Good morning, whitewater.
The second month of the year begins for us with partly cloudy skies and a high of thirty-seven. Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset 5:08, for 9h 59m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 46.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1861, Texas secedes from the Union:
Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union when a state convention votes 166 to 8 in favor of the measure.
The Texans who voted to leave the Union did so over the objections of their governor, Sam Houston. A staunch Unionist, Houston’s election in 1859 as governor seemed to indicate that Texas did not share the rising secessionist sentiments of the other Southern states.
However, events swayed many Texans to the secessionist cause. John Brown’s raid on the federal armory atHarper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in October 1859 had raised the specter of a major slave insurrection, and the ascendant Republican Party made many Texans uneasy about continuing in the Union. After Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in November 1860, pressure mounted on Houston to call a convention so that Texas could consider secession. He did so reluctantly in January 1861, and sat in silence on February 1 as the convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Houston grumbled that Texans were “stilling the voice of reason,” and he predicted an “ignoble defeat” for the South. Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was replaced in March 1861 by his lieutenant governor.
On this day in 1860, Ma and Pa are married:
On this date Charles Ingalls and Caroline Quiner were married in Concord, Wisconsin. They were the parents of noted Wisconsinite Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” series. [Source: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum]
Here’s a 48-piece puzzle from JigZone, entitled Pot Brushes, to begin the week: