Stratosphere (Solution)

by Reuben Aronson, Sean Lip, John Wiesemann and Halimeda Glickman-Hoch

The puzzle has a list of things that sound like newspaper headlines. All of them reference a real event and a place unrelated to that event. First, find the date of that event and the location that is out of place. If you put them all on a Google map, you will probably notice that they are all coastal cities, mostly in the Atlantic, and some of them are pretty obscure. Furthermore, all of the dates are in late summer to late fall. These facts, together with the flavortext, suggest that we're looking at hurricanes. Indeed, each day and location clue a hurricane that made landfall there on that date. Take the first letter of the hurricanes down in order to get four names: STEPHEN, WILLIAM, DANIEL, and ALEC. These are the four Baldwin brothers, so the answer to the puzzle is BALDWIN.

Details

Part 1

Clue	Date	Location	Hurricane
Cardinals defeat 49ers 31-14 in Punta Hualaxtoc, Mexico in first regular-season game outside the United States	10/2/2005	Punta Hualaxtoc, Mexico	Stan
Hudson Austin forms new Sinaloan military government	10/19/1983	Sinaloa, Mexico	Tico
HMS Mercury is decommisioned in formal ceremony in Cape Hatteras, NC	8/31/1993	Cape Hatteras, NC	Emily
Four days after the election, votes still being counted for Franken-Coleman race in the Cayman Islands	11/8/2008	Cayman Islands	Paloma
"God Bless America" composer dies at 101 in his home at Isle of Palms	Sept 22, 1989	Isle of Palms, SC	Hugo
Christchurch, Nova Scotia struck by 7.1 magnitude earthquake; no deaths were reported	9/4/2010	Western Head, Nova Scotia	Earl
Golden Girls share Emmys with Cagney & Lacey at Cabo San Lucas award ceremony	9/22/1986	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico	Newton

Part 2

Clue	Date	Location	Hurricane
National civil rights activist Parks dies peacefully in Cape Romano, FL at the age of 92	10/24/2005	Cape Romano, FL	Wilma
Dodgers win World Series after 9-3 win over White Sox in Pensacola, FL	10/8/1959	Pensacola, FL	Irene
Tom Powers scores six touchdowns in historic Everglades game	10/21/1950	Big Bend region of FL	Love
A&M anual bonfire collapses, killing 12 in St. Martin	11/18/1999	St. Martin	Lenny
Gulf Shores, AL becomes the fifth jurisdiction in Canada to legalize same-sex marriage	Sept 16, 2004	Gulf Shores, AL	Ivan
Pedestal of the historic Outer Banks Statue of Liberty monument reopens to visitors after three years	8/3/2004	Outer Banks, NC	Alex
Student kills two in tragic shooting at Rocori High School, Puerto Penasco	Sept 24, 2003	Puerto Penasco, Sonora	Marty

Part 3

Clue	Date	Location	Hurricane
Four suicide bombers kill 52 and injure more than 700 on the Cuban public transport system.	7/7/2005	Cuba	Dennis
Four professors killed by mechanical engineering professor Fabrikant in Homestead, Florida university shooting	8/24/1992	Homestead, Florida	Andrew
Balloon lands in Mazatlan, ending its record-breaking 2,515 mile journey from Costa Mesa	10/12/1981	Mazatlan, Mexico	Norma
National Geographic magazine announces Archaeoraptor fossil discovery at Cape Sable press conference	10/15/1999	Cape Sable, FL	Irene
National Defense of Education Act signed in Santiago de Cuba	Sept 2, 1958	Santiago de Cuba	Ella
Viamala tunnel crash claims nine Sinaloans in bus/car collision	Sept 16, 2006	Sinaloa	Lane

Part 4

Clue	Date	Location	Hurricane
First Bose-Einstein condensate produced at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics in Alligator Point, FL	6/5/1995	Alligator Point, FL	Allison
Deadliest toll yet: Beltway Sniper kills five people in Intracoastal City, LA	10/3/2002	Intracoastal City, LA	Lili
Prisoners riot and seize control of Attica Correctional Facility in Cabo Gracias a Dio, Nicaragua	Sept 9, 1971	Cabo Gracias a Dio, Nicaragua	Edith
The Who plays at the Woodstock Music Festival in New Orleans	8/17/1969	Mouth of the Mississippi	Camille

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