Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday will be increasingly cloudy with a high of fifty-eight. Sunrise is 6:27 and sunset 7:27, for 13h 00m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1906, Admiral Peary claims to have reached the North Pole. He probably came very close:

Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. (May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909. Peary’s claim was widely credited for most of the 20th century, rather than the competing claim by Frederick Cook, who said he got there a year earlier. Both claims were widely debated in newspapers until 1913.

Modern historians generally think Cook did not reach the pole. Based on an evaluation of Peary’s records, Wally Herbert (also a polar explorer) concluded in a 1989 book that Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as 60 miles (97 km). His conclusions have been widely accepted.^[1]

The first undisputed explorers to walk on the North Pole ice were documented in 1969 during a British expedition led by British explorer Wally Herbert (see the list of firsts in the Geographic North Pole).

On this day in 1831, the Sauk leave Wisconsin & Illinois:

On this date, in the spring of 1831, the Sauk Indians led by Chief Keokuk left their ancestral home near the mouth of the Rock River and moved across the Mississippi River to Iowa to fulfill the terms of a treaty signed in 1804. Many of the tribe, however, believed the treaty to be invalid and the following spring, when the U.S. government failed to provide them with promised supplies, this dissatisfied faction led by Black Hawk returned to their homeland on the Rock River, precipitating the Black Hawk War. [Source:History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers, edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

Puzzability begins a new weekly series today, entitled Cross Talk:

This Week’s Game — April 6-10

Cross Talk

We expect to have a series of guessed hosts this week at the Daily Post. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a TV talk show host with 10 or more letters. To find the name, start at any letter and move from letter to letter by traveling to any adjacent letter—across, up and down, or diagonally. You may come back to a letter you’ve used previously, but may not stay in the same spot twice in a row. You will not always need all nine letters in the grid.

Example:

Answer:

Jimmy Kimmel

What to Submit:

Submit the host’s name (as “Jimmy Kimmel” in the example) for your answer.

Good morning, Whitewater.

We will have a mild and partly sunny Easter in Whitewater, with a high of sixty-three. Sunrise is 6:28 and sunset 7:25, for 12h 57m 16s of daytime. It’s a full moon, with 99.1% of the moon’s visible disk illuminated.

For the third year out of four, in the FREE WHITEWATER Easter candy poll, Chocolate Rabbits are respondents’ candy favorite. These rabbits just won’t be denied.

On this day in 1792, it’s a presidential first:

George Washington exercises the first presidential veto of a Congressional bill on this day in 1792. The bill introduced a new plan for dividing seats in the House of Representatives that would have increased the amount of seats for northern states. After consulting with his politically divided and contentious cabinet, Washington, who came from the southern state of Virginia, ultimately decided that the plan was unconstitutional because, in providing for additional representatives for some states, it would have introduced a number of representatives higher than that proscribed by the Constitution.

After a discussion with the president, Jefferson wrote in a letter that votes for or against the bill were divided along perfectly geographical lines between the North and South. Jefferson observed that Washington feared that a veto would incorrectly portray him as biased toward the South. In the end, Jefferson was able to convince the president to veto the bill on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and introduced principles that were liable to be abused in the future. Jefferson suggested apportionment instead be derived from arithmetical operation, about which no two men can ever possibly differ.” Washington’s veto sent the bill back to Congress. Though representatives could have attempted to overrule the veto with a two-thirds vote, Congress instead threw out the original bill and instituted a new one that apportioned representatives at “the ratio of one for every thirty-three thousand persons in the respective States.”

Washington exercised his veto power only one other time during his two terms in office. In February 1797, the former commanding general of the Continental Army vetoed an act that would have reduced the number of cavalry units in the army.

On this day in 1860, Wisconsin responds to Virginia:

On this date, with the threat of civil war hanging in the air, John F. Potter, a Wisconsin representative in Congress, was challenged to a duel by Virgina representative Roger Pryor. Potter, a Northern Republican, had become a target of Southerners during heated debates over slavery. After one exchange, Pryor challenged Potter to a duel and Potter, as the one challenged, specified that bowie knives be used at a distance of four feet. Pryor refused and Potter became famous in the anti-slavery movement. Two years later, when Republicans convened in Chicago, Potter was given a seven foot blade as a tribute; the knife hung with pride during all the sessions of the convention.  Before his death, Potter remembered the duel and proclaimed, “I felt it was a national matter – not any private quarrel – and I was willing to make sacrifices.” [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners, by Fred L. Holmes]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Easter Saturday in town will be sunny with a high of fifty-seven. Sunrise is 6:30 and sunset 7:24, for 12h 54m 23s of daytime. We’ve a full moon.

Photos of the lunar eclipse from earlier this morning are available @ Space.com:

Total Lunar Eclipse Photos for April 4, 2015

On this day in 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis. He was thirty-nine.

On this day in 1865, Union soldiers continued their pursuit across Virginia of Gen. Lee’s retreating army:

1865 – (Civil War) Confederate leaders reach Amelia Court House, Virginia
The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were among the troops pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee across Virginia after the fall of Richmond. On this day the two sides reached the town of Amelia Court House, but the Confederates withdrew before a battle began.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be increasingly cloudy, with a high of forty-eight. Sunrise is 6:32 and sunset 7:23, for 12h 51m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 99% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1865, Union soldiers, including many from Wisconsin, help liberate Richmond:

1865 – (Civil War) Confederate capital seized
When Petersburg, Virginia, fell on the night of April 2, 1865, Confederate leaders hastily abandoned Richmond. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry participated in the occupation of Petersburg and Richmond. The brigade containing the 19th Wisconsin Infantry was the first to enter Richmond on the morning of April 3rd. Their regimental flag became the first to fly over the captured capital of the Confederacy when Colonel Samuel Vaughn planted it on Richmond City Hall.

Here’s the final game in Puzzability‘s Flower Arrangements series:

This Week’s Game — March 30-April 3

Flower Arrangements

We’re having a garden party this week. For each day, we’ve taken a word or phrase, added to it the letters in the name of a flower, and rearranged all the letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s equation, and the flower name is given.

Example:

Stop suddenly, as a baseball pitcher in mid-throw + NARCISSUS = cocktails made with vodka and coffee liqueur

Answer:

Balk, Black Russians

What to Submit:

Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Balk, Black Russians” in the example), for your answer.

Friday, April 3

Main character of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea + DAISY = huge trading outfit whose activities led to the formation of the British Raj

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a probability of showers today, with a high of sixty-four. Sunrise is 6:33 and sunset 7:22, for 12h 48m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

There’s beauty in hockey, but not just the game. Clearing the ice during a game is almost a synchronized sport all its own:

On this day in 1917, Pres. Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war against Germany:

Washington, April 2 — At 8:35 o’clock tonight the United States virtually made its entrance into the war. At that hour President Wilson appeared before a joint session of the Senate and House and invited it to consider the fact that Germany had been making war upon us and to take action in recognition of that fact in accordance with his recommendations, which included universal military service, the raising of an army of 500,000 men, and co-operation with the Allies in all ways that will help most effectively to defeat Germany.

Resolutions recognizing and declaring the state of war were immediately introduced in the House and Senate by Representative Flood and Senator Martin, both of the President’s birth-state, Virginia, and they are the strongest declarations of war that the United States has ever made in any war in which it has been engaged since it became a nation. They are the administration resolutions drawn up after conference with the President, and in language approved and probably dictated by him, and they will come before the two Foreign Affairs Committees at meetings which will be held tomorrow morning and will be reported at the earliest practical moment….

Before an audience that cheered him as he has never been cheered in the Capitol in his life, the President cast in the lot of American unreservedly with the Allies and declared for a war that must not end until the issue between autocracy and democracy has been fought out. He recited our injuries at Germany’s hands, but he did not rest our cause on those; he went on from that point to range us with the Allies as a factor in an irrepressible conflict between the autocrat and the people. He showed that peace was impossible for the democracies of the world while this power remained on earth. “The world,” he said, “must be made safe for democracy.”

Here is the Thursday game in the Flower Arrangements series from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — March 30-April 3

Flower Arrangements

We’re having a garden party this week. For each day, we’ve taken a word or phrase, added to it the letters in the name of a flower, and rearranged all the letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s equation, and the flower name is given.

Example:

Stop suddenly, as a baseball pitcher in mid-throw + NARCISSUS = cocktails made with vodka and coffee liqueur

Answer:

Balk, Black Russians

What to Submit:

Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Balk, Black Russians” in the example), for your answer.

Thursday, April 2

Great Depression decade + ANEMONE = sports-based saying that means you need to work together to achieve a goal, not just on your own

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a warm and sunny Wednesday in town, with a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 6:35 and sunset 7:21, for 12h 45m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

A person’s single bad meal, leading to illness, is forever memorable to him or her. How, then, can animal scavengers survive meal after meal of rotting carcasses? Here’s how:

On this day in 1945, Americans landed on Okinawa, the beginning of an intense fight to take that island from Japan. The New York Times reported on the landing the next day:

Guam, Monday, April 2 — The United States Tenth Army landed yesterday morning on Okinawa, main island of the Ryukyus, 362 miles from the Japanese home islands. This morning found the invaders three miles inland and holding two airfields, with the defenders retreating all along the eight-mile landing line.

The veteran doughboys and marines met amazingly light resistance from the minute they landed yesterday at 8:30 A.M. They pushed up the steep slopes from the landing beaches with ease, although the shore was dominated by enemy guns on high ground.

Marines took the Yontan airfield at the northern end of the beachhead while Army troops captured the Katena airdrome in the southern area.

In his second communique on the operation Admiral Chester W. Nimitz at 9:30 A.M. today reported:

“United States forces on Okinawa advanced inland rapidly throughout the first day of the assault and by 18:00 (6 P.M.) on April 1 (East Longitude date), forward elements of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps and Marine Third Amphibious Corps had expanded in the beachhead to a three mile depth at several points. Enemy resistance continued to be light.

The Battle of Okinawa lasted over two months’ time, until the few remaining Japanese soldiers on the island capitulated in mid-June, and was the largest amphibious assault of its kind in the Pacific.

On this day in 1970, Wisconsin’s MLB team is founded:

1970 – Milwaukee Brewers Founded
On this date the Milwaukee Brewers, Inc., an organization formed by Allan H. “Bud” Selig and Edmund Fitzgerald, acquired the Seattle Pilots franchise. The team was renamed the Milwaukee Brewers, a tribute to the city’s long association with brewing industry.

Here’s the Wednesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — March 30-April 3

Flower Arrangements

We’re having a garden party this week. For each day, we’ve taken a word or phrase, added to it the letters in the name of a flower, and rearranged all the letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s equation, and the flower name is given.

Example:

Stop suddenly, as a baseball pitcher in mid-throw + NARCISSUS = cocktails made with vodka and coffee liqueur

Answer:

Balk, Black Russians

What to Submit:

Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Balk, Black Russians” in the example), for your answer.

Wednesday, April 1

Legoland or Disney World, for example + CROCUS = bad guys who bypass digital security