History

History, Science/Nature

Happy Birthday, Copernicus

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/19/2013 • Comments

Google celebrates Nicolaus Copernicus’s 540th birthday today with a Google Doodle illustrating the heliocentric universe: Unlike the doodle above, the one on their main search page is animated. They’ve also a link to search for Copernicus’s scientific accomplishments and investigations of the natural order.

City, History, Politics

Millard Fillmore

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/05/2013 • Comments

I’ve no idea if Pres. Fillmore ever visited Whitewater. That’s Millard Fillmore, the political disaster: supporter of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Know Nothing Movement, and a thorn in Lincoln’s side during the Civil War. Simply put, Fillmore would be a hard sell to anyone looking at his record honestly. That’s…

Beautiful Whitewater, History

Who was the first person to live in Whitewater?

by JOHN ADAMS • 01/15/2013 • Comments

It’s a simple question, although to some it may sound like a trick one. It’s not meant to be. There’s also a simple answer: I don’t know – and neither does anyone else. We know that settlers arrived here in 1837, but our part of the world had its name, and human inhabitants, long before…

History, Holiday

Happy Veterans’ Day

by JOHN ADAMS • 11/11/2012 • Comments

Happy Veterans’ Day. Here’s something of the history of the Veterans’ Day Holiday, from the History Channel:

America, Federal Government, History, Holiday, Law, Liberty, Politics

Happy Constitution Day

by JOHN ADAMS • 09/17/2012 • Comments

September 17, 1787

History, Open Government, Politics, Wisconsin

Then and Now

by JOHN ADAMS • 08/02/2012 • Comments

Consider these remarks, from a Wisconsin politician: What is it that is swelling the ranks of the dissatisfied? Is it a growing conviction in state after state, that we are fast being dominated by forces that thwart the will of the people and menace representative government? Do you not know people who feel, as perhaps…

History, Human Nature

Franklin on Success

by JOHN ADAMS • 06/02/2012 • Comments

There’s a famous saying, of Benjamin Franklin, that “success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.” It’s very true, and evergreen: one often comes upon new examples of this observation. Human nature has not changed, these intervening centuries, and it likely never will. How telling, that for all our many advances, our supposed…

Beautiful Whitewater, City, History, Nature, University

Natural Plant Communities Talk & Tour at the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve on Saturday, May 26th at 10 AM

by JOHN ADAMS • 05/17/2012 • Comments

I received the following press release that I’m happy to post: Renae Prell-Mitchell, from UW-Whitewater, will lead a ‘Natural Plant Communities Talk & Tour’ at the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve on Saturday, May 26th at 10 AM. Renae will talk about the existing wetlands, DOT prairie and Silver maples/bur oak stand, as well as the…

History, University, Wisconsin

On This Day in Wisconsin History: University of Wisconsin Opens

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/05/2012 • Comments

Happy Birthday: 1849 – University of Wisconsin opens On this day in 1849 the University of Wisconsin began with 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. The first class was organized as a preparatory school in the first department of the University: a department of science, literature, and the arts. The university was initially…

History, Wisconsin

When a woman calmed enraged, potential draftees with crackers, refreshments

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/01/2012 • Comments

The draft wasn’t popular in 1862, and it wasn’t so critical, as the overwhelming number of Wisconsinites serving to preserve the Union were volunteers. Still, there were angry residents to be assuaged… Via Odd Wisconsin @ Wisconsin State Journal .

History, Recall, Wisconsin

History of Recall Elections in Wisconsin

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/01/2012 • Comments

The Wisconsin Historical Society offers a history of recall elections in the Badger State. It’s an informative summary of all that’s come before all that’s before us now. They’ll need at least another page to describe our present recalls to posterity.

History, Wisconsin

A Wisconsin archeological blunder from 1878

by JOHN ADAMS • 01/13/2012 • Comments

When white settlers arrived in Wisconsin, they were intrigued by the ancient mounds that dotted the landscape. This sparked excitement about archaeology generally, and during the late 19th century the discovery of new “antiquities” fueled speculation about the state’s ancient past. It also led to one memorable blunder in 1878 concerning a find at Hartford, in Washington Co.…

History, Holiday

The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving Lesson

by JOHN ADAMS • 11/23/2011

A change in rights offered a path from starvation to dependable sustenance: Faced with potential starvation in the spring of 1623, the colony decided to implement a new economic system. Every family was assigned a private parcel of land. They could then keep all they grew for themselves, but now they alone were responsible for…

History, Politics

Bob Strauss on Jimmy Carter

by JOHN ADAMS • 09/27/2011

Not long after Jimmy Carter was elected, things began to go sour for his administration. Just about everything, including opposition from both Republicans and sometimes even the Democratic majority in Congress, bedeviled him. Carter called longtime Democratic politician Bob Strauss into the Oval Office, after the Bert Lance scandal broke. Carter found the change in…