Front came through this morning with little trouble. Saturday afternoon will be sunny and nice as will much of Sunday though clouds will be increasing Sunday and its will be cooler than we’ve seen. Still comfortable. Next front is Sunday night/Monday morning. Clouds will increase on Sunday and rain chances increasing late. The map above is the SPC sever outlook for that time frame and you can see the slight risk is well south. That’s because of what I said before and that is, while it’s a strong front and will lower temperatures considerably and has a pretty good looking windfield, it doesn’t have much to work with in regard to low level moisture or energy. The atmosphere won’t have time to load up. The area in green that is the slight risk is pretty representative of how far north, or not how far north, the loading up gets.
On This Date In History: A new conspiracy theory gets started when presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth is killed in a barn in 1865. It’s kinda interesting how infamous he is. Americans these days generally are pretty poor when it comes to history yet, this guy is probably one of the better known villains even today. Not as well known as Colonel Sanders, but still. But he was quite famous as an actor. Today, it would be like a famous, good looking actor like Brad Pitt. Anyway, Booth had escaped Ford’s Theatre by jumping from the presidential box to the stage. His spur caught in a curtain and he landed awkwardly such that he broke his leg. That made it difficult for him to escape and he eventually got cornered in a barn near Fort Royal, Virginia.
Now, the orders were to take him alive. The Union soldiers lit the barn on fire to try and smoke him out but before he had a chance, Sergeant Thomas Corbett stuck his musket through a slit in the barn walls and shot him. I think Booth had his spine severed and he died. So, the assassin was killed and the conspiracy theories began. Corbett testified that he fired a carbine, yet the autopsy showed Booth was killed with a pistol bullet. When Booth was dragged from the barn, the officer in charge said, “He shot himself.” Then of course came the claims that Booth really wasn’t killed and that it was all made up.
But, Corbett went on claiming he shot Booth. So, why did he disobey orders? He blamed God! He said that God told him to do it and that his orders from God were ultimate. He also said that God once told him to avoid sexual temptation. Instead of avoiding such circumstance, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors in 1858. He was appointed as the doorkeeper of the Kansas legislature but was dismissed in 1887 after threatening a lawmaker with a gun. He was committed to an insane asylum (imagine that) but escaped and was never heard from again. Be careful, perhaps he’s still running around out there somewhere. Then again, maybe God told him to just go away.
Other Items of Note:
April 26, 1990 Nolan Ryan threw is 12th one hitter, tying Bob Feller’s record. He had a record 7 no-hitters and lost 5 no-hitters in the 9th inning. My friends and I always went to an Astros game every series they played. Saw Ryan a bunch of times. We called him the Big Heater, which I like better than the Ryan Express.
April 26, 2000 Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed into law the nation’s first law allowing same-sex couples to form state recognized Civil Unions
April 26, 1948 Stevie Nicks is born. I found a site that lists her as “rocker/druggie”
April 26, 1983 the Dow Jones hits 1200 for the first time. Today its more than 10 times that at well over 12,000. I’d say that there’s been some economic expansion.
