Good morning.

Whitewater’s week ends with warm and mostly sunny skies, with a high of seventy-eight.

On this day in 1954 – no so long ago, really — a medical milestone:

…the Salk polio vaccine field trials, involving 1.8 million children, begin at the Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. Children in the United States, Canada and Finland participated in the trials, which used for the first time the now-standard double-blind method, whereby neither the patient nor attending doctor knew if the inoculation was the vaccine or a placebo. On April 12, 1955, researchers announced the vaccine was safe and effective and it quickly became a standard part of childhood immunizations in America. In the ensuing decades, polio vaccines would all but wipe out the highly contagious disease in the Western Hemisphere….

The man behind the original vaccine was New York-born physician and epidemiologist Jonas Salk (1914-95). Salk’s work on an anti-influenza vaccine in the 1940s, while at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, led him, in 1952 at the University of Pittsburgh, to develop the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), based on a killed-virus strain of the disease. The 1954 field trials that followed, the largest in U.S. history at the time, were led by Salk’s former University of Michigan colleague, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr.

In the late 1950s, Polish-born physician and virologist Albert Sabin (1906-1993) tested an oral polio vaccine (OPV) he had created from a weakened live virus. The vaccine, easier to administer and cheaper to produce than Salk’s, became available for use in America in the early 1960s and eventually replaced Salk’s as the vaccine of choice in most countries.

A National History Day Silver Medal Winner explains more about the disease and 1954 trials:

Google-a-Day asks a science question: “If the names of NASA’s space shuttles are listed alphabetically, how many missions were flown by the fourth one on the list?”

Good morning.

It’s a mostly sunny Thursday for Whitewater – a high of fifty-two, west winds at 5-15 miles per hour.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets today at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope begins orbiting the Earth:

The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-term space-based observatory, into a low orbit around Earth.

The space telescope, conceived in the 1940s, designed in the 1970s, and built in the 1980s, was designed to give astronomers an unparalleled view of the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe. Initially, Hubble’s operators suffered a setback when a lens aberration was discovered, but a repair mission by space-walking astronauts in December 1993 successfully fixed the problem, and Hubble began sending back its first breathtaking images of the universe.

Free of atmospheric distortions, Hubble has a resolution 10 times that of ground-based observatories. About the size of a bus, the telescope is solar-powered and orbits Earth once every 97 minutes. Among its many astronomical achievements, Hubble has been used to record a comet’s collision with Jupiter, provide a direct look at the surface of Pluto, view distant galaxies, gas clouds, and black holes, and see billions of years into the universe’s past.

Hubble – Hubble’s Hubble from teresa eggers on Vimeo.

http://missionhubble.blogspot.com

Images: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Video: Sheena Callage, Tiffany Borders (STScI)

Music: Hubble – Hubble's Hubble (from Hubble Drums LP/CD Northern Spy Records 2011)

On 4.25.1996, Gov. Thompson signed Wisconsin Works into law:

1996 – W-2 (Wisconsin Works) Signed Into Law
On this date Governor Tommy Thompson signed the W-2 (Wisconsin Works) program into law, making Wisconsin the first U.S. state to replace a benefits-based welfare system with a requirement that recipients work to get aid. W-2 formed the basis for national welfare reform.[Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Tommy G. Thompson Center]

Google-a-Day has a geography question: “What NY lake is sometimes referred to as the finger that is known in humans to have opposition and apposition movements?”

Good morning.

Wednesday brings a day of decreasing clouds and a high of fifty. We’ll have 13h 48m of sunlight, 14h 48m of daylight, with a waxing gibbous moon.

Downtown Whitewater’s Board will meet this morning at 8 AM.

On this day in 1898, Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

So what’s it like to play with fourteen German Shepherds? It’s like this:

On 4.24.1977, Whitewater lost a mysterious, spooky, and odd institution:

1977 – Morris Pratt Institute of Spiritualism Moves to Waukesha
On this date the Morris Pratt Institute, dedicated to the study of Spiritualism and Mediumship, moved from Whitewater to Waukesha. Founded in 1888 and incorporated in 1901, it was one of the few institutes in the world that instructed spiritualists. These were people “who believe as the basis of his or her religion, in the communication between this and the Spirit World by means of mediumship and who endeavors to mould his or her character and conduct in accordance with the highest teachings derived from such communication.” [Source: Morris Pratt Institute]

We’re still getting over it.

Google has Alps on the brain: “What term is given to the border between the Central Alps and the Southern Limestone Alps?”

Good morning.

Tuesday will see showers and falling temperatures in Whitewater, with an early high of fifty falling into the low forties by the afternoon.

The city’s Urban Forestry Commission meets today at 4:30 PM.

It’s William Shakespeare’s birthday:

According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. Shakespeare’s date of death is conclusively known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 years old and had retired to Stratford three years before.

Just as lively these centuries later, if only one would embrace these works in that intended spirit:

Shakespeare In The Ruff from Shakespeare on Vimeo.

On this day in 1934, the FBI surprises gangster John Dillinger at his Wisconsin lair:

1934 – FBI rousts Dillinger from Little Bohemia Lodge
On this day the FBI raided the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Vilas Co. They had been tipped off that gangster John Dillinger was hiding at Little Bohemia, but during their raid an innocent Civilian Conservation Corps worker was killed and Dillinger escaped.

Google-a-Day poses a science question: “What is the binomial name of the animal for which the FVGP provides sanctuary and rehabilitation?” more >>

Good morning.

The week begins with a mild and partly sunny day with a high of sixty-six.

The Downtown Whitewater Design Committee meets today at 8 AM.

On this day in 1970, Americans celebrate the first Earth Day, the idea of a Wisconsinite:

Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world’s environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time. Millions of Americans, including students from thousands of colleges and universities, participated in rallies, marches, and educational programs.

Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of  Wisconsin, a staunch environmentalist who hoped to provide unity to the grassroots environmental movement and increase ecological awareness. “The objective was to get a nationwide demonstration of concern for the environment so large that it would shake the political establishment out of its lethargy,” Senator Nelson said, “and, finally, force this issue permanently onto the national political agenda.” Earth Day indeed increased environmental awareness in America, and in July of that year the Environmental Protection Agency was established by special executive order to regulate and enforce national pollution legislation.

On April 22, 1990, the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.

Earth Day has been celebrated on different days by different groups internationally. The United Nations officially celebrates it on the vernal equinox, which usually occurs about March 21.

Google-a-Day asks about a judge: “Who was the former municipal judge that became the source of criminal allegations against the 42nd U.S. President?”