chance of afternoon showers. Sunrise is 6:49 AM and sunset is 6:41 PM, for 11h 52m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 11.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1959, Soviet leader Khrushchev ends his trip to the United States, after displaying the childishness more than one dictator has exhibited:

Khrushchev arrived in the United States on September 15. His plan was to tour America and conclude his trip nearly two weeks later with a summit meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Hopes were high that the visit marked a turning point in the Cold War and that perhaps the Soviet leader’s oft-proclaimed desire for “peaceful coexistence” with the United States would become a reality.

Before official business began, however, Khrushchev–the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States–took the opportunity to tour parts of America. At the top of his list was a visit to Hollywood. His trip to the land of make-believe took a bizarre turn, however, as he engaged in a verbal sparring match with the head of Twentieth Century Fox Studio.

Khrushchev, displaying his famous temper, threatened to return home after the studio chief made some ill-chosen remarks about U.S.-Soviet competition. Khrushchev’s outburst was nothing compared to the tantrum he threw when he learned he could not visit Disneyland because of security concerns. Returning to Washington, the Soviet leader began two days of talks with Eisenhower on a number of issues. Although no specific agreements were reached, both leaders resolved to continue their discussions in the future and keep the lines of communication open….

For Tuesday, JigZone‘s puzzle is of a house:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our weather in town will look more like fall: mostly sunny with a high of sixty-four. Sunrise is 6:48 AM and sunset 6:43 PM for 11h 55m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM today, and their will be a School Board meeting at 7 PM.

The first general election presidential debate was held on September 26, 1960, between U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, and Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, in Chicago at the studios of CBS‘s WBBM-TV. It was moderated by Howard K. Smith and included a panel composed of Sander Vanocur of NBC News, Charles Warren of Mutual News, and Stuart Novins of CBS. Historian J.N. Druckman observed “television primes its audience to rely more on their perceptions of candidate image (e.g., integrity). At the same time, television has also coincided with the world becoming more polarized and ideologically driven.”^[2]

Three more debates were subsequently held between the candidates.:^[3] On October 7 at the WRC-TV NBC studio in Washington, D.C., narrated by Frank McGee with a panel of four newsmen Paul Niven, CBS; Edward P. Morgan, ABC; Alvin Spivak, UPI;^[4] Harold R. Levy, Newsday; October 13, with Nixon at the ABC studio in Los Angeles and Kennedy at the ABC studio in New York, narrated by Bill Shadel with a panel of four newsmen; and October 21 at the ABC studio in New York, narrated by Quincy Howe with a panel of four including Frank Singiser, John Edwards, Walter Cronkite, and John Chancellor. Nixon was considered a poor performer on television as he didn’t have the same telegenic looks in contrast to JFK. While he was considered the better debater, with more policy knowledge and good radio skills, Nixon wasn’t a snappy dresser, refused make up in the first debate, sweat profusely, and had a 5 O’Clock shadow.^[5][6] Nixon later refused to do television debates in 1968 and 1972 as he felt his appearance had cost him against JFK in the tight-run race.

On this day in 1833, a treaty between several tribes and U.S. government cedes tribal land in eastern Wisconsin:

1833 – Indian Treaty Cedes to Government

On this date Indian tribes including the Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ottawa and Sauk ceded land to the government, including areas around Milwaukee, especially to the south and east of the city. The ceded land included much of what is today John Michael Kohler and Terry Andrae State Parks. The Potawatomi continued to live along the Black River until the 1870s, despite the treaty. [Source:Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]

JigZone‘s daily puzzle for Monday is of a Spanish coastline:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be partly cloudy in the morning, with thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon, and a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 6:46 AM and sunset 6:45 PM, for 11h 58m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 28% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked readers whether they would watch the first presidential debate, this Monday night at 8 PM CT. An overwhelming majority of respondents (85.19%) said that they would.

Transatlantic telephone communication by cable begins this day in 1956:

TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) was the first transatlantic telephone cable system. It was laid between Gallanach Bay, near Oban, Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland between 1955 and 1956 by the cable ship Monarch.^[3] It was inaugurated on September 25, 1956, initially carrying 36 telephone channels. In the first 24 hours of public service there were 588 London–U.S. calls and 119 from London to Canada. The capacity of the cable was soon increased to 48 channels.

Later, an additional three channels were added by use of C Carrier equipment. Time-assignment speech interpolation (TASI) was implemented on the TAT-1 cable in June 1960 and effectively increased the cable’s capacity from 37 (out of 51 available channels) to 72 speech circuits. TAT-1 was finally retired in 1978. Later coaxial cables, installed through the 1970s, used transistors and had higher bandwidth.

On this day in 1961, Gov. Nelson signs a bill requiring seatbelts in cars:

1961 – Law Requires Seatbelts in Wisconsin Cars

On this date Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed into law a bill that required all 1962 cars sold in Wisconsin to be equipped with seat belts. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will have a high of seventy-one, with morning clouds and afternoon sunshine.  Sunrise is 6:45 AM and sunset 6:46 PM, for 12h 00m 59s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 38% of its visible disk illuminated.

Someone’s happy —

On this day in  1960, the United States launches the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier:

USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, is an inactive^[11] United States Navy aircraft carrier. She was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed “Big E”. At 1,123 ft (342 m),^[5][6] she is the longest naval vessel ever built. Her 93,284-long-ton (94,781 tonnes)^[4] displacement ranked her as the 12th-heaviestsupercarrier, after the 10 carriers of the Nimitz class and the USS Gerald R. Ford. Enterprise had a crew of some 4,600 service members.^[9]

The only ship of her class, Enterprise^[12] was, at the time of inactivation, the third-oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy after the wooden-hulled USS Constitution and USS Pueblo. She was originally scheduled for decommissioning in 2014 or 2015, depending on the life of her reactors and completion of her replacement,USS Gerald R. Ford,^[13] but the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 slated the ship’s retirement for 2013, when she would have served for 51 consecutive years, longer than any other U.S. aircraft carrier.^[14]

….In 1958, Enterprise‘s keel was laid at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. On 24 September 1960, the ship waslaunched, sponsored by Mrs. W. B. Franke, wife of the former Secretary of the Navy. On 25 November 1961, Enterprise was commissioned, with Captain Vincent P. de Poix, formerly of Fighting Squadron 6 on her predecessor,^[31] in command. On 12 January 1962, the ship made her maiden voyage conducting a three-month shakedown cruise and a lengthy series of tests and training exercises designed to determine the full capabilities of the nuclear powered super carrier.