Good morning.
Whitewater’s Thursday will be a day of likely showers in the afternoon, a high of fifty, and southwest winds of ten to fifteen miles per hour.
On this day in 1867, the United States took possession of Alaska:
On this day in 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson.
Russia wanted to sell its Alaska territory, which was remote, sparsely populated and difficult to defend, to the U.S. rather than risk losing it in battle with a rival such as Great Britain. Negotiations between Seward (1801-1872) and the Russian minister to the U.S., Eduard de Stoeckl, began in March 1867. However, the American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,” among other derogatory names….Public opinion of the purchase turned more favorable when gold was discovered in a tributary of Alaska’s Klondike River in 1896, sparking a gold rush. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, and is now recognized for its vast natural resources….The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut word alyeska, which means “great land.” Alaska has two official state holidays to commemorate its origins: Seward’s Day, observed the last Monday in March, celebrates the March 30, 1867, signing of the land treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and Alaska Day, observed every October 18, marks the anniversary of the formal land transfer.
In Wisconsin history on October 18th, 1967, a violent confrontation:
1967 – Police and Student Activists Clash in Madison
On this date club-wielding Madison police joined campus police to break up a large anti-war demonstration on the UW-Madison campus. Sixty-five people, including several officers, were treated for injuries. Thirteen student leaders were ordered expelled from school. State Attorney General Bronson La Follettecriticized the police for using excessive brutality. [Source: They Marched Into Sunlight]
From a GO Comics TrivQuiz earlier this year, here’s a question about singer-songwriter Stephen Demetri Georgiou: “Name two of the albums he released as Cat Stevens before his “retirement” in the late 1970s (excluding compilations).”