Good morning.
Whitewater’s week begins with scattered showers and thunderstorms, partly sunny otherwise, with a high near 84, and south winds at 10 to 15 mph. There’s an even chance of rain.
The weather west of us has been far worse:
On 5.20.1873, a famous garment’s inventors receive a patent for their creation: “San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.”
On this day in 1991, a treaty dispute between the Ojibwe and Wisconsin ends:
On this day, the 17-year legal battle between Ojibwe Indians and the State of Wisconsin over 19th-century treaties involving rights to hunt, fish, and gather timber was put to rest. Dating from 1974, the suit originated after two Ojibwa were cited for spearfishing in off-reservation waters, and led to numerous racially-charged confrontations when subsequent court decisions validated Ojibwe spearfishing rights.
The court rulings split resources evenly between the Ojibwe and non-Indians, and rejected Ojibwe claims for money to compensate them for years of denial of their treaty rights. The chairmen of six Lake Superior Ojibwe bands explained the decision not to appeal as “a gesture of peace and friendship toward the people of Wisconsin,” while Wisconsin Attorney General James Doyle cited the risk of jeopardizing the state’s “many significant victories” in the battle if the state were to press forward. The history of treaty negotiations in Wisconsin, including the texts of all treaties and contemporary accounts by both Indian and white participants, are on the Treaty Councils page of Turning Points in Wisconsin History.[Source: Capital Times 5/20/1991, p.1]
Google’s looking for a name: “What is another name for the hourly time signal or GTS first broadcast by the RGO in 1924?”
The iconic time balls (which marked the new hour upon start of decent) that dotted many structures along coastlines and ports across the world officially became an obsolete timepiece with the RGO’s first broadcast of GMT.
The iconic Waterford crystal ball in New York’s Times Square is our very own glittering timepiece. We however, in our unyielding promise of independence begin the new hour when the ball finishes its descent, not the other way around. Makes for a more dramatic finish, if you ask me.
I’d not even made the connection to the ball in Times Square when I saw today’s question, but there we are, as you observe – our own twist on an (originally) Old World custom.
I like our way, too, from Times Square – we end with a flourish.
The “sounder” at the Top of the Hour is rarely heard on network or local radio, anymore. CBS Radio News on the hour still as a “bong” at :00; WGN 720 radio still has a “horn,” and WTMJ 620 radio recently reinstituted a “ping,” at :00. I wonder if the disappearance of the Top of the Hour sounder is due to radio stations’ Internet streaming (which delays the live transmission by seconds), or our overreliance on our cellphones as timepieces…?