Our months draws to a close on a day of partly cloudy skies and a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:46 AM and sunset 8:15 PM for 14h 28m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 6.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked if readers thought that dyeing a dog’s fur to look like Pikachu was a good idea. About 3 of 4 (74.07%) respondents said that it wasn’t.

On this day in 1777, Lafayette receives a commission from Congress:

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (…6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), in the U.S. often known simply as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. A close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830….

On arrival, Lafayette met Major Benjamin Huger, a wealthy landowner, with whom he stayed for two weeks before going to Philadelphia. The Continental Congress had been overwhelmed by French officers recruited by Deane, many of whom could not speak English or lacked military experience. Lafayette had learned some English en route (he became fluent within a year of his arrival), and his Masonic membership opened many doors in Philadelphia. After Lafayette offered to serve without pay, Congress commissioned him a major general on 31 July 1777.^[29][30] Lafayette’s advocates included the recently arrived American envoy to France, Benjamin Franklin, who by letter urged Congress to accommodate the young Frenchman.^[31]

General George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, came to Philadelphia to brief Congress on military affairs. Lafayette met him at a dinner on 5 August 1777; according to Leepson, “the two men bonded almost immediately.”^[32]Washington was impressed by the young man’s enthusiasm and was inclined to think well of a fellow Mason; Lafayette was simply in awe of the commanding general.^[32] General Washington took the Frenchman to view his military camp; when Washington expressed embarrassment at its state and that of the troops, Lafayette responded, “I am here to learn, not to teach.”^[33] He became a member of Washington’s staff, although confusion existed regarding his status. Congress regarded his commission as honorary, while he considered himself a full-fledged commander who would be given control of a division when Washington deemed him prepared. Washington told Lafayette that a division would not be possible as he was of foreign birth, but that he would be happy to hold him in confidence as “friend and father”.^[34]

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….

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be partly sunny with occasional, scattered thunderstorms and a high of seventy-three. Sunrise is 5:44 AM and sunset 8:17 PM, for 14h 33m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 22.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1958, Pres. Eisenhower signs an act establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration:

From 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1.^[14] In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch an artificial satellite for the International Geophysical Year (1957–58). An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard. After the Soviet launch of the world’s first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The US Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership (known as the “Sputnik crisis“), urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency mainly based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created in February 1958 to develop space technology for military application.^[15]

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA. When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA absorbed the 43-year-old NACA intact; its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of US$100 million, three major research laboratories (Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory) and two small test facilities.^[16] A NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959.^[17] Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA. A significant contributor to NASA’s entry into the Space Race with the Soviet Union was the technology from the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who was now working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which in turn incorporated the technology of American scientist Robert Goddard‘s earlier works.^[18] Earlier research efforts within the US Air Force^[16] and many of ARPA’s early space programs were also transferred to NASA.^[19] In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a contractor facility operated by the California Institute of Technology.^[16]

Here’s the JigZone puzzle for Friday:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be cloudy, with a likelihood of thunderstorms, and a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 5:43 AM and 8:19 PM, for 14h 35m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 33.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On Saturday, July 28, 1945, William Franklin Smith, Jr., was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine personnel transport mission from Bedford Army Air Field to Newark Airport.^[3][4][5] Smith asked for clearance to land, but was advised of zero visibility.^[6] Proceeding anyway, he became disoriented by the fog, and started turning right instead of left after passing the Chrysler Building.^[7]

At 9:40 a.m., the aircraft crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors, carving an 18-by-20-foot (5.5 m × 6.1 m) hole in the building^[8] where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the South side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block, dropping 900 feet and landing on the roof of a nearby building and starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse art studio. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. It is still the only fire at such a height to be brought under control.^[8]

Fourteen people were killed: Smith, the two others aboard the bomber (Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich and Albert Perna, a Navy aviation machinist’s friend hitching a ride), and eleven others in the building.^[2] Smith was not found until two days later after search crews found that his body had gone through an elevator shaft and fallen to the bottom.^[9] Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured. Rescuers decided to transport her on an elevator that they did not know had weakened cables. The cables snapped and the elevator fell 75 stories, ending up in the basements. She managed to survive the fall, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall, and was later found by rescue workers among the rubble.^[7]

Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash spurred the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.^[10]

On 7.28.1934, a riot in Kohler leads to National Guard intervention:

1934 – Two killed, 40 hurt in Kohler riot; National Guard occupies town

On this day, the “model industrial village” of Kohler became an armed camp of National Guard cavalrymen after deadly strike-related rioting. The July 27th violence, which killed two Sheboygan men and injured 40 others, prompted the summoning of 250 Guardsmen to join the 200 special deputy village marshals already present. After striking workers became agitated and began to destroy company property, deputies turned to tear gas, rifles, and shotguns to quell the stone-throwing crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries.

Owner Walter Kohler blamed Communists and outside agitators for the violence, while union leaders blamed Kohler exclusively. Workers at the Kohler plant were demanding better hours, higher wages, and recognition of the American Federation of Labor as their collective bargaining agent. Not settled until 1941, the strike marked the beginning of what was to become a prolonged struggle between the Kohler Company and organized labor in Wisconsin; a second Kohler strike lasted from 1954 to 1965. [Source: Capital Times 7/28/1934, p.1]

Here’s the JigZone puzzle for Thursday:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will be sunny, bringing later a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, with a high of eighty-nine. Sunrise is 5:24 AM and sunset 8:20 PM, for 14h 37m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 43.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Urban Forestry Commission is scheduled to meet today at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1940, Bugs Bunny makes his (generally-regarded) first appearance the Warner Bros. cartoon, A Wild Hare:

A Wild Hare (re-released as The Wild Hare) is a 1940 Warner Bros.Merrie Melodiesanimatedshort film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940. A Wild Hare is considered by most film historians to be the first “official” Bugs Bunny cartoon.^[1][2] The title is a play on “wild hair”, the first of many puns between “hare” and “hair” that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles. The pun is carried further by a bar of I’m Just Wild About Harry playing in the underscore of the opening credits. Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter.^[3]

A Wild Hare is noteworthy as the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, as well as for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd.^[2] Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer’s design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design.^[4] The design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gave his first-person account of the creation of the character’s name and personality in an interview published in Animato! Magazine, #19, copyright 1989 Pixar.^[5]

Bugs is unnamed in this film, but would be named for the first time in his next short, Elmer’s Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—”Be vewy, vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits” for Elmer, and “Eh, what’s up Doc?” for Bugs Bunny—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.

This cartoon was first theatrically released with the Warner Bros. film Ladies Must Live.

On this day in 1894, fire forces thousands of Wisconsinites to flee:

1894 – Forest Fire Destroys Phillips

On the afternoon of this day, a forest fire swept over the Price Co. town of Phillips from the west, destroying nearly all the buildings and forcing 2,000 people to flee for their lives. When the sun came up the next morning, 13 people had been killed, the entire downtown was in ashes, and exhausted survivors were wandering through the ruins in a daze. The fire ultimately consumed more than 100,000 acres in Price County. Much of the town was rebuilt within a year.

Here is the Wednesday puzzle from JigZone: