Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday will bring an even chance of afternoon thunderstorms with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 5:55 AM and sunset 7:49 PM, for 13h 54m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 90.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1990, America places the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit:

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.

On this day in 1996, Gov. Thompson signs welfare reform 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]

Here’s the Monday puzzle from JigZone:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be partly cloudy and warm, with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset is 7:48 PM, for 13h 51m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked if a snake that feel from an elementary school ceiling in Mississippi was an unwanted pest or an opportunity for observation. A majority of respondents (65.22%) felt that it should be considered an unwanted pest.

On this day in 1800, a Library of Congress is authorized:

…legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress,” thus establishing the Library of Congress. The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801 and were stored in the U.S. Capitol, the library’s first home. The first library catalog, dated April 1802, listed 964 volumes and nine maps. Twelve years later, the British army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol, including the then 3,000-volume Library of Congress.

Former president Thomas Jefferson, who advocated the expansion of the library during his two terms in office, responded to the loss by selling his personal library, the largest and finest in the country, to Congress to “recommence” the library. The purchase of Jefferson’s 6,487 volumes was approved in the next year, and a professional librarian, George Watterston, was hired to replace the House clerks in the administration of the library. In 1851, a second major fire at the library destroyed about two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes, including two-thirds of the Thomas Jefferson library. Congress responded quickly and generously to the disaster, and within a few years a majority of the lost books were replaced.

After the Civil War, the collection was greatly expanded, and by the 20th century the Library of Congress had become the de facto national library of the United States and one of the largest in the world. Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 17 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints, and drawings.

On this day in 1977, Whitewater loses an establishment:

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]

The Story of Zero – Getting Something from Nothing from The Royal Institution on Vimeo.

What is zero? How did it come about? Hannah Fry tells the story of how zero went from nothing to something.

Once upon a time, zero wasn’t really a number. Its journey to the fully fledged number we know and love today was a meandering one. Today, zero is both a placeholder, and tool, within our number system signifying an absence of a value, and as a number in its own right.

But it wasn’t always seen as that, and it still doesn’t act quite like other numbers. Can you divide by zero, for example? Hannah Fry explains how zero came about, from its origins in ancient civilisations, through the resistance it faced from the Roman numeral system, to being the cornerstone of calculus.

Via Vimeo.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday will be warmer than yesterday, with mostly sunny skies and a high of sixty-five.  Sunrise is 5:58 AM and sunset 7:47 PM, for 13h 49m 13s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

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.

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

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.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be cloudy with a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 6:01 AM and sunset 7:45 PM, for 13h 43m 53s of daytime. We’ve a full moon, with 99.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

It’s John Muir’s birthday:

John Muir… April 21, 1838 – December 24, 1914)^[1] also known as “John of the Mountains”, was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor.^[2] Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier. In Scotland, theJohn Muir Way, a 130 mile long distance route, was named in honor of him.

In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congressfor the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas.^[3] He is today referred to as the “Father of the National Parks”^[4] and theNational Park Service has produced a short documentary about his life.^[5]

Today is also the legendary date of Rome’s founding:

According to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C., Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants. Actually, the Romulus and Remus myth originated sometime in the fourth century B.C., and the exact date of Rome’s founding was set by the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro in the first century B.C.

Here is the Thursday puzzle from JigZone:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will see afternoon showers and a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:44 PM, for 13h 41m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 97.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission-R2A Subcommittee meets this evening at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1926, the film industry moves closer to sound in motion pictures:

…Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T), and the Warner Brothers film studio officially introduce Vitaphone, a new process that will enable the addition of sound to film….

Vitaphone debuted in August 1926 with the costume drama Don Juan, starring John Barrymore and featuring an orchestral score by the New York Philharmonic. The following year, Warner Brothers released its second Vitaphone feature, The Jazz Singer, which included classical and popular music, as well as about 350 words of dialogue. The success of these two films led directly to the motion-picture industry’s conversion to sound, as the major studios quickly lobbied to gain the rights to use Vitaphone as well. Warner Brothers agreed to give up its exclusive rights to the system in exchange for a share of the royalties, and by the spring of 1928 virtually every Hollywood studio had jumped on the sound bandwagon.

On this day in 1836, Wisconsin’s oldest library is first founded:

1836 – Oldest Library in the State Founded
On this date an Act of Congress created the Territory of Wisconsin and in the sixteenth and final section of that Act appropriated funds for the Wisconsin State Library to support the needs of the fledgling government. The library is still functioning but has been renamed as the Wisconsin State Law Library [Source: Wisconsin State Law Library]

Here’s JigZone‘s puzzle for Wednesday: