Good morning, Whitewater.
Tuesday in town will be rainy with a high of fifty-three. Sunrise is 5:35 AM and sunset 8:06 PM, for 14h 30m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 18.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Board Site Committee meets today at 7 AM.
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On this day in 1869, America has a transcontinental railroad:
…the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history. No longer would western-bound travelers need to take the long and dangerous journey by wagon train, and the West would surely lose some of its wild charm with the new connection to the civilized East.
Since at least 1832, both Eastern and frontier statesmen realized a need to connect the two coasts. It was not until 1853, though, that Congress appropriated funds to survey several routes for the transcontinental railroad. The actual building of the railroad would have to wait even longer, as North-South tensions prevented Congress from reaching an agreement on where the line would begin.
One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862), guaranteeing public land grants and loans to the two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. With these in hand, the railroads began work in 1866 from Omaha and Sacramento, forging a northern route across the country. In their eagerness for land, the two lines built right past each other, and the final meeting place had to be renegotiated….
On this day in 1865, the Wisconsin 1st Cavalry helps capture Jefferson Davis:
1865 – (Civil War) Confederacy President Jefferson Davis Captured
The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry was one of the first units sent to search for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee. A Michigan unit, also sent to find Davis, accidentally attacked the cavalry before dawn. A few hours later, both units captured the Confederate president in Irwinville, Georgia.
A Google a Day asks a question about baseball: “What left-handed outfielder, pinch-hitter and first baseman, with a colorful nickname, played his final game in September of 1963?”