Good morning, Whitewater.
We’ll have a sunny Sunday with a high of sixty. Sunrise is 7:21 and sunset 5:56, for 10h 35m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Friday’s FW poll asked whether readers thought, regardless of their own politics, that the Benghazi hearings on Thursday with former Sec. Clinton were useful or wasteful. A clear majority (79.31% of respondents said that they were wasteful.)
Over on the righthand sidebar, there’s a new widget entitled, Key Topics (Alphabetically Listed). There are many important topics facing the city, but in this box I’ll keep an alphabetized list of those issues I’m watching & thinking about for the city. An orderly, plainly-stated focus is important. I’ve been reviewing the list once each season; many of these topics are likely to remain far beyond one season, as they’re still pressing, unresolved matters before our city.
On this day six-hundred years ago, in 1415, Britain defeats France at Agincourt:
During the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, Henry V, the young king of England, leads his forces to victory at the Battle of Agincourt in northern France.
Two months before, Henry had crossed the English Channel with 11,000 men and laid siege to Harfleur in Normandy. After five weeks the town surrendered, but Henry lost half his men to disease and battle casualties. He decided to march his army northeast to Calais, where he would meet the English fleet and return to England. At Agincourt, however, a vast French army of 20,000 men stood in his path, greatly outnumbering the exhausted English archers, knights, and men-at-arms.
The battlefield lay on 1,000 yards of open ground between two woods, which prevented large-scale maneuvers and thus worked to Henry’s advantage. At 11 a.m. on October 25, the battle commenced. The English stood their ground as French knights, weighed down by their heavy armor, began a slow advance across the muddy battlefield. The French were met by a furious bombardment of artillery from the English archers, who wielded innovative longbows with a range of 250 yards. French cavalrymen tried and failed to overwhelm the English positions, but the archers were protected by a line of pointed stakes. As more and more French knights made their way onto the crowded battlefield, their mobility decreased further, and some lacked even the room to raise their arms and strike a blow. At this point, Henry ordered his lightly equipped archers to rush forward with swords and axes, and the unencumbered Englishmen massacred the French.
Almost 6,000 Frenchmen lost their lives during the Battle of Agincourt, while English deaths amounted to just over 400. With odds greater than three to one, Henry had won one of the great victories of military history. After further conquests in France, Henry V was recognized in 1420 as heir to the French throne and the regent of France. He was at the height of his powers but died just two years later of camp fever near Paris.
On this day in 1836, a territorial first takes place:
1836 – Belmont-Wisconsin Territory 1836 Established
On this date the first legislative session of the Wisconsin territory convened in Belmont, Wisconsin. During this first session, forty-two laws were put in the statute books. At this time, the Territory of Wisconsin included all of present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and part of the two Dakotas.
