Good morning, Whitewater.

Our Independence Holiday events will begin along Cravath at 5 PM, on a day with sunny skies and a high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset 8:36, for 15h 15m 47s of daytime. It’s a full moon, with 99.8% of that natural satellite’s visible disk illuminated.

On 7.2.1776, members of the Second Continental Congress vote for independence:

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote is unanimous, with only New York abstaining.

The resolution had originally been presented to Congress on June 7, but it soon became clear that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina were as yet unwilling to declare independence, though they would likely be ready to vote in favor of a break with England in due course. Thus, Congress agreed to delay the vote on Lees Resolution until July 1. In the intervening period, Congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, well-known to be the best writer of the group, was selected to be the primary author of the document, which was presented to Congress for review on June 28, 1776.

On July 1, 1776, debate on the Lee Resolution resumed as planned, with a majority of the delegates favoring the resolution. Congress thought it of the utmost importance that independence be unanimously proclaimed. To ensure this, they delayed the final vote until July 2, when 12 colonial delegations voted in favor of it, with the New York delegates abstaining, unsure of how their constituents would wish them to vote. John Adams wrote that July 2 would be celebrated as the most memorable epoch in the history of America. Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jefferson’s edited Declaration of Independence was adopted.

On this day in 1832, Abraham Lincoln passes through our area:

1832 – Abraham Lincoln Passes through Janesville

On this date Private Abraham Lincoln passed through the Janesville area as part of a mounted company of Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 117]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Thursday game:

This Week’s Game — June 29-July 3

One Nation, Divisible

Get out your red, white, and blue-ray for this week’s filmfest. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a movie title that includes a word evoking the July 4th holiday—a different such word every day.

Example:

“We hold ___ truths to be self-evident” / “Fourscore and seven years ___” / composer of The Merry Widow / public defamation, legally / uninhibited part of the psyche

Answer:

The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)

What to Submit:

Submit the movie title and the smaller words (as “The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)” in the example) for your answer.

Thursday, July 2

Make a flag, like Betsy Ross / body parts bearing boots / flexible, like a gymnast / plaything

Good morning, Whitewater.

A new month begins for Whitewater, with increasingly sunny skies throughout the day and a high of seventy-four. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 16m 32s of daytime. We’ve a full moon.

The Whitewater CDA’s Seed Capital Screening Committee meets today at 4 PM.

On this day in 1898, Col. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders participate in the successful taking of San Juan Heights (San Juan Hill, Kettle Hill) from entrenched Spanish troops:

As the troops of the various units began slowly creeping up the hill, firing their rifles at the opposition as they climbed, Roosevelt went to the captain of the platoons in back and had a word with him. He stated that it was his opinion that they could not effectively take the hill due to an insufficient ability to effectively return fire, and that the solution was to charge it full-on. The captain reiterated his colonel’s orders to hold position. Roosevelt, recognizing the absence of the other Colonel, declared himself the ranking officer and ordered a charge up Kettle Hill. The captain stood hesitant, and Colonel Roosevelt rode off on his horse, Texas, leading his own men uphill while waving his hat in the air and cheering. The Rough Riders followed him with enthusiasm and obedience without hesitation. By then, the other men from the different units on the hill became stirred by this event and began bolting up the hill alongside their countrymen. The ‘charge’ was actually a series of short rushes by mixed groups of regulars and Rough Riders. Within twenty minutes Kettle Hill was taken, though casualties were heavy. The rest of San Juan Heights was taken within the hour following.

The Rough Riders’ charge on Kettle Hill was facilitated by a hail of covering fire from three Gatling Guns commanded by Lt. John H. Parker, which fired some 18,000 .30 Army rounds into the Spanish trenches atop the crest of both hills. Col. Roosevelt noted that the hammering sound of the Gatling guns visibly raised the spirits of his men:

“There suddenly smote on our ears a peculiar drumming sound. One or two of the men cried out, “The Spanish machine guns!” but, after listening a moment, I leaped to my feet and called, “It’s the Gatlings, men! Our Gatlings!” Immediately the troopers began to cheer lustily, for the sound was most inspiring.”^[6][7]

Trooper Jesse D. Langdon of the 1st Volunteer Infantry, who accompanied Col. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in their assault on Kettle Hill, reported:

“We were exposed to the Spanish fire, but there was very little because just before we started, why, the Gatling guns opened up at the bottom of the hill, and everybody yelled, “The Gatlings! The Gatlings!” and away we went. The Gatlings just enfiladed the top of those trenches. We’d never have been able to take Kettle Hill if it hadn’t been for Parker’s Gatling guns.”^[8]

A Spanish counterattack on Kettle Hill by some 600 infantry was quickly decimated by one of Lt. Parker’s Gatling guns recently emplaced on the summit of San Juan Hill, which killed all but forty of the attackers before they had closed to within 250 yards of the Americans on Kettle Hill.^[9] Col. Roosevelt was so impressed by the actions of Lt. Parker and his men that he placed his regiment’s two 7mm Colt–Browning machine guns and the volunteers manning them under Parker, who immediately emplaced them—along with 10,000 rounds of captured 7mm Mauser ammunition—at tactical firing points in the American line.^[10]

Colonel Roosevelt gave a large share of the credit for the successful charge to Lt. Parker and his Gatling Gun Detachment:

“I think Parker deserved rather more credit than any other one man in the entire campaign…he had the rare good judgment and foresight to see the possibilities of the machine-guns..He then, by his own exertions, got it to the front and proved that it could do invaluable work on the field of battle, as much in attack as in defence.”^[11]

On this day in 1959, selling margarine becomes legal in Wisconsin:

On this date it became legal to purchase Oleomargarine in Wisconsin. For decades, margarine was considered a contraband spread. Sale of the butter imposter resulted in fines or possible jail terms. Oleomargarine was sold legally in Illinois and frequently smuggled into Wisconsin.

Here’s the Wednesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — June 29-July 3

One Nation, Divisible

Get out your red, white, and blue-ray for this week’s filmfest. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a movie title that includes a word evoking the July 4th holiday—a different such word every day.

Example:

“We hold ___ truths to be self-evident” / “Fourscore and seven years ___” / composer of The Merry Widow / public defamation, legally / uninhibited part of the psyche

Answer:

The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)

What to Submit:

Submit the movie title and the smaller words (as “The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)” in the example) for your answer.

Wednesday, July 1

Reference section in the back of a book / throw around your money / “… all ___ are created equal” / hope chest wood / briefest possible writing credit

Good morning, Whitewater.

June ends for Whitewater with partly cloudy skies and a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 5:20 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 17m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today is the anniversary, from 1908, of the Tunguska (Siberia) event:

The Tunguska event was a large explosion, caused by an asteroid or comet, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 07:14 KRAT (00:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17], 1908.^[1][2][3] The explosion occurred at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 mi) at 60.886°N, 101.894°E. It is classified as an impact event even though the object is believed to have burst in the air rather than hit the surface.^[4] Different studies have yielded widely varying estimates of the impacting object’s size, on the order of 60 m (200 ft) to 190 m (620 ft).^[5] It is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history.

Since the 1908 event, there have been an estimated 1,000 scholarly papers (mainly in Russian) published on the Tunguska explosion. Many scientists have participated in Tunguska studies: the best known are Leonid Kulik, Yevgeny Krinov, Kirill Florensky, Nikolai Vladimirovich Vasiliev, and Wilhelm Fast. In 2013, a team of researchers led by Victor Kvasnytsya of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine published analysis results of micro-samples from a peat bog near the center of the affected area showing fragments that may be of meteoritic origin.^[6][7]

Estimates of the energy of the blast range from as low as three to as high as 30 megatons of TNT (between 13 and 130 PJ).^[8][9] Most likely it was between 10 and 15 megatons of TNT (42 and 63 PJ),^[9] and if so, the energy of the explosion was about 1,000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan; roughly equal to that of the United States’ Castle Bravo ground-based thermonuclear test detonation on March 1, 1954; and about two-fifths that of the Soviet Union‘s later Tsar Bomba (the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated).^[10]

It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi), and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area,^[11] but due to the remoteness of the location, no fatalities were documented. This event has helped to spark discussion of asteroid impact avoidance.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — June 29-July 3

One Nation, Divisible

Get out your red, white, and blue-ray for this week’s filmfest. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a movie title that includes a word evoking the July 4th holiday—a different such word every day.

Example:

“We hold ___ truths to be self-evident” / “Fourscore and seven years ___” / composer of The Merry Widow / public defamation, legally / uninhibited part of the psyche

Answer:

The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)

What to Submit:

Submit the movie title and the smaller words (as “The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, June 30

Light, fine rain / word maven William / passenger section of a train / person who circumvents computer security

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be cloudy, with a high of seventy-six, and a probability of afternoon thundershowers.  Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 17m 50s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1943, Pres. Roosevelt writes to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, then working with other scientists on the development of an atomic bomb.  Roosevelt marks his letter ‘secret,’ and needless to say never mentions the particulars of the project or any code names used for it:

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON
June 29, 1943

SECRET

My dear Dr. Oppenheimer:

I have recently reviewed with Dr. Bush the highly important and secret program of research, development and manufacture with which you are familiar. I was very glad to hear of the excellent work which is being done in a number of places in this country under the immediate supervision of General L.R. Groves and the general direction of the Committee of which Dr. Bush is Chairman. The successful solution of the problem is of the utmost importance to the national safety, and I am confident that the work will be completed in as short a time as possible as the result of the wholehearted cooperation of all concerned.

I am writing to you as the leader of one group which is to play a vital role in the months ahead. I know that you and your colleagues are working on a hazardous matter under unusual circumstances. The fact that the outcome of your labors is of such great significance to the nation requires that this program be even more drastically guarded than other highly secret war development. I have therefore given directions that every precaution be taken to insure the security of your project and feel sure that those in charge will see that these orders are carried out. You are fully aware of the reasons why your endeavors and those of your associates must be circumscribed by very special restrictions. Nevertheless, I wish you would express to the scientists assembled with you my deep appreciation of their willingness to undertake the tasks which lie before them in spite of the dangers and the personal sacrifices. I am sure that we can rely on their continued wholehearted and unselfish labors. Whatever the enemy may be planning, American science will be equal to the challenge. With this thought in mind, I send this note of confidence and appreciation.

Though there are other important groups at work, I am writing only to you as the leader of one which is operating under very special conditions, and to General Groves. While this letter is secret, the contents of it may be disclosed to your associates under pledge of secrecy.

Very Sincerely Yours

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer
Post Office Box 1663
Santa Fe,
New Mexico

Here’s the first game in Puzzability‘s Independence Day themed series, One Nation, Divisible:

This Week’s Game — June 29-July 3

One Nation, Divisible

Get out your red, white, and blue-ray for this week’s filmfest. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get a movie title that includes a word evoking the July 4th holiday—a different such word every day.

Example:

“We hold ___ truths to be self-evident” / “Fourscore and seven years ___” / composer of The Merry Widow / public defamation, legally / uninhibited part of the psyche

Answer:

The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)

What to Submit:

Submit the movie title and the smaller words (as “The Eagle Has Landed (these / ago / Lehar / slander / id)” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, June 29

Treaty / Puerto ___ / garb for a Roman senator / New York’s National League team

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday will be sunny in the morning, but increasingly cloudy as the day goes on, with an even chance of thunderstorms in the late afternoon, and a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset is 8:37, for 15h 18m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

An overwhelming majority of respondents to the FW Friday Poll, a poll that asked whether kangaroos should be permitted as service animals, said that they should not be allowed.

Whatever the merits of kangaroos as service animals for people, they’re not always accommodating to others of their own species:

On this day in 1919, the First World War formally ends with the principal warring nations’ signing of the Treaty of Versailles. German representatives were without a spirit of conciliation to that treaty’s stringent terms:

Versailles, June 28, (Associated Press.)–Germany and the allied and associated powers signed the peace terms here today in the same imperial hall where the Germans humbled the French so ignominiously forty-eight years ago.

This formally ended the world war, which lasted just thirty-seven days less than five years. Today, the day of peace, was the fifth anniversary of the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian student at Serajevo.

The peace was signed under circumstances which somewhat dimmed the expectations of those who had worked and fought during long years of war and months of negotiations for its achievement.

Absence of the Chinese delegates, who at the last moment were unable to reconcile themselves to the Shantung settlement, struck the first discordant note. A written protest which General Smuts lodged with his signature was another disappointment.

But bulking larger than these was the attitude of Germany and the German plenipotentiaries, which left them, as evident from the expression of M. Clemenceau, still outside of formal reconciliation and made the actual restoration to regular relations and intercourse with the allied nations dependent, not upon the signature of the “preliminaries of peace” today, but upon ratification by the National Assembly….

On this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson leads thousands in the Black Hawk War:

1832 – Atkinson starts up Rock River in Black Hawk War

On this date General Henry Atkinson and the Second Army began its trip into the Wisconsin wilderness in a major effort against Black Hawk. The “Army of the Frontier” was formed of 400 U.S. Army Regulars and 2,100 volunteer militiamen in order to participate in the Black Hawk War. The troops were headed toward the Lake Koshkonong area where the main camp of the British Band was rumored to be located. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark, p. 93-94]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-nine. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:37, for 15h 18m 52s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 77.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1972, Nolan Bushnell incorporated Atari:

Atari (from a Japanese verb meaning “to hit the target” or “a success”) is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972, currently by Atari Interactive, a subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA(ASA).^[1][2][3] The original Atari, Inc. founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company’s products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.

In 1984, the original Atari Inc. was split due to its role in the video game crash of 1983, and the arcade division was turned into Atari Games Inc.^[4] Atari Games received the rights to use the logo and brand name with appended text “Games” on arcade games, as well as rights to the original 1972–1984 arcade hardware properties. The Atari Consumer Electronics Division properties were in turn sold to Jack Tramiel’s Tramel Technology Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation.^[5][6] In 1996, Atari Corporation reverse-merged with disk-drive manufacturer JT Storage (JTS),^[7] becoming a division within the company.

In 1998, Hasbro Interactive acquired all Atari Corporation related properties from JTS,^[8] creating a new subsidiary, Atari Interactive.^[9] Infogrames Entertainment (IESA) bought Hasbro Interactive in 2001 and renamed it to Infogrames Interactive, later Atari Interactive in 2003, when Infogrames Inc. licensed the Atari name and logo from the latter and changed its name to Atari Inc.,^[2][10][11] a name used for a company founded in 1993 as GT Interactive, which IESA also renamed to Infogrames, Inc. and acquired a 62% controlling interest in by 1999.^[12] After IESA’s acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, Infogrames, Inc. intermittently published Atari branded titles for Infogrames Interactive. On October 11, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.^[13]

On this day in 1837, Wisconsin’s now-oldest newspaper begins publishing:

1837 – The Milwaukee Sentinel Founded

On this date the Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest newspaper in the state, was founded as a weekly publication by Solomon Juneau, who also was Milwaukee’s first mayor. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 19]