Good morning, Whitewater.
The week ends with a partly sunny day and a high of twenty-three. Sunrise is 7:10 AM and sunset is 5:05 PM, for 9h 55m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1882, FDR is born:
Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York to businessman James Roosevelt I (1828–1900) and Sara Ann Delano (1854–1941). His parents were sixth cousins[6] and both were from wealthy old New York families. They were of mostly English descent; Roosevelt’s patrilineal great-grandfather, Jacobus Roosevelt III, was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother’s maiden name, Delano, could be traced to a French Huguenot immigrant ancestor of the 17th century.[8][9] Their only child[10] was to have been named Warren, but Sara’s infant nephew of that name had recently died.[11] Their son was named for Sara’s uncle Franklin Hughes Delano.[8]
Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege (reportedly, when James Roosevelt took his young son to visit President Grover Cleveland in the White House, the busy president told Franklin, “I have one wish for you, little man, that you will never be President of the United States.”[12]) Sara was a possessive mother; James, 54 when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at the time.[13] Sara was the dominant influence in Franklin’s early years;[14] she once declared, “My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all.”[6] Frequent trips to Europe—he made his first at the age of two, and went with his parents every year from the ages of seven to 15[15]—helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French;[16] being arrested with his tutor by police four times in one day in the Black Forest for minor offenses may have affected the future president’s view of German character.[17] He learned to ride, shoot, row, and play polo and lawn tennis. Roosevelt also took up golf in his teen years, becoming a skilled long hitter.[18] He learned to sail, and his father gave him a sailboat at the age of 16 which he named “New Moon”.[19]
There is much, I think, to doubt in Roosevelt’s economic program, but that he loved common people and that he tirelessly led America in war against genuine evil is beyond any reasonable doubt.
On this day in 1866, the 9th stands down:
1866 – (Civil War) 9th Wisconsin Infantry Mustered Out
The 9th Wisconsin Infantry mustered out after serving in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas, including the Battle of Prairie Grove. It lost 191 enlisted men during service; 77 were killed and 114 died from disease.
Google-a-Day asks a question about flight:
When birds remain airborne and moving without flapping their wings, on what are they gliding?