Good morning.
Memorial Day holds an even chance of showers for Whitewater, primarily in the afternoon. The holiday will be otherwise cloudy with a high of sixty-one.
On this day in 1703, Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg:
After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founds the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital.
The reign of Peter, who became sole czar in 1696, was characterized by a series of sweeping military, political, economic, and cultural reforms based on Western European models. Peter the Great, as he became known, led his country into major conflicts with Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden. Russian victories in these wars greatly expanded Peter’s empire, and the defeat of Sweden won Russia direct access to the Baltic Sea, a lifelong obsession of the Russian leader. With the founding of St. Petersburg, Russia was now a major European power–politically, culturally, and geographically. In 1721, Peter abandoned the traditional Russian title of czar in favor of the European-influenced title of emperor. Four years later, he died and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine.
On 5.27.13, explorers Marquette & Joliet reach Green Bay:
Towards the end of May, 1673, the two explorers reached the site of modern Green Bay. “Embarking then in our canoes,” Marquette wrote in his journal, “we arrived shortly afterward at the bottom of the Bay des Puants, where our Fathers labor successfully for the conversion of these peoples, over two thousand of whom they have baptized while they have been there.” Read what they encountered there, as well as what the old French name “Puants” means, in our [Wisconsin Historical Society] pages devoted to Historic Diaries.
Google-a-Day asks about architecture: “Of what type of architecture is the Paris Cathedral that in 1970 was the site of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral?”