Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in our small town will bring partly cloudy skies and a high of thirty-eight. Sunrise is 6:58 and sunset 4:24, for 9h 26m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM today, with a Zoning Code Update meeting at 7 PM.

On this day in 1863, Union soldiers defeat Confederates at Lookout Mountain:

…Union troops capture Lookout Mountain southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as they begin to break the Confederate siege of the city. In the “battle above the clouds,” the Yankees scaled the slopes of the mountain on the periphery of the Chattanooga lines.

For nearly two months following the Battle of Chickamauga, the Confederates, commanded by General Braxton Bragg, had pinned the Union army inside Chattanooga. They were not able to surround the city, though, and occupied Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge to the south and east of the city instead. In late October, arriving to take command, Union General Ulysses S. Grant immediately began to form an offensive. On October 27, Union troops attacked Brown’s Ferry southwest of Chattanooga and opened the Tennessee River to boats that brought much needed supplies to the besieged Yankees.

On November 23, Grant began to attack the center of the lines around the city. Lookout Mountain lay on the Union’s far right, and the action there commenced on November 24. Yankee General Joseph Hooker commanded this wing, and his men advanced toward the fog-covered peak. Hooker did not plan to attack the entire mountain that day, thinking the granite crags would be difficult to overcome. The fog masked the Union advance, however, and Hooker’s men climbed relatively easily. The Confederates had overestimated the advantages offered by the mountain, and 1,200 Rebels faced nearly 12,000 attacking Yankees. Artillery proved of little use, as the hill was so steep that the attackers could not even be seen until they appeared near the summit. Bragg did not send reinforcements because the Union attack against the Confederate center was more threatening than the sideshow around Lookout Mountain. The Confederates abandoned the mountain by late afternoon. The next day, Union forces launched a devastating attack against Missionary Ridge and successfully broke the Confederate lines around Chattanooga.

On this day in 1824, a beer king is born:

1824 – Frederick Miller Born

On this date brewing barron Frederick Miller was born in Riedlingen, Wurttemberg, Germany. In 1854, he migrated to the U.S. and to Milwaukee. In 1855 he purchased the Plank Road Brewery. He operated this business until 1888 when it was incorporated as the Frederick Miller Brewing Company, with Miller as president. Miller died on June 11, 1888. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin History]

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability in its Eat! Eat! series:

This Week’s Game — November 23-27

Eat! Eat!

We’re serving up some trivia for this week’s feast. The answer to each day’s quiz question is a title or phrase that contains the sequence EAT in two places. Some instances of EAT may have a space between letters.

Example:

What 2013 hit by the indie rock band The Neighbourhood evokes autumn’s climate?

Answer:

“Sweater Weather”

What to Submit:

Submit the title or phrase (as “Sweater Weather” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, November 24

What followers of Voldemort can be recognized by the Dark Mark on their arms?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday will be warmer than yesterday, with a high of thirty-eight under partly cloudy skies. Sunrise is 6:57 and sunset 4:25, for 9h 28m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1943, America emerges victorious at the Battle of Tarawa (the first American offensive in that part of the Pacific). The New York Times reported on action of the battle:

With the Seventh Army Air Force in the Central Pacific, Nov. 22 (Delayed)–United States Marine assault battalions today conquered the west end of Betio Island, on Tarawa atoll, driving the defenders into the sea and others onto the eastern open flat sections where they became excellent targets for dive-bombing and strafing attacks.

The vicious air attacks were made by Navy planes operating from carriers in this area. The air assault was timed with our artillery fire, which pounded the fleeing Japanese almost at will once they had abandoned their prepared defense positions. Only a few isolated strong Japanese points remain intact.

On the east side of the island some of the enemy attempted to escape by boat, but our patrol aircraft spotted them, sinking some and damaging others.

On this day in 1889, a first:

1889 – First University of Wisconsin Football Game Held

On this date the first University of Wisconsin football game was held in Madison. The UW team suffered a humiliating defeat (27-0) at the hands of the Calument Club of Milwaukee. [Source: Milwaukee Sentinel, 11/24/1889 and Wisconsin History Day by Day]

Puzzability has a new weekly series with Thanksgiving meals in mind:

This Week’s Game — November 23-27

Eat! Eat!

We’re serving up some trivia for this week’s feast. The answer to each day’s quiz question is a title or phrase that contains the sequence EAT in two places. Some instances of EAT may have a space between letters.

Example:

What 2013 hit by the indie rock band The Neighbourhood evokes autumn’s climate?

Answer:

“Sweater Weather”

What to Submit:

Submit the title or phrase (as “Sweater Weather” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, November 23

What book by veterinarian James Herriot was adapted as a popular long-running BBC series?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be cloudy in the morning, but sunny in the afternoon, with a high of twenty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:56 and sunset 4:26, for 9h 29m 58s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 84.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked readers how much snowfall they thought Whitewater would get over this weekend.  We easily passed the ‘more than 6 inches’ choice (that 25% of respondents picked).

On this day in 1963, America experiences a tragic loss and a depressing statistic of her politics: Pres. Kennedy becomes the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated:

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have continuing snowfall in the morning and cloudy skies this afternoon, with a daytime high of thirty.  Sunrise is 6:54 and sunset 4:26, for 9h 31m 50s.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

This month, Théo Sanson probably set a world slackline record.  What’s that like?  It’s like this —

Quite the feat, and beautifully recorded.

On this day in 1783, two Frenchmen ride in an untheterd balloon for about five miles:

François Laurent le Vieux d’Arlandes  and Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier made the first manned free balloon flight on 21 November 1783, in a Montgolfier balloon.

D’Arlandes was born in Anneyron in the Dauphiné. He met Joseph Montgolfier at the Jesuit college of Tournon. He became an infantry officer in the French royal guard.

The first public demonstration of a balloon by the Montgolfier brothers took place in June 1783, and was followed by an untethered flight of a sheep, a cockerel and a duck from the front courtyard of the Palace of Versailles on 19 September. The French KingLouis XVI decided that the first manned flight would contain two condemned criminals, but de Rozier enlisted the help of theDuchess de Polignac to support his view that the honour of becoming first balloonists should belong to someone of higher status, and d’Arlandes agreed to accompany him. The King was persuaded to permit d’Arlandes and de Rozier to become the first pilots.

After several tethered tests to gain some experience of controlling the balloon, de Rozier and d’Arlandes made their first untethered flight in a Montgolfier hot air balloon on 21 November 1783, taking off at 1:54 p.m. from the garden of the Château de la Muette in the Bois de Boulogne, in the presence of the King. Also watching was U.S. envoy, Benjamin Franklin. Their 25-minute flight travelled slowly about 5½ miles (some 9 km) to the southeast, attaining an altitude of 3,000 feet, before returning to the ground at the Butte-aux-Cailles, then on the outskirts of Paris. After the flight, the pilots drank champagne to celebrate the flight, a tradition carried on by balloonists to this day.

D’Arlandes proposed a flight to cross the English Channel in 1784, but the plan came to nothing.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday will grow cloudy, with a daytime high of forty, and snow beginning in the evening. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset is 4:27, for 9h 33m 45s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1820, a whale sinks a whaler:

The American whaler Essex, which hailed from Nantucket, Massachusetts, is attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.

The 238-ton Essex was in pursuit of sperm whales, specifically the precious oil and bone that could be derived from them, when an enraged bull whale rammed the ship twice and capsized the vessel. The 20 crew members escaped in three open boats, but only five of the men survived the harrowing 83-day journey to the coastal waters of South America, where they were picked up by other ships. Most of the crew resorted to cannibalism during the long journey, and at one point men on one of the long boats drew straws to determine which of the men would be shot in order to provide sustenance for the others. Three other men who had been left on a desolate Pacific island were saved later.

The first capture of a sperm whale by an American vessel was in 1711, marking the birth of an important American industry that commanded a fleet of more than 700 ships by the mid 18th century. Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick(1851) was inspired in part by the story of the Essex.

(Of the sinking of the Essex, there is a major motion picture to be released this December, In the Heart of the Sea.)

Here’s Puzzability‘s final game in its Partners in Rhyme series:

This Week’s Game — November 16-20

Partners in Rhyme

Here’s our business plan. For each day, we started with the name of a company or brand, past or present, of the form ___ & ___. The day’s clues lead to two answer words (around the ampersand) that rhyme with the company or brand.

Example:

Beach collectible & A, E, I, O, U, or sometimes Y

Answer:

Bell & Howell (shell & vowel)

What to Submit:

Submit the company or brand and the rhyming words (as “Bell & Howell (shell & vowel)” in the example) for your answer.

Friday, November 20

Pulver’s rank in Mr. Roberts & frat house newbies