Good morning, Whitewater.
Wednesday in town will see a likelihood of afternoon showers and a high of fifty-six. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset 7:17, for 12h 42m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 61.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Tech Park Board meets today and 8 AM, and a landscape committee of the Urban Forestry Commission at 1 PM.
On 3.30.1867, Secretary of State William Seward signs a treaty (later ratified) for a large purchase:
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox,” and President Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”
The czarist government of Russia, which had established a presence in Alaska in the mid-18th century, first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the Civil War. After 1865, Seward, a supporter of territorial expansion, was eager to acquire the tremendous landmass of Alaska, an area roughly one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States. He had some difficulty, however, making the case for the purchase of Alaska before the Senate, which ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote on April 9, 1867. Six months later, Alaska was formally handed over from Russia to the United States. Despite a slow start in U.S. settlement, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory, and Alaska, rich in natural resources, has contributed to American prosperity ever since.
On this day in 1865, Wisconsinites fight in Virginia:
1865 – (Civil War) Battle at Gravelly Run, Virginia
The Battle at Gravelly Run erupted east of Petersburg, Virginia. The 6th, 7th and 36th Wisconsin Infantry regiments participated in this battle, which was one of a series of engagements that ultimately drove Confederate forces out of Petersburg. Wisconsin’s Iron Brigade regiments fought at Gravelly Run, and when ordered to fall back before the enemy, they were the last to leave the field.
A Google a Day asks a question about architecture:
Of what type of architecture is the Paris Cathedral that in 1970 was the site of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral?