Good morning, Whitewater.

Morning rain, but otherwise a mostly sunny Friday awaits, with a high of eighty-three.

On this day in 1782, Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States.

On June 13, 1782, the Congress turned to its Secretary Charles Thomson, and provided all material submitted by the first three committees.^[10] Thomson was 53 years old, and had been a Latin master at a Philadelphia academy.^[27] Thomson took elements from all three previous committees, coming up with a new design which provided the basis for the final seal.^[10]

Thomson used the eagle – this time specifying an American bald eagle – as the sole supporter on the shield. The shield had thirteen stripes, this time in achevron pattern, and the eagle’s claws held an olive branch and a bundle of thirteen arrows. For the crest, he used Hopkinson’s constellation of thirteen stars. The motto was E Pluribus Unum, taken from the first committee, and was on a scroll held in the eagle’s beak.^[10][27]

An eagle holding symbols of war and peace has a long history, and also echoed the second committee’s themes. Franklin owned a 1702 emblem book, which included an eagle with olive branch and arrows near its talons, which may have been a source for Thomson.^[18] The arrows also mirror those in the arms of the Dutch Republic, the only country in Europe with a representative government at the time, which depicted a lion holding seven arrows representing their seven provinces.^[17][18] State currency may have provided further inspiration; a 1775 South Carolina bill showed a bundle of 13 arrows and a 1775 Maryland note depicted a hand with an olive branch of 13 leaves.^[28]

Thomson’s drawing, the basis for the final seal

For the reverse, Thomson essentially kept Barton’s design, but re-added the triangle around the Eye of Providence and changed the mottos to Annuit Cœptisand Novus Ordo Seclorum.^[27] Thomson sent his designs back to Barton, who made some final alterations. The stripes on the shield were changed again, this time to “palewise” (vertical), and the eagle’s wing position was changed to “displayed” (wingtips up) instead of “rising”. Barton also wrote a more properly heraldic blazon.^[10]

The design was submitted to Congress on June 20, 1782 and was accepted the same day. Thomson included a page of explanatory notes, but no drawing was submitted. This remains the official definition of the Great Seal today.^[10]

Puzzability‘s Game Boxes series concludes with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — June 16-20

Game Boxes

Playing around will work well for you this week. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a tabletop game. Each has 10 or more letters and any number of words. To find the game, 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:

Connect Four

What to Submit:

Submit the game’s name (as “Connect Four” in the example) for your answer.

Friday, June 20

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will open with morning thunderstorms, and then develop into a partly cloudy day with a high of seventy-eight.

It’s Lou Gehrig’s birthday:

Henry Louis “Lou” or “Buster“^[1] Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, a trait which earned him his nickname “The Iron Horse“. He finished with a career batting average of .340, an on-base percentage of .447, and aslugging percentage of .632, and he tallied 493 home runs and 1,995 runs batted in (RBIs). A seven-time All-Star^[2] and six-time World Series champion, Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934^[3] and was twice named theAmerican League‘s (AL) Most Valuable Player. Gehrig was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

A native of New York City and attendee of Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees in 1923. He set several major league records during his career,^[4] including the most career grand slams (23) (since broken)^[5][6] and most consecutive games played (2,130), a record that stood for 56 years and was long considered unbreakable until surpassed by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995.^[7] Gehrig’s streak ended in 1939 after he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease in North America,^[8] which forced him to retire at age 36 and claimed his life two years later. The pathos of his farewell from baseball was capped off by his iconic “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech at the original Yankee Stadium.

Here’s Thursday’s Game Boxes puzzle from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — June 16-20

Game Boxes

Playing around will work well for you this week. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a tabletop game. Each has 10 or more letters and any number of words. To find the game, 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:

Connect Four

What to Submit:

Submit the game’s name (as “Connect Four” in the example) for your answer.

Thursday, June 19

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our Wednesday will have a likelihood of thunderstorms and a high of eighty-one.

As it turns out, naked mole rats are hardier than other rodents, and resistant to diseases that afflict other mammals (notably cancer). How is that? Vox explains:

On this day in 1812, America goes to war with Britain:

The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law–and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the “War Hawks” had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial land gains for the United States.

Here is the Wednesday game in Puzzability‘s Game Boxes series:

This Week’s Game — June 16-20

Game Boxes

Playing around will work well for you this week. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a tabletop game. Each has 10 or more letters and any number of words. To find the game, 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:

Connect Four

What to Submit:

Submit the game’s name (as “Connect Four” in the example) for your answer.

Wednesday, June 18

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have morning showers and thunderstorms today, and thereafter a partly sunny day, with a high of eighty-nine.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1972, five burglars are arrested:

In the early morning of June 17, 1972, five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate, an office-hotel-apartment complex in Washington, D.C. In their possession were burglary tools, cameras and film, and three pen-size tear gas guns. At the scene of the crime, and in rooms the men rented at the Watergate, sophisticated electronic bugging equipment was found. Three of the men were Cuban exiles, one was a Cuban American, and the fifth was James W. McCord, Jr., a former CIA agent. That day, the suspects, who said they were “anti-communists,” were charged with felonious burglary and possession of implements of crime.

On June 18, however, it was revealed that James McCord was the salaried security coordinator for President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee. The next day, E. Howard Hunt, Jr., a former White House aide, was linked to the five suspects. In July, G. Gordon Liddy, finance counsel for the Committee for the Re-election of the President, was also implicated as an accomplice. In August, President Nixon announced that a White House investigation of the Watergate break-in had concluded that administration officials were not involved. In September, Liddy, Hunt, McCord, and the four Cubans were indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts of breaking into and illegally bugging the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

On this day in 1673, a stunning sight along a great journey:

1673 – Marquette & Joliet Reach the Mississippi

“Here we are, then, on this so renowned river, all of whose peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully.” It’s important to recall that Marquette and Joliet did not discover the Mississippi: Indians had been using it for 10,000 years, Spanish conquistador Hernan De Soto had crossed it in 1541, and fur traders Groseilliers and Radisson may have reached it in the 1650s. But Marquette and Joliet left the first detailed reports and proved that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, which opened the heart of the continent to French traders, missionaries, and soldiers. View a Map of Marquette & Joliet’s route. Read Marquette’s journal on our Historic Diaries pages.

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — June 16-20

Game Boxes

Playing around will work well for you this week. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a tabletop game. Each has 10 or more letters and any number of words. To find the game, 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:

Connect Four

What to Submit:

Submit the game’s name (as “Connect Four” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, June 17