Good morning.

Our week will start with sunny skies, a high of sixty-nine, and calm winds.

On this day in 1965, a space-faring first (for an American), as the New York Times reported the next day:

For 20 minutes yesterday afternoon Maj. Edward H. White 2d of the Air Force was a human satellite of the earth as he floated across North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Tethered to the Gemini 4 spacecraft, he chatted good-humoredly and snapped pictures as he darted about in raw space with a the aid of a gas-firing jet gun. Asked how he was doing by Maj. James A. McDivitt of the Air Force, the spaceship commander, Major White replied to his partner in the capsule:

“I’m doing great. This is fun.”

Puzzablity has a new weekly theme for June 3-7: “For each day this week, we’ll give you as a clue a review we wrote of a Tony-winning Best Play. Remove any spaces and punctuation, then delete exactly half of the letters from anywhere in the clue to reveal, reading the remaining letters in order, the title of the play. (You’ll need to add spaces for your final answer.)”

Example:
A HUGE BUST ONSTAGE, ACTED WITHOUT SANITY!
Answer:
August: Osage County

Here’s June 3rd’s puzzle:

DRAMA AND GENIUS!

Good morning.

Sunday in the Whippet City will be partly sunny, with a high near 61. We’ll have north winds at 10 to 15 mph, and gusts up to 25 mph. Sunrise was at 5:19 a.m., and sunset will be at 8:28 p.m. The moon is a waning crescent with 30% of the its visible disk illuminated.

On 6.2.1886,

President Grover Cleveland becomes the first sitting president to marry in the White House on this day in 1886.

Cleveland entered the White House as a bachelor and left a married man and father of two. His new wife was a beautiful young woman 27 years his junior named Frances Folsom. Frances was the daughter of a former law partner and Cleveland’s legal ward; Cleveland had literally known her since she was born. When she was 11, Frances’ father died and Cleveland became her legal guardian, remaining close friends with her mother. His pet name for Frances was Frank. Observers thought Cleveland would marry his friend’s widow and were completely surprised when, instead, he married Frances as soon as she turned 21.

In another White House first, Frances and Cleveland’s second daughter Esther became the first child born to a president in a White House bedroom.

Good morning.

Saturday will be partly sunny, with a forty-percent chance of afternoon showers, and a high of seventy-eight.

On this day in 1980, a news medium is born:

CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6 p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks–ABC, CBS and NBC–and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than 89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally.

From that fine cable network, here’s a story about video games in public bathrooms:

In Wisconsin history, on 6.1.1843,

1843 – First Vessel Docks at Milwaukee Cargo Pier
On this date the first vessel, the Cleveland, docked at North Pier. This pier allowed vessels too large to enter the original mouth of the Milwaukee River a place to unload cargo and passengers. The pier was 1200 feet long and 44 feet wide. It was destroyed by strong winds and ice in 1846. [Source: Milwaukee County Historical Markers]

Good morning.

Whitewater’s month ends with a likelihood of afternoon thunderstorms and a high of eighty.

On this day in 1859, a prominent part of the British architectural scene goes into operation:

The famous tower clock known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen’s Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time on this day in 1859.

After a fire destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster–the headquarters of the British Parliament–in October 1834, a standout feature of the design for the new palace was a large clock atop a tower. The royal astronomer, Sir George Airy, wanted the clock to have pinpoint accuracy, including twice-a-day checks with the Royal Greenwich Observatory. While many clockmakers dismissed this goal as impossible, Airy counted on the help of Edmund Beckett Denison, a formidable barrister known for his expertise in horology, or the science of measuring time.

Denison’s design, built by the company E.J. Dent & Co., was completed in 1854; five years later, St. Stephen’s Tower itself was finished. Weighing in at more than 13 tons, its massive bell was dragged to the tower through the streets of London by a team of 16 horses, to the cheers of onlookers. Once it was installed, Big Ben struck its first chimes on May 31, 1859….

The name “Big Ben” originally just applied to the bell but later came to refer to the clock itself. Two main stories exist about how Big Ben got its name. Many claim it was named after the famously long-winded Sir Benjamin Hall, the London commissioner of works at the time it was built. Another famous story argues that the bell was named for the popular heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt, because it was the largest of its kind.

On this day in 1899, the Gideons begin:

1899 – The Gideons International Founded
On this night two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, crossed paths a second time, in Beaver Dam. The pair had first met eight months before in the Central Hotel in Boscobel and discussed the need for some way to provide Christian support to traveling businessmen. During this second meeting in Beaver Dam the two decided to “get right at it. Start the ball rolling and follow it up.” They invited their professional contacts to an organizational meeting to be held in Janesville on July 1, 1899, at which the organization was formally named and chartered. By 1948, The Gideons had distributed over 15 million bibles world-wide. View more information about the founding of the Gideons elsewhere at wisconsinhistory.org [Source: Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles]

Here’s today’s puzzle from Puzzability. This week’s theme is “The Beginning of the End” and “the answer to each day’s question is the name of a famous person in which the last two letters of the first name are the same letters as the first two letters of the last name, but in reverse order.” For Friday, May 31st:

Whose 25-year record as the youngest winner of a Best Actor Oscar was broken by Adrien Brody in 2003?

Good morning.

We’ve a sixty percent chance of afternoon thundershowers this Thursday, on an otherwise partly sunny, with a of eighty-one. Winds will be from the south at 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon.

On this day in 1593, an English playwright dies an untimely death:

Playwright Christopher Marlowe, 29, is killed in a brawl over a bar tab on this day.

Marlowe, born two months before William Shakespeare, was the son of a Canterbury shoemaker. A bright student, he won scholarships to prestigious schools and earned his B.A. from Cambridge in 1584. He was nearly denied his master’s degree in 1587, until advisers to Queen Elizabeth intervened, recommending he receive the degree, referring obliquely to his services for the state. Marlowe’s activities as a spy for Queen Elizabeth were later documented by historians.

While still in school, Marlowe wrote his play Tamburlaine the Great, about a 14th century shepherd who became an emperor. The blank verse drama caught on with the public, and Marlowe wrote five more plays before his death in 1593, including The Jew of Malta and Dr. Faustus. He also published a translation of Ovid’s Elegies.

In May of 1593, Marlowe’s former roommate, playwright Thomas Kyd, was arrested and tortured for treason. He told authorities that “heretical” papers found in his room belonged to Marlowe, who was subsequently arrested. While out on bail, Marlowe became involved in a fight over a tavern bill and was stabbed to death.

I’ll try a new puzzle series, from Puzzability. They’ve a daily puzzle that runs Monday to Friday, each day’s puzzle being a part of a five-day, weekly theme. This week’s theme is “The Beginning of the End” and “the answer to each day’s question is the name of a famous person in which the last two letters of the first name are the same letters as the first two letters of the last name, but in reverse order.” For Thursday, May 30th:

Who responded to a 1950s interviewer’s question about the patent for his lifesaving vaccine, ‘There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?’