Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday, with a weekend of shopping before Christmas – brings to town a high of thirty with partly cloudy skies. Sunrise today is 7:21 AM and sunset is 4:23 PM, for 9h 01m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with eight percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On 12.19.1998, a time truly not so long ago that seems like ages ago, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached Pres. Clinton on charges of perjury & obstruction of justice:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19— William Jefferson Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice today by a divided House of Representatives, which recommended virtually along party lines that the Senate remove the nation’s 42d President from office.
A few hours after the vote, Mr. Clinton, surrounded by Democrats, walked onto the South Lawn of the White House, his wife, Hillary, on his arm, to pre-empt calls for his resignation. The man who in better days had debated where he would stand in the pantheon of American Presidents said he would stay in office and vowed ”to go on from here to rise above the rancor, to overcome the pain and division, to be a repairer of the breach.” Later, Mr. Clinton called off the bombing in Iraq, declaring the mission accomplished.
Mr. Clinton became only the second President in history to be impeached, in a stunning day that also brought the resignation of the incoming Speaker of the House, Robert L. Livingston.
At 1:22 P.M., the House of Representatives approved, 228 to 206, the first article of impeachment, accusing Mr. Clinton of perjury for misleading a Federal grand jury last Aug. 17 about the nature of his relationship with a White House intern, Monica S. Lewinsky. [Roll call, page 36.]
In the noisy House chamber, a lone Republican applauded. Five Republicans crossed party lines to vote against impeachment. Five Democrats broke with their party to support it.
On this day in 1813, Wisconsin’s first governor is born:
1813 – Nelson Dewey Born
On this date Nelson Dewey, the first governor of the state of Wisconsin, was born in Lebanon, Connecticut. The son of Ebenezer Dewey and Lucy Webster, Nelson arrived in the Wisconsin Territory in 1836. He studied law, began a legal and business career in Lancaster, and made a considerable sum of money in land and lead mining investments. At the age of 35, he became the first state governor and served two terms, from June 7, 1848 to January 5, 1852.In later years, Dewey suffered misfortune. On Thanksgiving day, 1873, his mansion at Stonefield was gutted by fire, after which his wife and children moved to Europe for several years. In 1886 he began divorce proceedings against his wife on grounds of desertion but later dropped the suit. For more than 10 years Dewey lived alone. During the final 5 years of his life he had no contact with his family. He lost a fortune in a railroad deal and was ruined financially. In February 1889, he suffered a stroke while arguing a court case in Lancaster. Nelson Dewey died on July 21, 1889, in Cassville, where he is buried. [Source: First Ladies of Wisconsin-The Governors’ Wives by Nancy G. Williams]