Off to the city of Annapolis, Maryland.

The photos are: 1) Main Street in downtown Annapolis; 2) the Maryland State House; 3) a view of the Annapolis Harbor; 4) the Jonas Green Park at sunset; 5) sailboat racing in front of the Naval Academy; 6) Thomas Point Park; 7) the Spa Creek boathouse; 8) flood damage at the Naval Academy; and 9) the Annapolis WWII memorial.

Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It has a population of 36,408 (July 2006 est.), and it is situated at the mouth of the Severn River which flows into the Chesapeake Bay, 26 miles (42 km) south of Baltimore and about 29 miles (47 km) east of Washington D.C. Annapolis is part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The city was the site of the Annapolis Peace Conference, held in November 2007, at the United States Naval Academy. St. John's College is also in Annapolis.

A settlement named Providence was founded on the north shore of the Severn River in 1649 by Puritan exiles from Virginia led by William Stone. The settlers moved to a better-protected harbor on the south shore. The settlement on the south shore was initially named "Town at Proctor's," then "Town at the Severn," and later "Anne Arundel's Towne" (after the wife of Lord Baltimore who died soon afterwards). The city became very wealthy through the slave trade.
In 1694, soon after the overthrow of the Catholic government of the lord proprietor, Sir Francis Nicholson moved the capital of the royal colony there and named the town Annapolis after Princess Anne, soon to be the Queen of Great Britain; it was incorporated as a city in 1708.
From the middle of the 18th century until the War of Independence Annapolis was noted for its wealthy and cultivated society. The Maryland Gazette, which became an important weekly journal, was founded there by Jonas Green in 1745; in 1769 a theatre was opened; during this period also the commerce was considerable, but declined rapidly after Baltimore, with its deeper harbor, was made a port of entry in 1780. Water trades such as oyster-packing, boatbuilding and sailmaking became the city's chief industries. Currently, Annapolis is home to a large number of recreational boats that have largely replaced the seafood industry in the city.

Annapolis became the temporary capital of the United States after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Congress was in session in the state house here from November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784, and it was here on December 23, 1783, that General Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. In 1786, a convention, to which delegates from all the states of the Union were invited, was called to meet in Annapolis to consider measures for the better regulation of commerce; but delegates came from only five states (New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware), and the convention, known afterward as the "Annapolis Convention", without proceeding to the business for which it had met, passed a resolution calling for another convention to meet at Philadelphia in the following year to amend the Articles of Confederation. The Philadelphia convention drafted and approved the Constitution of the United States, which is still in force. During this period, a Parole Camp was set up in Annapolis. As the war continued, the camp expanded to a larger location just outside of the city. The area is still referred to as Parole. Wounded Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners were brought by sea to a major hospital in Annapolis.

To the north of the state house is a monument to Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the US Supreme Court and formerly a Maryland lawyer who won many important civil rights cases.
Close by are the state treasury building, erected late in the 17th century for the House of Delegates; Saint Anne's Protestant Episcopal church, in later colonial days a state church, a statue of Roger B. Taney (by W.H. Rinehart), and a statue of Baron Johann de Kalb.
Annapolis has many 18th century houses. The names of several of the streets—King George's, Prince George's, Hanover, and Duke of Gloucester, etc.—date from colonial days. The United States Naval Academy was founded here in 1845. Annapolis is the seat of St. John's College, a non-sectarian private college that was once supported by the state; it was opened in 1789 as the successor of King William's School, which was founded by an act of the Maryland legislature in 1696 and was opened in 1701. Its principal building, McDowell Hall, was originally to be the governor's mansion; although £4000 was appropriated to build it in 1742, it was not completed until after the War of Independence.

From September 18 to 19, 2003, Hurricane Isabel created the largest storm surge known in Annapolis's history, cresting at 7.58 feet (2.31 m). Much of downtown Annapolis was flooded and many businesses and homes in outlying areas were damaged. The previous record was 6.35 feet (1.94 m) during a hurricane in 1933, and 5.5 feet (1.68 m) during Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
Currently facing the many difficult challenges of American cities today, Annapolis is undergoing rapid low-density development along its edges, ever-increasing traffic congestion, as well as ecological destruction of the very bay that it depends upon. The 1998 Comprehensive Plan will soon be replaced with a new document, containing initiatives and directives of the city government on development and infrastructure. This process was mandated by Maryland state law in the Economic Growth, Resource Protection, and Planning Act of 1992. Annapolis Charter 300 and EnVISIONing Annapolis are co-sponsoring a public lecture series from September 2007 through June 2008 exploring these issues.

From mid-2007 through December 2008 the city will celebrate the 300th Anniversary of its 1708 Royal Charter, which established democratic self-governance. The many cultural events of this celebration will be organized by Annapolis Charter 300 and will include historical symposia at St. John's College and evening events such as the Queen Anne's Ball.

Today's Jumble (11/04/08):

YOHNP = PHONY; URUGA = AUGUR; TEANIN = INNATE; SLEENT = NESTLE

CIRCLED LETTERS = HOGRINTNST

This can be dropped when manners are boorish.

"(A) STRONG HINT"

Today is Election Day. I don't care who you vote for, just get out and vote.

Other things on this day in history:

1333 - Flood of the Arno River, causing massive damage in Florence as recorded by the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani.
1501 - Catherine of Aragon (later Henry VIII's wife) meets Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII's older brother - they would later marry.
1576 - Eighty Years' War: In Flanders, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city was nearly destroyed).
1677 - The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange. They would later jointly reign as William and Mary.
1737 - The Teatro di San Carlo is inaugurated.
1783 - W.A. Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is premiered in Linz, Austria.
1791 - The Western Confederacy of American Indians win a major victory over the United States in the Battle of the Wabash.
1825 - The Erie Canal is completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbour.
1834 - The Delta Upsilon Fraternity was established at Williams College Massachusetts.
1839 - The Newport Rising is the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain.
1852 - Count Camillo Benso di Cavour becomes the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, which soon expands to become Italy.
1861 - The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Johnsonville - Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in material.
1889 - Menelek of Shoa obtains the allegiance of a large majority of the Ethiopian nobility, paving the way for him to be crowned emperor.
1890 - City & South London Railway: London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell.
1918 - World War I: Austria-Hungary surrenders to Italy.
1918 - The German Revolution begins when 40,000 sailors take over the port in Kiel.
1921 - The Sturmabteilung or SA is formally formed by Adolf Hitler
1921 - Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi is assassinated in Tokyo.
1921 - Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar) in Rome.
1922 - In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first female governor in the United States.
1939 - World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein - Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.
1944 - World War II: Bitola Liberation Day
1952 - The United States government establishes the National Security Agency.
1955 - The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio after it was totally destroyed in World War II.
1956 - Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
1962 - In a test of the Nike-Hercules air defense missile, Shot Dominic-Tightrope is successfully detonated 69,000 feet above Johnston Island. It would also be the final atmospheric nuclear test ever conducted by the United States.
1966 - Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the Arno rivers flood; considering also the contemporary flood of Po River in northern Italy, 113 people die, 30,000 are rendered homeless, and numerous Renaissance artworks and books are destroyed.
1970 - Vietnam War: Vietnamization - The United States turns control of the Binh Thuy Air Base in the Mekong Delta over to South Vietnam.
1970 - Genie, a 13 year old feral child was found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life.
1973 - The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are deserted and are solely used by cyclists and roller skaters.
1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins: Iranian people, mostly students, invade the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American).
1986 - Chief Justice Rose Bird and two colleagues are removed by the electorate from the Supreme Court of California for their opposition to capital punishment.
1989 - The congress of the Solidarity Party is inaugurated in Sweden. The congress decides, contrary to the proposal of the central committee, not to disband the party.
1993 - Bolivia becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1993 - A China Airlines Boeing 747 overran Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.
1994 - San Francisco: First conference that focusses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web.
1995 - Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an extremist Orthodox Israeli.
2002 - Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress
2003 - The most powerful solar flare as observed by satellite instrumentation is recorded.