Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be partly cloudy, with a high of eighty-one, and a forty percent chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.  Sunrise is 5:20 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 16m 42s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 20.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lock Box Ordinance Committee is scheduled to meet today at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress establishes Articles of War for a conflict with Britain, beginning with a justification for their adoption:

The consideration of the articles of war being resumed, Congress agreed to the same:

Rules and Regulations

Whereas his Majesty’s most faithful subjects in these Colonies are reduced to a dangerous and critical situation, by the attempts of the British Ministry, to carry into execution, by force of arms, several unconstitutional and oppressive acts of the British parliament for laying taxes in America, to enforce the collection of these taxes, and for altering and changing the constitution and internal police of some of these Colonies, in violation of the natural and civil rights of the Colonies.

And whereas hostilities have been actually commenced in Massachusetts Bay, by the British troops, under the command of General Gage, and the lives of a number of the inhabitants of that Colony destroyed; the town of Boston not only having been long occupied as a garrisoned town in an enemy’s country, but the inhabitants thereof treated with a severity and cruelty not to be justified even towards declared enemies.

And whereas large reinforcements have been ordered, and are soon expected, for the declared purpose of compelling these Colonies to submit to the operation of the said acts, which hath rendered it necessary, and an indispensable duty, for the express purpose of securing and defending these Colonies, and preserving them in safety against all attempts to carry the said acts into execution; that an armed force be raised sufficient to defeat such hostile designs, and preserve and defend the lives, liberties and immunities of the Colonists: for the due regulating and well ordering of which;–

Resolved, That the following Rules and Orders be attended to, and observed by such forces as are or may hereafter be raised for the purposes aforesaid….

On this day in 1951, a Wisconsin rail line goes under:

1951 – Final Line of Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. Abandoned

On this date the final line of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. was abandoned. At one time, the company’s system extended west to Madison, north to Sheboygan, and south to Kenosha. [Source:History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 29]

A Google a Day asks a history question: “Whose death did the commander of the Confederate forces say was like “losing my right arm”?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 17m 22s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 30.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Cable Television Committee meets this morning at 9 AM.

On this day in 1943, Pres. Roosevelt writes to J. Robert Oppenheimer:

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
June 29, 1943

SECRET

My dear Dr. Oppenheimer:

I have recently reviewed with Dr. Bush the highly important and secret program of research, development and manufacture with which you are familiar. I was very glad to hear of the excellent work which is being done in a number of places in this country under the immediate supervision of General L.R. Groves and the general direction of the Committee of which Dr. Bush is Chairman. The successful solution of the problem is of the utmost importance to the national safety, and I am confident that the work will be completed in as short a time as possible as the result of the wholehearted cooperation of all concerned.

I am writing to you as the leader of one group which is to play a vital role in the months ahead. I know that you and your colleagues are working on a hazardous matter under unusual circumstances. The fact that the outcome of your labors is of such great significance to the nation requires that this program be even more drastically guarded than other highly secret war development. I have therefore given directions that every precaution be taken to insure the security of your project and feel sure that those in charge will see that these orders are carried out. You are fully aware of the reasons why your endeavors and those of your associates must be circumscribed by very special restrictions. Nevertheless, I wish you would express to the scientists assembled with you my deep appreciation of their willingness to undertake the tasks which lie before them in spite of the dangers and the personal sacrifices. I am sure that we can rely on their continued wholehearted and unselfish labors. Whatever the enemy may be planning, American science will be equal to the challenge. With this thought in mind, I send this note of confidence and appreciation.

Though there are other important groups at work, I am writing only to you as the leader of one which is operating under very special conditions, and to General Groves. While this letter is secret, the contents of it may be disclosed to your associates under pledge of secrecy.

Very Sincerely Yours

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer
Post Office Box 1663
Santa Fe,
New Mexico

On this day in 1865, Wisconsinites raise money for disabled soldiers:

1865 – First Soldiers’ Home Fair Held

On this date the first Soldiers’ Home Fair was held in Milwaukee. It raised more than $110,000 and allowed the Wisconsin Soldiers’ Home Association to purchase land and establish the hospital which became the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Northwestern Branch. This was later renamed the Veterans Administration Medical Center. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 22]

A Google a Day asks a question on art & architecture: “The north end of what footbridge is very near the magnificent baroque cathedral that is famous for the dome added by restorer Christopher Wren?”

 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-five. Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 17m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.1 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM, and later there will be a joint Common Council and CDA meeting at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1919, the Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles with the Allied Powers:

The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties.^[7] Although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919.

Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required “Germany [to] accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage” during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). This article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. In 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion Marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US $442 billion or UK £284 billion in 2016). At the time economists, notably John Maynard Keynes, predicted that the treaty was too harsh – a “Carthaginian peace” – and said the reparations figure was excessive and counter-productive, views that, since then, have been the subject of ongoing debate by historians and economists from several countries. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French MarshalFerdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently.

The result of these competing and sometimes conflicting goals among the victors was a compromise that left no one content: Germany was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened. The problems that arose from the treaty would lead to the Locarno Treaties, which improved relations between Germany and the other European Powers, and the re-negotiation of the reparation system resulting in the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, and the indefinite postponement of reparations at the Lausanne Conference of 1932.

On this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson heads toward Lake Koshkonong:

1832 – Atkinson starts up Rock River in Black Hawk War

On this date General Henry Atkinson and the Second Army began its trip into the Wisconsin wilderness in a major effort against Black Hawk. The “Army of the Frontier” was formed of 400 U.S. Army Regulars and 2,100 volunteer militiamen in order to participate in the Black Hawk War. The troops were headed toward the Lake Koshkonong area where the main camp of the British Band was rumored to be located. [Source:Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark, p. 93-94]

A Google a Day ask a geography question: “The castle that sits on top of the volcanic mound, Beblowe Craig, was founded by what 16th century king?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be mostly sunny  with a high of eighty-two.  Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 18m 30s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 53.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s School Board meets tonight at 6:45 PM, with the open session of the meeting beginning at 7 PM.

On this day in 1985, Route 66 is decertified:

U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and also known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year.^[4] The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas,New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).^[5] It was recognized in popular culture by both the hit song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.

US 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and the road supported the economies of the communities through which it passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, and it was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985,^[6] after it had been replaced in its entirety by segments of the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name “Historic Route 66“, which is returning to some maps.^[7][8] Several states have adopted significant bypassed sections of the former US 66 into the state road network as State Route 66.

On this day in 1837, Solomon Juneau founds a newspaper:

On this date the Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest newspaper in the state, was founded as a weekly publication by Solomon Juneau, who also was Milwaukee’s first mayor. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 19]

A Google a Day asks a science question: “What was Robert Brown looking at through a microscope when he found evidence of the 1827 scientific concept named in his honor?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Morning thunderstorms will give way to partly cloudy afternoon skies with a high of ninety. Sunrise is 5:18 AM and sunset 8:37 PM, for 15h 18m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 63.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Chinese shoppers at the Ginza shopping center in Jinan, beset by recent floods, found that water marred their retail experience:

Friday’s FW poll asked if readers thought that the Bucks would make the playoffs in 2017. A majority of readers thought that they would, with 58.62% of respondents answering that the Bucks would be in the post-season.

On this day in 1945, fifty nations sign the United Nations Charter at a ceremony in San Francisco:

The Charter of the United Nations (also known as the UN Charter) of 1945 is the foundational treaty of the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization.^[1] It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries. (Poland, the other original member, which was not represented at the conference, signed it two months later.) It entered into force on 24 October 1945, after being ratified by the original five permanent members of the Security Council—the Republic of China (later replaced by the People’s Republic of China), France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (later replaced by the Russian Federation), the United Kingdom, and the United States—and a majority of the other signatories.

As a charter, it is a constituent treaty, and all members are bound by its articles. Furthermore, Article 103 of the Charter states that obligations to the United Nations prevail over all other treaty obligations.^[1][2] Most countries in the world have now ratified the Charter.

After the Black Hawk War, Congress creates new land districts, including ones in present-day Wisconsin:

1834 – New Land Districts Created

On this date an Act of Congress created the Green Bay land district (east of a line from the northern boundary of Illinois to the Wisconsin River) and west of this, the Wisconsin Land district. The act followed land cessions by Native Americans defeated in the Black Hawk War. The creation of the land districts opened up much of southeastern Wisconsin for settlement. [Source: Fond du Lac County Local History Web]