Good morning.

Whitewater’s week begins with showers and a high of seventy-two.

On this day in 1862, Americans fought the bloodiest one-day battle in American history at Antietam Creek:

When fighting began in the foggy dawn hours of September 17, this strategy broke down into a series of uncoordinated advances by Union soldiers under the command of Generals Joseph Hooker, Joseph Mansfield and Edwin Sumner. As savage and bloody combat continued for eight hours across the region, the Confederates were pushed back but not beaten, despite sustaining some 15,000 casualties. At the same time, Union General Ambrose Burnside opened an attack on the Confederate right, capturing the bridge that now bears his name around 1 p.m. Burnside’s break to reorganize his men allowed Confederate reinforcements to arrive, turning back the Union advance there as well.

By the time the sun went down, both armies still held their ground, despite staggering combined casualties–nearly 23,000 of the 100,000 soldiers engaged, including almost 4,000 dead. McClellan’s center never moved forward, leaving a large number of Union troops that did not participate in the battle. On the morning of September 18, both sides gathered their wounded and buried their dead. That night, Lee turned his forces back to Virginia. His retreat gave President Lincoln the moment he had been waiting for to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, a historic document that turned the Union effort in the Civil War into a fight for the abolition of slavery.

From Google’s daily puzzle, a question about a fencing rules: “If you’re holding the heaviest of the three kinds of fencing swords, which part of your opponent’s body is a valid target?”

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be warm and sunny, with a high of eighty-two, and southwest winds at 5 to 15 MPH.

On this day in 1620, the Mayflower’s one-hundred-two passengers left England for America:

In a difficult Atlantic crossing, the 90-foot Mayflower encountered rough seas and storms and was blown more than 500 miles off course. Along the way, the settlers formulated and signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that bound the signatories into a “civil body politic.” Because it established constitutional law and the rule of the majority, the compact is regarded as an important precursor to American democracy. After a 66-day voyage, the ship landed on November 21 on the tip of Cape Cod at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about traders and the animals for whom they were named: “Our name means “of purple merchants”. What snail was the source of the product that made us famous for our purple?”

Good morning.

It’s a beautiful Saturday ahead for Whitewater, with sunny skies and a high of seventy-eight.

From LiveScience.com, it turns out that not only human babies have odd sleep schedules: some aquatic infants don’t sleep at all.

From Google’s daily puzzle, a question of stages and phases: “In the process that includes, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, which stage does the nuclear envelope start to disappear?” more >>

Good morning.

Whitewater’s week ends with sunny skies and a high of seventy-three.

On this day in 1812, Napoleon entered Moscow, only to find his achievement a Pyrrhic victory:

One week after winning a bloody victory over the Russian army at the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée enters the city of Moscow, only to find the population evacuated and the Russian army retreated again. Moscow was the goal of the invasion, but the deserted city held no czarist officials to sue for peace and no great stores of food or supplies to reward the French soldiers for their long march. Then, just after midnight, fires broke out across the city, apparently set by Russian patriots, leaving Napoleon’s massive army with no means to survive the coming Russian winter.

Google’s daily puzzle ask about a presumptuous question: “What did I do after I said, ‘They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance’?”