Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in the Whippet City will be cloudy with a high of sixty-seven.  Sunrise is 6:07 and sunset is 6:48, for  13h 41m 34s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with  27.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets this evening at  6:30 PM.

On this day in 1911, in a communications first, a telegram travels round the world:

…a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service.

The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply “This message sent around the world,” left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores–among other locations–the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a commercial cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by the Commercial Cable Company.

On this day in 1794, Americans under the command of Anthony Wayne win a victory that reduces British influence in the frontier:

1794 – Battle of Fallen Timbers

On this date American troops under General “Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated a confederation of Indian forces led by Little Turtle of the Miamis and Blue Jacket of the Shawnees. Wayne’s soldiers, who included future Western explorer William Clark and future President William Henry Harrison, won the battle in less than an hour with the loss of some 30 men killed. (The number of Indian casualties is uncertain.) The battle had several far-reaching consequences for the United States and what would later become the state of Wisconsin. The crushing defeat of the British-allied Indians convinced the British to finally evacuate their posts in the American west (an accession explicitly given in the Jay Treaty signed some three months later), eliminating forever the English presence in the early American northwest and clearing the way for American expansion. The battle also resulted in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which the defeated Indians ceded to Wayne the right of Americans to settle in the Ohio Valley (although the northwestern area of that country was given to the Indians). Wayne’s victory opened the gates of widespread settlement of the Old Northwest, Wisconsin included. [Source: American History Illustrated, Feb. 1969]

Here’s Thursday’s game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — August 17-21

Kings and Queens

We’re melding royal pairs this week. For each day, we started with the first name of a famous person whose last name is King, and also a word that can be followed by “queen” to get a familiar phrase or title. Each day’s clue shows the King name and the queen word melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.

Example:

VAILRAGNIN

Answer:

Alan/virgin

What to Submit:

Submit the King name and the queen word, in that order (as “Alan/virgin” in the example), for your answer.

Thursday, August 20

RDORDANEMAY

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a Wednesday of partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures, with a high of seventy-one. Sunrise is 6:06 and sunset 7:50, for 13h 44m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 19.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

If one is made of strong stuff, success is more likely.  On this day in 1812, U.S.S. Constitution defeats and forces the surrender of the British frigate Guerriere:

At 2:00 p.m. on 19 August, the Constitution sighted a large ship to leeward, and bore down to investigate. The weather was cloudy, and the wind was brisk. The strange ship proved to be the Guerriere, whose crew recognised Constitution at about the same moment. Both ships prepared for action, and shortened sail to “fighting sail”, i.e. topsails and jibs only. As the Constitution closed, Dacres first hove to to fire a broadside, which fell short, and then ran before the wind for three quarters of an hour with the Constitution on her quarter. Dacres yawed several times to fire broadsides at the Constitution, but the Guerriere’s broadsides were generally inaccurate, while the few shots fired from Constitution’s foremost guns had little effect.^[10] After one cannonball bounced “harmlessly” off the side of the Constitution, a crew member is said to have yelled “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!”^[8]

Once the range had closed to within a few hundred yards, Captain Hull ordered extra sail (the foresail and main topgallant sail) to be set, to close the distance quickly. Dacres did not match this manoeuvre, and the two ships began exchanging broadsides at “half pistol-shot”,^[11] with the Constitution to starboard and Guerriere to port. After fifteen minutes of this exchange, during which Guerriere suffered far more damage than the Constitution due to the latter’s larger guns and thicker hull, Guerriere’s mizzenmast fell overboard to starboard, acting like a rudder and dragging her around. This allowed Constitution to cross ahead of Guerriere, firing a raking broadside which brought down the main yard. Hull then wore ship to cross Guerriere’s bow again, firing another raking broadside, but the manoeuvre was cut too close and the Guerriere’s bowsprit became entangled in the rigging of the Constitution’s mizzenmast….

As Constitution prepared to renew the action, the Guerriere fired a shot in the opposite direction to the Constitution.^[14] Sensing that this was an attempt to signal surrender, Hull ordered a boat to take a Lieutenant over to the British ship. When the Lieutenant boarded the Guerriere and asked if Guerriere was prepared to surrender, Captain Dacres responded “Well, Sir, I don’t know. Our mizzen mast is gone, our fore and main masts are gone – I think on the whole you might say we have struck our flag.”^[2]

Here’s the midweek game in Puzzability‘s Kings and Queens series:

This Week’s Game — August 17-21

Kings and Queens

We’re melding royal pairs this week. For each day, we started with the first name of a famous person whose last name is King, and also a word that can be followed by “queen” to get a familiar phrase or title. Each day’s clue shows the King name and the queen word melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.

Example:

VAILRAGNIN

Answer:

Alan/virgin

What to Submit:

Submit the King name and the queen word, in that order (as “Alan/virgin” in the example), for your answer.

Wednesday, August 19

HOBIMLECLIEJOMEIANNG

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday will bring scattered thunderstorms to Whitewater, with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 6:05 and sunset is 7:51, for 13h 46m 51s of daytime. The moon is waxing crescent with 12.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Public Market is open today from 3 to 7 PM at the Cravath lakefront. Readers can find information about the market, including scheduled vendors & activities, at the Whitewater City Market Facebook page.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

Crows having remarkable problem-solving skills, on display in the BBC program below —

President George Washington signs the Jay (or “Jay’s”) Treaty with Great Britain.

This treaty, known officially as the “Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America” attempted to defuse the tensions between England and the United States that had risen to renewed heights since the end of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. government objected to English military posts along America’s northern and western borders and Britain’s violation of American neutrality in 1794 when the Royal Navy seized American ships in the West Indies during England’s war with France. The treaty, written and negotiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice (and Washington appointee) John Jay, was signed by Britain’s King George III on November 19, 1794 in London. However, after Jay returned home with news of the treaty’s signing, Washington, now in his second term, encountered fierce Congressional opposition to the treaty; by 1795, its ratification was uncertain….

Ultimately, the treaty was approved by Congress on August 14, 1795, with exactly the two-thirds majority it needed to pass; Washington signed the treaty four days later. Washington and Jay may have won the legislative battle and averted war temporarily, but the conflict at home highlighted a deepening division between those of different political ideologies in Washington, D.C. Jefferson and Madison mistrusted Washington’s attachment to maintaining friendly relations with England over revolutionary France, who would have welcomed the U.S. as a partner in an expanded war against England.

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — August 17-21

Kings and Queens

We’re melding royal pairs this week. For each day, we started with the first name of a famous person whose last name is King, and also a word that can be followed by “queen” to get a familiar phrase or title. Each day’s clue shows the King name and the queen word melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.

Example:

VAILRAGNIN

Answer:

Alan/virgin

What to Submit:

Submit the King name and the queen word, in that order (as “Alan/virgin” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, August 18

DALNACRIRNGY

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday will bring a probability of thunderstorms with a high of eighty-six to town.  Sunrise is 6:04 and sunset 7:53, for  13h 49m 28s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 7.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Double Eagle II completes the first transatlantic balloon flight when it lands in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Preque Isle, Maine. The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey….

The 11-story, helium-filled balloon made good progress during the first four days, and the three pilots survived on hot dogs and canned sardines. The only real trouble of the trip occurred on August 16, when atmospheric conditions forced the Double Eagle II to drop from 20,000 feet to a dangerous 4,000 feet. They jettisoned ballast material and soon rose to a safe height again. That night, they reached the coast of Ireland and on August 17 flew across England en route to their destination of Le Bourget field in Paris, site of Charles Lindbergh’s landing after flying solo in a plane across the Atlantic in 1927. Over southern England, their wives flew close enough to the balloon in a private plane to blow kisses at their husbands.

Blown slightly off course toward the end of the journey, they touched down just before dusk on August 17 near the hamlet of Miserey, about 50 miles west of Paris. Their 137-hour flight set new endurance and distance records. The Americans were greeted by family members and jubilant French spectators who followed their balloon by car. That night, Larry Newman, who at 31 was the youngest of the three pilots, was allowed to sleep with his wife in the same bed where Charles Lindbergh slept after his historic transatlantic flight five decades before.

Puzzability has a new series this week entitled, Kings and Queens. Here’s the August 17th game:

This Week’s Game — August 17-21

Kings and Queens

We’re melding royal pairs this week. For each day, we started with the first name of a famous person whose last name is King, and also a word that can be followed by “queen” to get a familiar phrase or title. Each day’s clue shows the King name and the queen word melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.

Example:

VAILRAGNIN

Answer:

Alan/virgin

What to Submit:

Submit the King name and the queen word, in that order (as “Alan/virgin” in the example), for your answer.

Monday, August 17

SDTAEPIHREYN

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ve another warm day ahead: Sunday will be sunny with a high of ninety-one. Sunrise is 6:02 and sunset is 7:55. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Friday FW poll asked readers about the possibile existence of a Mysterious Lizard Man of South Carolina. Most respondents (81.25%) doubted there was such a creature, but about one-in-five respondents thought that there probably was a giant reptile prowling the palmetto state.

On this day in 1896, someone gets to shout, as was said before about a Califonia find, that there’s gold in them thar hills —

While salmon fishing near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory on this day in 1896, George Carmack reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed. His lucky discovery sparks the last great gold rush in the American West.

Hoping to cash in on reported gold strikes in Alaska, Carmack had traveled there from California in 1881. After running into a dead end, he headed north into the isolated Yukon Territory, just across the Canadian border. In 1896, another prospector, Robert Henderson, told Carmack of finding gold in a tributary of the Klondike River. Carmack headed to the region with two Native American companions, known as Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie. On August 16, while camping near Rabbit Creek, Carmack reportedly spotted a nugget of gold jutting out from the creek bank. His two companions later agreed that Skookum Jim–Carmack’s brother-in-law–actually made the discovery.

Regardless of who spotted the gold first, the three men soon found that the rock near the creek bed was thick with gold deposits. They staked their claim the following day. News of the gold strike spread fast across Canada and the United States, and over the next two years, as many as 50,000 would-be miners arrived in the region. Rabbit Creek was renamed Bonanza, and even more gold was discovered in another Klondike tributary, dubbed Eldorado.

“Klondike Fever” reached its height in the United States in mid-July 1897 when two steamships arrived from the Yukon in San Francisco and Seattle, bringing a total of more than two tons of gold. Thousands of eager young men bought elaborate “Yukon outfits” (kits assembled by clever marketers containing food, clothing, tools and other necessary equipment) and set out on their way north. Few of these would find what they were looking for, as most of the land in the region had already been claimed. One of the unsuccessful gold-seekers was 21-year-old Jack London, whose short stories based on his Klondike experience became his first book, The Son of the Wolf (1900).

For his part, Carmack became rich off his discovery, leaving the Yukon with $1 million worth of gold. Many individual gold miners in the Klondike eventually sold their stakes to mining companies, who had the resources and machinery to access more gold. Large-scale gold mining in the Yukon Territory didn’t end until 1966, and by that time the region had yielded some $250 million in gold. Today, some 200 small gold mines still operate in the region.