Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a mostly cloudy but mild day for Whitewater’s 6 PM Christmas Parade of Lights (with pre-parade events beginning at 5 PM in our downtown).

The parade route runs from the intersection of Whiton & Main to Whitewater Street near Cravath and by the SweetSpot. Map below from DTWW (clicking the image produces a larger map):

On this day in 1933, America repeals Prohibition:

The repeal movement was initiated and financed by the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, who worked to elect Congressmen who agreed to support repeal. The group’s wealthy supporters included John D. Rockefeller, Jr., S. S. Kresge, and the Du Pont family, among others, who had abandoned the dry cause.[24] Pauline Sabin, a wealthy Republican who founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), argued that Prohibition should be repealed because it made the United States a nation of hypocrites and undermined its respect for the rule of law. This hypocrisy and the fact that women had initially led the prohibition movement convinced Sabin to establish the WNPR. Their efforts eventually led to the repeal of prohibition.[31][32]

When Sabin’s fellow Republicans would not support her efforts, she went to the Democrats, who switched their support of the dry cause to endorse repeal under the leadership of liberal politicians such as Fiorello La Guardia and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sabin and her supporters emphasized that repeal would generate enormous sums of much-needed tax revenue, and weaken the base of organized crime.[citation needed]

Repeal of Prohibition was accomplished with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933. Under its terms, states were allowed to set their own laws for the control of alcohol. Following repeal, public interest in an organized prohibition movement dwindled. However, it survived for a while in a few southern and border states.[31][32] To this day, however, there are still counties and parishes within the US known as “dry”, where the sale of liquor (whiskey, wine) -not beer- is prohibited; several such municipalities have adopted liquor-by-the-drink, however in order to expand tax revenue.[33]

On this day in 1879, Wisconsin gets an animal-protection society:

1879 – Humane Society of Wisconsin Organized
On this date the Humane Society of Wisconsin was organized in Milwaukee. Inspired by Henry Bergh, a New York City philanthropist, and his Humane Movement, the state Humane Society was formed to protect both animals and children. However, with the formation of child protection laws in the early 1900s, the Humane Society of Wisconsin began to focus primarily on animal protection. [Source: Humane Society of Wisconsin]

Google-a-Day aska a question on literature:

What traffic circle with a “square” name is located just south of the site where the author lived while writing “The Seven Pillars”?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning giving way to sunshine in the afternoon, with a high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 11m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

On this day in 1780, America successfully tricks Britain during the Revolutionary War:

A force of Continental dragoons commanded by Colonel William Washington — General George Washington’s second cousin once removed — corners Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his followers in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina, on this day in 1780.

After nearly a year of brutal backcountry conflict between Washington and the fierce British commander Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (who was infamous for Tarleton’s Quarter, the murder of colonial POWs on May 29, 1780 at Waxhaws), Washington had retreated to North Carolina the previous October. Commanded to return to the South Carolina theater by Brigadier General Daniel The Old Wagoner Morgan, Colonel Washington still lacked the proper artillery to dislodge the Loyalists. He told his cavalrymen to dismount and surround the barn. While out of Rugeley’s sight, Washington’s men fabricated a pine log to resemble a cannon.

This Quaker gun trick, named so because Quakers used it to be intimidating without breaching their pacifist vow of non-violence, worked beautifully. Washington faced the cannon toward the buildings in which the Loyalists had barricaded themselves and threatened bombardment if they did not surrender. Shortly after, Rugeley surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired.

When informed of the pacifist victory, General Charles Cornwallis, commander of the British armies in America, informed Tarleton that Rugeley’s performance ensured he would never rise to the rank of brigadier. A few weeks later, Tarleton would himself face an even worse humiliation at the hands of General Morgan during the devastating Battle of Cowpens. The harrowing civil war for the hearts and minds of the Carolina backcountry had finally begun to favor the Patriots.

On this day in 1933, Janesville remains defiant:

1933 – Janesville Council Denies Prohibition End
On this date the Janesville Council drafted a “drastic liquor control law” that prohibited serving liquor. The law prohibited distilled spirits, but not beer, at bars, and limited liquor service to tables. Backrooms and “blinds” (closed booths) were also prohibited. The only place where packaged liquor was allowed to be sold was at municipal dispensaries. Further, bars were prohibited from selling packaged liquor. The next day, the city was uncommonly quiet as the 18th Amendment was repealed. For nearly 14 years, the 18th Amendment (the Prohibition Amendment), outlawed the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages within the U.S. [Source: Janesville Gazette, December 5, 1933, p.1]]

Google-a-Day asks a question of geography and history:

In the Russian monument of the founder of Moscow, which hand is he holding out to the side?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of thirty-two. Sunrise is 7:08 AM and sunset 4:21 PM for 9h 12m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with ninety percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1776, Gen. Washington reaches the banks of the Delaware River, directing his army to cross into Pennsylvania. He arrives at a time, just half a year beyond the Declaration, when Patriot fortunes seem at their lowest:

In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington writes to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army’s stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.

In his letter Washington wrote, ‘Immediately on my arrival here, I ordered the removal of all the military and other stores and baggage over the Delaware, a great quantity are already got over, and as soon as the boats come up from Philadelphia, we shall load them, by which means I hope to have every thing secured this night and tomorrow if we are not disturbed.’

Washington then made the critical strategic move of confiscating and burning all the boats along the Delaware to prevent British troops from pursuing his beleaguered forces across the river. The British strategy of chasing Washington across New Jersey, rather than capturing his entire army in Manhattan, seemed to be a stroke of genius. As New Jersey was devastated at the hands of British forces and Washington’s men cowered in Pennsylvania, even staunch Patriots, including Thomas Jefferson, considered surrender to the crown.

Also on this day, General Washington received a letter dated November 30 from his second-in-command, General Charles Lee, reporting that he was about to cross into New York near Peekskill on this day in 1776. In an apt reflection of the state of the American fortunes, the British captured General Lee nine days later in New Jersey. Richard Stockton, a leading New Jersey patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also in British custody and was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the British king along with thousands of his New Jersey neighbors.

On this day in 1947, Wisconsin gets a new medium:

1947 – First TV Station in Wisconsin Established
On this date the first TV station in Wisconsin, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, was established. The seventeenth television station in the country, WTMJ-TV was the first in the Midwest. [Source: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Libraries]

Google-a-Day asks a sports question:

What British Queen watched and promoted a lacrosse game in 1867?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of thirty-two. Sunrise is 7:07 AM and sunset 4:21 PM, for 9h 13m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

We’ve a series of public meetings in the city today. At 6 PM, the Planning Commission will meet, at 6:10 PM the Alcohol and Licensing Commission meets, and at 6:30 PM Common Council meets in joint session with the Planning Commission.

On this day in 1804, France gets what no one needs, an emperor:

The coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French, which took place on Sunday December 2, 1804 (11 Frimaire, Year XIII according to the French Republican Calendar), at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, has been said to mark “the instantiation of modern empire”, representing a “transparently masterminded piece of modern propaganda”.[1] On May 18, 1804, the Sénat conservateur vested the Republican government in an Emperor, and preparations for a coronation followed. Napoleon’s elevation to Emperor was overwhelmingly approved by the French citizens in a referendum. Among Napoleon’s motivations for being crowned were to gain prestige in international royalist and Catholic milieux and to lay the foundation for a future dynasty.[2]:243

In the classical French tradition, kings underwent a ceremony of consecration (sacre) rather than a coronation; in consecration, anointment was conferred by the archbishop of Reims in Notre-Dame de Reims.[2] Napoleon blended Roman imperial pageantry with the purported memory of Charlemagne. The coronation was held in Paris in the presence of Pope Pius VII. According to government tallies, the entire cost was over 8.5 million francs…..

In Wisconsin history, a Wisconsin’s U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy is disgraced:

After two months of hearings and deliberations, the Watkins Committee recommended that McCarthy be censured on two of the 46 counts: his contempt of the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration, which had called him to testify in 1951 and 1952, and his abuse of General Zwicker in 1954. The Zwicker count was dropped by the full Senate on the grounds that McCarthy’s conduct was arguably “induced” by Zwicker’s own behavior. In place of this count, a new one was drafted regarding McCarthy’s statements about the Watkins Committee itself.[110]

The two counts on which the Senate ultimately voted were:

That McCarthy had “failed to cooperate with the Subcommittee on Rules and Administration”, and “repeatedly abused the members who were trying to carry out assigned duties …”

That McCarthy had charged “three members of the [Watkins] Select Committee with ‘deliberate deception’ and ‘fraud’ … that the special Senate session … was a ‘lynch party'”, and had characterized the committee “as the ‘unwitting handmaiden’, ‘involuntary agent’ and ‘attorneys in fact’ of the Communist Party”, and had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity”.[111]

On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to “condemn” McCarthy on both counts by a vote of 67 to 22.[112] The Democrats present unanimously favored condemnation and the Republicans were split evenly. The only senator not on record was John F. Kennedy, who was hospitalized for back surgery; Kennedy never indicated how he would have voted.[113] Immediately after the vote, Senator H. Styles Bridges, a McCarthy supporter, argued that the resolution was “not a censure resolution” because the word “condemn” rather than “censure” was used in the final draft. The word “censure” was then removed from the title of the resolution, though it is generally regarded and referred to as a censure of McCarthy, both by historians[114] and in Senate documents.[115] McCarthy himself said, “I wouldn’t exactly call it a vote of confidence.” He added, “I don’t feel I’ve been lynched.”[116]

Google-a-Day poses a sports question:

The longest tennis match in history was played over three days and included how many strokes by the American born player?