Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-nine.  Sunrise is 5:57 AM and sunset 8:02 PM, for 14h 05m 21s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 47% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1846, Pres. Polk signs legislation chartering the Smithsonian Institution:

British scientist James Smithson (d. 1829) left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hungerford. When Hungerford died childless in 1835,^[8] the estate passed “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men”, in accordance with Smithson’s will.^[9] Congress officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation, and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust on July 1, 1836.^[10] The American diplomat Richard Rush was dispatched to England by President Andrew Jackson to collect the bequest. Rush returned in August 1838 with 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns (about $500,000 at the time, which is equivalent to $11,111,000 in 2015).^[11][12]

Once the money was in hand, eight years of Congressional haggling ensued over how to interpret Smithson’s rather vague mandate “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”^[10][12] Unfortunately, the money was invested by the US Treasury in bonds issued by the state of Arkansas which soon defaulted. After heated debate, Massachusetts Representative (and ex-President) John Quincy Adams persuaded Congress to restore the lost funds with interest^[13] and, despite designs on the money for other purposes, convinced his colleagues to preserve it for an institution of science and learning.^[14] Finally, on August 10, 1846, President James K. Polk signed the legislation that established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust instrumentality of the United States, to be administered by a Board of Regents and a Secretary of the Smithsonian.^[10]

On this day in 1962, Marvel unveils a new character:

Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics existing in its shared universe. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, and first appearedin the anthology comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962) in the Silver Age of Comic Books. Lee and Ditko conceived the character as an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and as a teenager, having to deal with the normal struggles of adolescence in addition to those of a costumed crime-fighter. Spider-Man’s creators gave him super strength and agility, the ability to cling to most surfaces, shoot spider-webs using wrist-mounted devices of his own invention, which he calls “web-shooters”, and react to danger quickly with his “spider-sense”, enabling him to combat his foes. And later in his life founded his own company call Parker Industries.

 

JigZone‘s Wednesday puzzle is of a dog:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset 8:04 PM, for 14h 07m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 38% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford becomes America’s thirty-eight president:

When Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency, making him the only person to assume the presidency without having been previously voted into either the presidential or vice presidential office. Immediately after taking the oath of office in the East Room of the White House, he spoke to the assembled audience in a speech broadcast live to the nation.[51] Ford noted the peculiarity of his position: “I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers.”[52] He went on to state:

I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people.[53]

He also stated:

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice, but mercy. … let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and hate.[54]

A portion of the speech would later be memorialized with a plaque at the entrance to his presidential museum.

On this day in  1793, an early settler to Milwaukee is born:

1793 – Milwaukee Pioneer Solomon Juneau Born

On this date Laurent Salomon Juneau was born in Repentigny, Quebec, Canada. Known as the founder of Milwaukee, Juneau was a fur trader with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. He built the first log house in Milwaukee in 1822 and followed with the first frame house in 1824. In October 1833 he formed a partnership with Morgan L. Martin to develop a village on the east side of the Milwaukee River.

Juneau was elected commissioner of roads and director of the poor in September 1835. He was also appointed postmaster, a position he held until 1843. In 1837 he began publishing the Milwaukee Sentinel. He was elected first mayor of Milwaukee in 1846. Juneau died on November 14, 1856. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, p.198]

Here’s the JigZone puzzle for Tuesday:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our week in town begins with partly cloudy skies and a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:55 AM and sunset 8:05 PM, for 14h 10m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 28.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1974, Pres. Nixon announces his resignation, to take effect the following day:

In light of his loss of political support and the near-certainty of impeachment, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening.^[206] The resignation speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon stated that he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation to support the new president, Gerald Ford. Nixon went on to review the accomplishments of his presidency, especially in foreign policy.^[214] He defended his record as president, quoting from Theodore Roosevelt‘s 1910 speech Citizenship in a Republic:

Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed, but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, “whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly”.^[215]

Nixon’s speech received generally favorable initial responses from network commentators, with only Roger Mudd of CBS stating that Nixon had not admitted wrongdoing.^[216] It was termed “a masterpiece” by Conrad Black, one of his biographers. Black opined that “What was intended to be an unprecedented humiliation for any American president, Nixon converted into a virtual parliamentary acknowledgement of almost blameless insufficiency of legislative support to continue. He left while devoting half his address to a recitation of his accomplishments in office.”^[217]

Six years earlier, on 8.8.16, Wisconsin GOP delegates had nominated Nixon:

On this date thirty Wisconsin delegates at the Republican National Convention in Miami cast their votes to nominate Richard Nixon as the Republican party presidential candidate. These thirty votes gave Nixon the majority over Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan and won for him the party nomination. Nixon selected Spiro Agnew to be his running mate. [Source: Back in Time]

The JigZone puzzle for Monday is of a chandelier:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be mostly cloudy with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:54 AM and sunset 8:06 PM, for 14h 12m 42s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 20.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

NASA recently used a new camera, capable of recording with ‘high speed, high dynamic range footage in multiple exposures simultaneously’ to analyze more thoroughly the rocket engines the agency is testing.  The footage, beyond being useful to engineers, is striking:

The Friday FW poll asked readers about their interest in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Of respondents, 21.13% said that they’d watch every day or night, 33.8% said that they;d watch about half the time, 25.35% said that they’d watch sporadically, and 19.72% said that they weren’t interested.

In 2012 FW Summer Olympics poll, about the London games, showed less respondent interest: 24.14% said that they’d watch every day or night, 18.97% said that they;d watch about half the time, 27.59% said that they’d watch sporadically, and 29.31% said that they weren’t interested.

On this day in 1942, the Guadalcanal Campaign begins:

On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States (US) Marines, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten Allied supply and communication routes between the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction on Guadalcanal. Powerful American naval forces supported the landings.

Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles (five nighttime surface actions and two carrier battles), and continual, almost daily, aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November, in which the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea and land with enough troops to retake it, was defeated. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal and evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943, in the face of an offensive by the US Army’s XIV Corps.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:53 AM and sunset is 8:08 PM, for 14h 15m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 13.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Tired of peeling oranges? Here’s your solution:

On this day in 1945, after over three-and-a half years of war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On this day in 1787, delegates begin debating a draft of the Constitution:

During an intensive debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal system characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more-populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation. The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) and equal representation of the states in the upper house (Senate).

On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.