Good morning, Whitewater
There will be a 5 p.m. meeting of the Handicapped Discrimination Committee at the municipal building today.
In our schools, the book fair at Lincoln School continues, and later in the day, there will be market day pickup at Lincoln School.
The National Weather Service again forecasts sunny weather, with a slight lower temperature (from yesterday’s prediction) of 74 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts that pleasant conditions will continue.
Yesterday’s better prediction: Even. It was a generally pleasant day, as the FA forecast, and along the lines of pleasantness that the NWS forecast.
In Wisconsin history on this date, in 1942, the Wisconsin Historical Society recounts the effects of a flood that hit Spring Valley:
On this day flash floods ravaged a wide area of northwestern Wisconsin, largely decimating the village of Spring Valley. Residents of the 973-person village, set between high bluffs flanking the Eau Galle River, were forced to flee for the hills and watch as waters reaching heights of 21 feet destroyed numerous homes and every business in the town.
Update:
The best part about writing a blog is hearing from readers with additional information, insight, or suggestions. On Monday, FREE WHITEWATER’s Daily Bread feature included information from Wired on the introduction of tanks as a battlefield weapon:
On this date in world history, in 1915, the tank emerged as a battlefield weapon during the First World War. Wired reports on the introduction of the weapon, at an assault near assault near Bois d’Elville.
I included a copy of the photograph that Wired used, courtesy of the New York State Library.
As it turns out, a sharp-eyed reader noted that the tank in the photograph was likely a French, and not British tank. I’ll let him tell the tale:
Hi John,
That picture of the WWI tank was interesting. FWIW, that appears to be a Renault FT tank used by the French. The British used the Whippet.
Yes, our humble dog is not only a fast racer and mean football player, but also one of the first war tanks.
Info here: http://www.landships.freeservers.com/whippet_info.htm and http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/GreatBritain/whippet.html and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippet_(tank)Pictures of the Renault FT here:
http://www.geocities.com/vienna/opera/2211/
On my own, I would not have been able to distinguish weapons from this era — but many thanks to a knowledgeable reader who could and did.