Good Trepidatious Tuesday Yonkersites, at 4:40 AM EST light snow is falling and the temperature is 20 to 21 degrees (4 degrees w/WCF) with north winds at 19 mph, 80% humidity, the dew point is 15 degrees, the barometer is 29.7 inches and steady, and the visibility is 0.9 miles. ***SPECIAL WEATHER ALERT --- 1) A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL12 AM WEDNESDAY. 2) A COASTAL FLOOD WARNING IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM THIS MORNING. Yonkers will be windy with on and off snow showers during the morning with significant blowing and drifting snow, high 24 degrees with north/north-west winds at 20 to 30 mph. The chance of snow is 100% with snowfall around 1 inch. Cloudy skies early then partly cloudy after midnight, a few flurries or snow showers are possible, low 16 degrees with north/north-west winds at 10 to 20 mph. Sun-up occurs at 7:09 AM and descends gracefully beyond the Palisades at 5:07 PM. You’ll have 09 hours and 57 minutes of available daylight. Dent, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, Population: 193. At 3:51 AM CST Dent is cloudy and 26 to 27 degrees. Today Dent will have sunshine and clouds mixed, high around 35 degrees with south/south-east winds at 10 to 15 mph. Partly cloudy early tonight with increasing clouds overnight, low 26 degrees with south/south-east winds at 10 to 15 mph. David District, Chiriqui Province, Panama, Population: 89,442. At 4:56 AM CST David is clear and 71 degrees. David will have plenty of sunshine today, high 92 degrees with north winds at 5 to 10 mph. Partly cloudy skies tonight, low 72 degrees with light and variable winds. Dothan, Houston County, Alabama. At 5:00 AM CST Dothan is clear and 36 to 39 degrees. Plenty of sunshine for Dothan today, high 61 degrees with west/north-west winds at 15 to 25 mph. Clear skies tonight, low 32 degrees with light and variable winds. The Four Day Yonkers Weather Forecast: Wednesday(28)- sunny, 0% chance of precipitation, 28H/13L; Thursday(29)- mostly cloudy, 10% chance of precipitation, 32H/29L; Friday(30)- AM snow showers/wind, 50% chance of precipitation, 33H/7L; and Saturday(31)- sunny, 0% chance of precipitation, 19H/13L. Quote of the Day: Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann (1889 - 1974) Word of the Day: incontrovertible -indisputable Today 01/27 In HISTORY (Courtesy of the History Channel): 1 - 1785 - American Revolution - The Georgia General Assembly incorporates the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic. The previous year, the assembly had set aside 40,000 acres from which they planned to earn the money they would need to endow such an institution. In 1786, the future universitys board of trustees met for the first time in Augusta, Georgia, choosing Yale University alumnus Abraham Baldwin as president and drafting the schools charter. In 1801, John Milledge, future governor of Georgia, donated 633 acres along the Oconee River in what is now Athens to serve as the site of the new university. Three years later, the school graduated its first class. In its first incarnation, the new institution was named Franklin College, in honor of the ubiquitous Benjamin, and modeled in architecture and pedagogy after Baldwins alma mater, Yale. An important distinction existed, however, in the founding of the two institutions. Yale was founded by Congregationalist ministers on explicitly theological grounds, while the University of Georgia--a religiously tolerant institution founded in a more religiously tolerant age--remained purposely independent of any theological affiliation. Reflecting the trajectory of the nation as a whole, it took an additional century and a half for the university to complete a shift from religious tolerance to gender equity and racial integration. The university began admitting women in 1918, the same year President Woodrow Wilson gave his support to a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. In 1961, after a three-year legal battle, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first African-American students to enroll at the University of Georgia. 2 - 1862 - Civil War - President Abraham Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces. The unusual order was the product of a number of factors. Lincoln had a new secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, who replaced the corrupt Simon Cameron. The president had also been brushing up on his readings about military strategy. Lincoln felt that if enough force were brought to bear on the Confederates simultaneously, they would break. This was a simple plan that ignored a host of other factors, but Lincoln felt that if the Confederates ...weakened one to strengthen another, the Union could step in and seize and hold the one weakened. The primary reason for the order, however, was General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac in the East. McClellan had a deep contempt for the president that had become increasingly apparent since Lincoln appointed him in July 1861. McClellan had shown great reluctance to reveal his plans to the president, and exhibited no signs of moving his army in the near future. Lincoln wanted to convey a sense of urgency to all the military leaders, and it worked in the West. Union armies in Tennessee began to move, and General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, respectively. McClellan, however, did not respond. Lincolns order called for strict accountability for each commander who did not follow the order, but the president had to handle McClellan carefully. Because the general had the backing of many Democrats and had whipped the Army of the Potomac into fine fighting shape over the winter, Lincoln had to give McClellan a chance to command in the field. 3 - 1973 - Cold War - The Paris Peace Accords are signed by officials from the United States and North Vietnam, bringing an official end to Americas participation in its most unpopular foreign war. The accords did little, however, to solve the turmoil in Vietnam or to heal the terrible domestic divisions in the United States brought on by its involvement in this Cold War battleground. Peace negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam had been ongoing since 1968. Richard Nixon was elected president that year, largely on the basis of his promise to find a way to peace with honor in Vietnam. Four years later, after the deaths of thousands more American servicemen, South Vietnamese soldiers, North Vietnamese soldiers, and Viet Cong fighters, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, and Americas participation in the struggle in Vietnam came to a close. On the military side, the accords seemed straightforward enough. A cease-fire was declared, and the United States promised to remove all military forces from South Vietnam within 60 days. For their part, the North Vietnamese promised to return all American prisoners of war within that same 60-day framework. The nearly 150,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam were allowed to remain after the cease-fire. The political side of the agreement was somewhat less clear. In essence, the accords called for the reunification of North and South Vietnam through peaceful means on the basis of discussions and agreements between North and South Viet-Nam. Precisely what this entailed was left unsaid. The United States also promised to contribute to healing the wounds of war and to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam [North Vietnam] and throughout Indochina. Most Americans were relieved simply to be out of the Vietnam quagmire. The war against communism in Southeast Asia cost over 50,000 U.S. lives and billions of dollars, in addition to countless soldiers wounded in the line of duty. At home, the war seriously fractured the consensus about the Cold War that had been established in the period after World War II--simple appeals to fighting the red threat of communism would no longer be sufficient to move the American nation to commit its prestige, manpower, and money to foreign conflicts. For Vietnam, the accords meant little. The cease-fire almost immediately collapsed, with recriminations and accusations flying from both sides. In 1975, the North Vietnamese launched a massive military offensive, crushed the South Vietnamese forces, and reunified Vietnam under communist rule. 4 - 2002 - Disaster - Explosions at a military depot in Lagos, Nigeria, trigger a stampede of fleeing people, during which more than 1,000 people are killed. The Ikeja armory was located just north of the city center of Lagos and housed a large barracks and munitions depot. On January 27, a Sunday afternoon, a street market was set up at Ikeja when fire broke out. It spread to a munitions area and, at about 6 p.m., caused a huge explosion. The blast immediately leveled an area of several square blocks and killed approximately 300 people, mostly soldiers and their families. The explosion was heard and felt 30 miles away and the tremors collapsed homes and broke windows as many as 10 miles away. Making matters worse, the explosion sent munitions debris raining down over a wide swath of the north side of Lagos. This caused fires to break out all over the city. The explosions and fires caused a general panic in part of the city. Lagos has a large canal, the Oke-Afa, running north to south through the city. On the other side of the canal is a banana plantation. Apparently, much of the panicking crowd thought they could seek refuge in the banana fields, but failed to remember the location of the canal in the dark. As thousands of people pushed toward the fields, at least 600 people drowned in the canal. Stampedes in other parts of the city killed hundreds more, most of them children separated from their parents. Approximately 5,000 people were injured in total, overwhelming the citys hospitals. Explosions continued throughout the night and into the following afternoon. Due to a lack of firefighters in Lagos, the blazes were not contained until more than 24 hours later. At least 12,000 people were left homeless by the disaster. Afterward, the commander of Ikeja issued a statement, On behalf of the military, we are sorry... efforts were being made in the recent past to try to improve the storage facility, but this accident happened before the high authorities could do what was needed. In fact, it turned out that city officials had told the military to modernize the facility the year before, following a small explosion, but that virtually nothing had been done. 5 - 1926 - Inventions - John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor, gives the first public demonstration of a true television system in London, launching a revolution in communication and entertainment. Bairds invention, a pictorial-transmission machine he called a televisor, used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. This information was then transmitted by cable to a screen where it showed up as a low-resolution pattern of light and dark. Bairds first television program showed the heads of two ventriloquist dummies, which he operated in front of the camera apparatus out of view of the audience. Baird based his television on the work of Paul Nipkow, a German scientist who patented his ideas for a complete television system in 1884. Nipkow likewise used a rotating disk with holes in it to scan images, but he never achieved more than the crudest of shadowy pictures. Various inventors worked to develop this idea, and Baird was the first to achieve easily discernible images. In 1928, Baird made the first overseas broadcast from London to New York over phone lines and in the same year demonstrated the first color television. The first home television receiver was demonstrated in Schenectady, New York, in January 1928, and by May a station began occasional broadcasts to the handful of homes in the area that were given the General Electric-built machines. In 1932, the Radio Corporation of America demonstrated an all-electronic television using a cathode-ray tube in the receiver and the iconoscope camera tube developed by Russian-born physicist Vladimir Zworykin. These two inventions greatly improved picture quality. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) inaugurated regular high-definition public broadcasts in London in 1936. In delivering the broadcasts, Bairds television system was in competition with one promoted by Marconi Electric and Musical Industries. Marconis television, which produced a 405-line picture--compared with Bairds 240 lines--was clearly better, and in early 1937 the BBC adopted the Marconi system exclusively. Regular television broadcasts began in the United States in 1939, and permanent color broadcasts began in 1954. 6 - 1967 - NASA - A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kills astronauts Virgil Gus Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month. The Apollo program was initiated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) following President John F. Kennedys 1961 declaration of the goal of landing men on the moon and bringing them safely back to Earth by the end of the decade. The so-called moon shot was the largest scientific and technological undertaking in history. In December 1968, Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to travel to the moon, and on July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin Jr. walked on the lunar surface. In all, there were 17 Apollo missions and six lunar landings. 7 - 1975 - FBI/CIA - A bipartisan Senate investigation of activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is launched by a special congressional committee headed by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. On November 20, the committee released its report, charging both U.S. government agencies with illegal activities. The committee reported that the FBI and the CIA had conducted illegal surveillance of several hundred thousand U.S. citizens. The CIA was also charged with illegally plotting to assassinate foreign leaders, such as Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president of Chile. In 1973, Allende was killed in a coup that the CIA secretly helped organize. The Senate committee also reported that the CIA had maintained a secret stockpile of poisons despite a specific presidential order to destroy the substances. 8 - 1302 - Florence - Poet and politician Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence, where he served as one of six priors governing the city. Dantes political activities, including the banishing of several rivals, led to his own banishment, and he wrote his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, as a virtual wanderer, seeking protection for his family in town after town. Dante was born to a family with noble ancestry that had fallen in fortunes. He began writing poetry in his teens and received encouragement from established poets, to whom he sent sonnets as a young man. At age nine, Dante first caught a glimpse of Beatrice Portinari, also nine, who would symbolize for him perfect female beauty and spiritual goodness in the coming decades. Despite his fervent devotion to Portinari, who did not seem to return his feelings, Dante became engaged to Gemma Donati in 1277, but the two did not marry until eight years later. The couple had six sons and a daughter. About 1293, Dante published a book of prose and poetry called The New Life, followed a few years later by another collection, The Banquet. It wasnt until his banishment that he began work on his Divine Comedy. In the poems first book, the poet takes a tour through Hell with the poet Virgil as a guide. Virgil also guides the poet through Purgatory in the second book. The poets guide in Paradise, however, is named Beatrice. The work was written and published in sections between 1308 and 1321. Although Dante called the work simply Comedy, the work became enormously popular, and a deluxe version published in 1555 in Venice bore the title The Divine Comedy. Dante died of malaria in Ravenna in 1321. 9 - 1967 - Vietnam War - Specialist Four Donald W. Evans, a 23-year-old medic from Covina, California, was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for action on this day in the Kontum Province. Evans platoon had not yet been committed to the battle near the hamlet of Tri Tam when firing broke out in an adjacent unit. Without hesitation, Evans charged forward through 100 yards of open ground to reach six wounded soldiers. With total disregard for his own safety, he moved among the soldiers, treating the men and carrying two of the more seriously wounded back to his platoon. Grenade fragments hit Evans, but he ignored his wounds to rejoin his unit as it entered the battle. Twice more he carried the wounded out of the line of fire. He was running toward another man when he was killed by enemy fire. His devotion to duty and uncommon valor won him the nations highest award for bravery. 10 - 1918 - World War One - Plagued by hunger and increasingly frustrated with the continuing Great War, hundreds of thousands of long-suffering German workers prepare for a massive strike in Berlin. Although the year 1917 had brought a string of military triumphs to the Central Powers—Kaiser Wilhelm, on a visit to the Western Front in December, told his troops that the years events proved that God was on the side of the Germans—it had also seen hunger and discontent on the home front rise to unprecedented levels. There were a total of 561 strikes in 1917, up from 240 the year before and 137 in 1915. Real wages—or the ratio of wages to cost of living—were falling, with disastrous effects for industrial and white-collar workers alike. War with Russia had cut Germany and Austria-Hungary off from a crucial supply of food and the Allied naval blockade in the North Sea, in effect since early in the war, had exacerbated the resulting shortages. At the beginning of 1918, the thorny negotiations between Russia and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk promised to delay a much-needed influx of food and resources even longer. Discontent flared first in Austria, where flour rations were cut in mid-January. Strikes began almost immediately in Vienna and by January 19 there was a general strike throughout the country. Food shortages were even worse in Germany, where some 250,000 people had died from hunger in 1917. On January 28, 1918, 100,000 workers took to the streets of Berlin, demanding an end to the war on all fronts. Within a few days, the number was up to 400,000. The Berlin strikers enjoyed support in a string of other major cities, including Dusseldorf, Kiel, Cologne and Hamburg. By one estimate, more than 4 million took to the streets across Germany. The reaction of the German government and the army—frightened by visions of Bolshevik-style revolution and worried the workers revolt would further delay the peace talks at Brest-Litovsk—was swift and decisive. On January 31, a state of siege was declared and the ringleaders of the strikes were arrested and court-martialed. One hundred and fifty were imprisoned, while 50,000 more were drafted into the army and sent to the front. 11 - 1943 - World War Two - 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes—and lost only three planes in return. The 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses, capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids, the premier example being the raid on Wilhelmshaven. Commanded at the time by Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, the 8th Air Force was amazingly effective and accurate in bombing warehouses and factories in this first air attack against the Axis power. 12 - 1944 - World War Two - 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes—and lost only three planes in return. The 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses, capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids, the premier example being the raid on Wilhelmshaven. Commanded at the time by Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, the 8th Air Force was amazingly effective and accurate in bombing warehouses and factories in this first air attack against the Axis power. The Sports Scene: NHL Hockey Action: Tonights Action: The New York Rangers begin the second half of the season at the Nassau Colliseum facing the Islanders at 7 PM on MSG and MSG+, the Buffalo Sabers skate against the Calgary Flames at 9 PM on MSG-B, Ari at Phi, Wpg at Pit, Was at CBJ, TB at Car, Dal at Mon, Det at Fla, Col at Nas, Min at Edm, and Ana at Van. NBA Action: The New York Knock-Abouts and Brooklyn Nets were idle, Mem 103-Orl 94, NO 99-Phi 74, OKC 92-Min 84, Bos 99-Uta 90, and LAC 102-Den 98. Tonights NBA Action: The New York Knock-Abouts and Brooklyn Nets were idle, Tor at Ind, Cle at Det, Mil at Mia, Mem at Dal, Chi at GSW, Was at LAL. NFL Football: Divisional Playoff: (AFC)The New England Patriots defeated the Baltimore Ravens 35-31 and the Indianapolis Colts upset the Denver Broncos 24-13 and (NFC) the Seattle Seahawks beat the Carolina Panthers 31-17 and the Green Bay Packers topped the Dallas Cowboys 26-21. NFL Conference Championship: NFC: The Seattle Seahawks topped the Green Bay Packers in an exciting mistake filled game 28-22 in overtime. AFC: The New England Patriots routed the Indianapolis Colts 45-7. Super Bowl XLIX (49) - The New England Patriots (AFC) vs the Seattle Seahawks (NFC), Sunday February 1, 6:30 PM on NBC at the University of Phoenix Stadium. I cant figure the weather prognosticators jargon, the blizzard warning is still in effect and yet the weather calls for only one additional inch of snow. The winds will continue to diminish throughout the day so I guess the only reason to maintain the blizzard warning is because of blowing snow and reduced visibility. I dont think this storm reached the potential that was predicted but that is okay by me! Less snow to dig out from! If you can swing it, I would stay at home and let the plows do their thing. Working for near 33 years for the city of Yonkers, I always felt an obligation to get to work on winter storm days. I think I missed one day due to snow. Even in that tremendous ice storm we had some years back I managed to get to work. I had to dodge down trees and branches going through the towns to the Taconic and on the parkways I couldnt tell where I was because of the iced-over signs, and I was the only vehicle on the parkways that morning, but I made it. Give the DPW and Parks Dept. personnel time to do their thing, and remember many of them have been working through the night. Yonkers has to be one of the most difficult cities to clear of snow with the hills, narrow streets and parking patterns. As always, stay safe, PUSH, and keep smiling!
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 10:31:00 +0000
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