Good morning, Whitewater.
Saturday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 5:45 AM and sunset 8:16 PM, for 14h 31m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 13.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Everyone starts small, including this osprey, taking its first flight:
July 30th marks the anniversary of a political first for America:
The Virginia House of Burgesses …was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America.[1] The House was established by the Virginia Company, which created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America, and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for its current inhabitants.[2]
From 1619 to 1776, the representative branch of the legislature of Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor and his council. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699, when the government was moved to Williamsburg. In 1776 the colony became the independent Commonwealth of Virginia and the House of Burgesses became the House of Delegates.[3]
On July 30, 1619, the first European-style legislative assembly in the Americas convened for a six-day meeting at the church on Jamestown Island, Virginia. A council chosen by the Virginia Company as advisers to the governor, the Virginia Governor’s Council, met as a sort of “upper house,” while 22 elected representatives met as the House of Burgesses. Together, the House of Burgesses and the Council would be the Virginia General Assembly.[5]
The House’s first session of July 30, 1619, accomplished little, being cut short by an outbreak of malaria. The assembly had 22 members….