Good morning.

We’ll have areas of fog in the morning, but thereafter sunny skies and a high of seventy.

On this day in 1957, Pres. Eisenhower orders federal soldiers to prevent obstruction of justice and assure lawful integration of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. On September 25, 1897, William Faulkner is born.

On this day in 1961, Wisconsin passes a law on seatbelts:

1961 – Law Requires Seatbelts in Wisconsin Cars
On this date Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed into law a bill that required all 1962 cars sold in Wisconsin to be equipped with seat belts. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Scientific American‘s trivia question asks about unfair labor. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How many people are forced to labor without wages worldwide?

Good morning.

Tuesday brings a sunny day with a high near seventy to Whitewater, with winds of 5 to 10 mph.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets today at 4:30 PM, and her Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan Steering Committee at 6 PM.

On this day in 1789, America gets her first Supreme Court:

The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement. That day, President Washington nominated John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson to be associate justices. On September 26, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate….

The U.S. Supreme Court grew into the most important judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the American political order. According to the Constitution, the size of the court is set by Congress, and the number of justices varied during the 19th century before stabilizing in 1869 at nine. In times of constitutional crisis, the nation’s highest court has always played a definitive role in resolving, for better or worse, the great issues of the time.

Scientific American‘s trivia question asks about an inventor. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

Who invented the hologram?

The question should really ask who was the first human to invent the hologram, as this one was designed even earlier, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away:

Downtown Whitewater’s Design Committee meets today at 8 AM.

On this day in 1952, then-Sen. Nixon delivers his Checkers speech:

Los Angeles, Sept. 23–Senator Richard M. Nixon, in a nation-wide television and radio broadcast tonight, defended his $18,235 “supplementary expenditures” fund as legally and morally beyond reproach.

He laid before the Republican National Committee and the American people the question of whether he should remain on the Republican party’s November election ticket as the candidate for Vice President.

Rising, near the end of his talk, from the desk at which he had sat, Senator Nixon urged his auditors to “wire and write” the Republican National Committee whether they thought his explanation of the circumstances surrounding the fund was adequate.

“I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign,” he said. “I don’t believe that I ought to quit, because I’m not a quitter.”

Scientific American‘s trivia question asks about dancing. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

Why do bees perform the waggle dance?

Here’s a video answer explaining the bees’ dance:

Good morning.

The first day of fall in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-four. We’ll have northeast winds at 5 mph in the afternoon.

On this day in 1862, following the Battle of Antietam, the nature of the Civil War changes both formally and practically:

President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery….

In July 1862, Lincoln informed his cabinet that he would issue an emancipation proclamation but that it would exempt the so-called border states, which had slaveholders but remained loyal to the Union. His cabinet persuaded him not to make the announcement until after a Union victory. Lincoln’s opportunity came following the Union win at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. On September 22, the president announced that slaves in areas still in rebellion within 100 days would be free.

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation, which declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” The proclamation also called for the recruitment and establishment of black military units among the Union forces. An estimated 180,000 African Americans went on to serve in the army, while another 18,000 served in the navy.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, backing the Confederacy was seen as favoring slavery. It became impossible for anti-slavery nations such as Great Britain and France, who had been friendly to the Confederacy, to get involved on behalf of the South. The proclamation also unified and strengthened Lincoln’s party, the Republicans, helping them stay in power for the next two decades.

The proclamation was a presidential order and not a law passed by Congress, so Lincoln then pushed for an antislavery amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure its permanence. With the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery was eliminated throughout America (although blacks would face another century of struggle before they truly began to gain equal rights).

Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the final Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Today, the original official version of the document is housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Good morning.

Saturday, the last day of summer, will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-two.

On this day in 1942, the B-29 bomber makes its maiden flight:

The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States toward the end of World War II and during the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II and a very advanced bomber for its time, with features such as a pressurized cabin, an electronic fire-control system, and remote-controlled machine-gun turrets. The name “Superfortress” was derived from that of its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Although designed as a high-altitude strategic bomber, and initially used in this role against the Empire of Japan, these attacks proved to be disappointing; as a result the B-29 became the primary aircraft used in the American firebombing campaign, and was used extensively in low-altitude night-time incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29’s final roles during World War II was carrying out the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We’re rightly told not to judges books by their covers, but rather their contents. Still, what about a book’s edges, especially when they display fine and lovely art? Over at i09, Vince Miklós writes about Fore-Edge Paintings: The Secret Works of Art Hidden Inside Book Pages:

Sometimes the greatest artworks are hidden in plain sight. Case in point: the University of Iowa recently discovered a four-volume set of scientific books from 1837 contains hidden paintings on the edges of the pages, which only show up when you fan them part-way open. These “Fore-Edge Paintings” are everywhere, and they’re beautiful.

As Flavorwire explains, Fore-Edge Paintings go back to the 16th century, “when Italian artist Cesare Vecellio (cousin of Renaissance painter Titian) started using his books as a canvas in order to beautify them.” A bunch of them were posted by the University of Iowa and the Boston Public Library….

Small, detailed, and remarkably lovely.