Good morning, Whitewater.

Father’s Day in town will be sunny and warm, with a high of eighty-nine. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset is 20:36 PM, for 15h 20m 24s of daytime. We’ve a full moon, with 99.1% of its disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked about the final NBA game of the season: what did readers think would happen in Game 7 between the Cavs and Warriors? A majority (53.85%) of respondents gave the edge to Golden State.

This has been a time of exciting sports, with the NBA, and both European and Copa America soccer matches. We play the very formidable Argentinian team on Tuesday at 8 PM CT.

On this day in 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea begins:

The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a decisive naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy’s ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States’ amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major “carrier-versus-carrier” engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and involved elements of the United States Navy‘s Fifth Fleet as well as ships and land-based aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy‘s Mobile Fleetand nearby island garrisons.

The aerial theatre of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.^[2]During a debriefing after the first two air battles a pilot from USS Lexington remarked “Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!”^[3] The outcome is generally attributed to American improvements in pilot and crew training and tactics, war technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), and ship and aircraft design.^{[N 1][N 2]} Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover.^[1] During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle.^{[4]:331–333}

This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history.^[5]

On this day in 1917, it’s a name change for Britain’s royal family:

…during the third year of World War I, Britain’s King George V orders the British royal family to dispense with the use of German titles and surnames, changing the surname of his own family, the decidedly Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor….

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be sunny and warm, with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 20s of daytime. The moon is a 96.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

A videographer recently recorded a large number of stingrays near Tampa. It’s quite the sight:

Huge group of stingrays (or technically a "fever" of stingrays) captured swimming near #Tampa (via @FOX13News) pic.twitter.com/pq3I3DGY4h

— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) June 16, 2016

On this day in 1815, French imperialist Napoleon meets his Waterloo:

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an Anglo-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt. The battle resulted in the end of Bonaparte’s reign and of the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace….

Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead or wounded and Blücher some 7,000 (810 of which were suffered by just one unit: the 18th Regiment, which served in Bülow’s 15th Brigade, had fought at both Frichermont and Plancenoit, and won 33 Iron Crosses).[170] Napoleon’s losses were 24,000 to 26,000 killed or wounded and included 6,000 to 7,000 captured with an additional 15,000 deserting subsequent to the battle and over the following days.[7]

22 June. This morning I went to visit the field of battle, which is a little beyond the village of Waterloo, on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean; but on arrival there the sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return. The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the Allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and waggons with them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget. The wounded, both of the Allies and the French, remain in an equally deplorable state.

—Major W. E. Frye After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815–1819.[171]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be sunny with a high of eighty-five.  Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 12s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor:

…the dismantled Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of America, arrives in New York Harbor after being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. The copper and iron statue, which was reassembled and dedicated the following year in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland, became known around the world as an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy.

Intended to commemorate the American Revolution and a century of friendship between the U.S. and France, the statue was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (who modeled it after his own mother), with assistance from engineer Gustave Eiffel, who later developed the iconic tower in Paris bearing his name. The statue was initially scheduled to be finished by 1876, the 100th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence; however, fundraising efforts, which included auctions, a lottery and boxing matches, took longer than anticipated, both in Europe and the U.S., where the statue’s pedestal was to be financed and constructed. The statue alone cost the French an estimated $250,000 (more than $5.5 million in today’s money).

Finally completed in Paris in the summer of 1884, the statue, a robed female figure with an uplifted arm holding a torch, reached its new home on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor (between New York City and Hudson County, New Jersey) on June 17, 1885. After being reassembled, the 450,000-pound statue was officially dedicated on October 28, 1886, by President Cleveland, who said, “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.” Standing more than 305 feet from the foundation of its pedestal to the top of its torch, the statue, dubbed “Liberty Enlightening the World” by Bartholdi, was taller than any structure in New York City at the time. The statue was originally copper-colored, but over the years it underwent a natural color-change process called patination that produced its current greenish-blue hue….

On this day in 1673, explorers reach ‘this so renowned river’:

Marquette & Joliet Reach the Mississippi

“Here we are, then, on this so renowned river, all of whose peculiar features I have endeavored to note carefully.” It’s important to recall that Marquette and Joliet did not discover the Mississippi: Indians had been using it for 10,000 years, Spanish conquistador Hernan De Soto had crossed it in 1541, and fur traders Groseilliers and Radisson may have reached it in the 1650s. But Marquette and Joliet left the first detailed reports and proved that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, which opened the heart of the continent to French traders, missionaries, and soldiers. View a Map of Marquette & Joliet’s route.

A Google a Day asks an architecture question: “Of what type of architecture is the Paris Cathedral that in 1970 was the site of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be  cloudy with a high of seventy-two.  Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:35 PM, for 15h 20m 00s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6:30 PM.  Whitewater’s Fire Department holds a business meeting this evening, also at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1903, Ford incorporates:

At 9:30 in the morning on this day in 1903, Henry Ford and other prospective stockholders in the Ford Motor Company meet in Detroit to sign the official paperwork required to create a new corporation. Twelve stockholders were listed on the forms, which were signed, notarized and sent to the office of Michigan’s secretary of state. The company was officially incorporated the following day, when the secretary of state’s office received the articles of association.

Ford had built his first gasoline-powered vehicle–which he called the Quadricycle–in a workshop behind his home in 1896, while he was working as the chief engineer for the main plant of the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. He made two unsuccessful attempts to start a company to manufacture automobiles before 1903. A month after the Ford Motor Company was established, the first Ford car was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit.

In the early days of Ford, only a few cars were assembled per day, and they were built by hand by small groups of workers from parts made to order by other companies. With the introduction of the Model T in 1908, Ford succeeded in his mission to produce an affordable, efficient and reliable automobile for everyone: within a decade, nearly half the cars in America were Model Ts. The sensational demand for the “Tin Lizzie” led Ford to develop mass-production methods, including large production plants, the use of standardized, interchangeable parts and, in 1913, the world’s first moving assembly line for cars. In 1914, to further improve productivity, Ford introduced the $5 daily wage for an eight-hour day for his workers (up from $2.34 for nine hours), setting a standard for the industry….

On 6.16.1832, the first battle of the Black Hawk War occurs:

On this date the Battle of Pecatonica took place between a band of Kickapoo Indians and troops led by Henry Dodge. Dodge, along with two others were on their way to Fort Hamilton in Wiota, WI when they passed a white settler named Henry Appel. As the men reached the fort, rifle shots rang; the settler had been ambushed and killed by a group of Indians. Dodge and 29 men went in pursuit of the Kickapoo Indians who concealed themselves under the river bank of the Pecatonica. As Dodge and his men approached, the Indians opened fire, injuring four and killing three.

Dodge ordered his men to attack. The Indians, unable to reload quickly enough, were fired at point-blank. Nine died immediately and two others were shot as they tried to escape. This battle was the military’s first victory in the Black Hawk War. [Source: The Black Hawk War by Frank E. Stevens and Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark.]

A Google a Day asks a question on literature: “What is the name of the facility where Holly goes each week to visit Salvatore Tomato?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will be partly cloudy and warm, with a high of ninety-one. Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:35 PM, for 15h 19m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 77.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Aquatic Center Board meets today at 7 AM.

On this day in 1215, King John puts his seal on the Magna Carta:

Magna Carta Libertatum (Latin for “the Great Charter of the Liberties“), commonly called Magna Carta (“the Great Charter“), is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.^[a] First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons’ War. After John’s death, the regency government of his young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where the document acquired the name Magna Carta, to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes; his son, Edward I, repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England’s statute law.

The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling English Parliament passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance. At the end of the 16th century there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta. Lawyers and historians at the time believed that there was an ancient English constitution, going back to the days of the Anglo-Saxons, that protected individual English freedoms. They argued that the Norman invasion of 1066 had overthrown these rights, and that Magna Carta had been a popular attempt to restore them, making the charter an essential foundation for the contemporary powers of Parliament and legal principles such as habeas corpus. Although this historical account was badly flawed, jurists such as Sir Edward Coke used Magna Carta extensively in the early 17th century, arguing against the divine right of kings propounded by the Stuart monarchs. Both James I and his son Charles I attempted to suppress the discussion of Magna Carta, until the issue was curtailed by the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles.

On this day in 1832, the Black Hawk War receives a new commander:

…General Winfield Scott was ordered by President Andrew Jackson to take command at the frontier of the Black Hawk War. Scott was to succeed General Henry Atkinson, thought to be unable to end the war quickly. General Scott moved rapidly to recruit troops and obtain equipment for his army. However, while in New York, the troops were exposed to an Asiatic cholera. Just outside of Buffalo, the first cases on the ships were reported and death often followed infection. By the time the ships reached Chicago, the number of soldiers had dropped dramatically from 800 to 150, due to disease and desertion. Rather than going on to the front, Scott remained with his troops in Chicago, giving Atkinson a brief reprieve. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail, by William F. Stark, p. 90-91]

A Google a Day asks a history and geography question: “What is the name today of the town where the founder of the BSA was born?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be rainy with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:15 AM and sunset 8:35 PM, for 15h 19m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 69.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopts a design:

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white” and that “the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The national flag, which became known as the “Stars and Stripes,” was based on the “Grand Union” flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence, new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union. In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states.

On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

It’s Fighting Bob’s birthday:

On this date Robert M. La Follette was born in Primrose, Dane County. A renowned lawyer, politician, governor, and U.S. Senator, La Follette was the son of a prosperous, politically active Republican farmer who died eight months after Robert was born. Robert grew up on his family’s farm and entered the UW in 1874. While a student at UW, he edited the campus newspaper and was strongly influenced by the teachings of John Bascom. After receiving a B.A. in 1879, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1880.

The same year, he was nominated and elected district attorney over the opposition of local political boss Elisha W. Keyes. On December 31, 1881 he married his college sweetheart, Belle Case. In 1884 he was elected to Congress, again defeating Keyes. Known as “Fighting Bob”, he actively advocated conservation, preservation of public lands, and conservative public spending. Defeated in the 1890 election, he returned to his Madison law practice but remained active in state politics.

He served as governor from 1900 to 1906, where he pushed a broad reform agenda which became known as “the Wisconsin Idea.” As governor, he enacted a program that included direct primaries, more equitable taxation, a more effective railroad commission, civil service reform, conservation, control of lobbyists, a legislative reference library, and bank reform.

In 1905 the Wisconsin legislature elected La Follette to the U.S. Senate. He was a controversial senator almost from the beginning. After William Howard Taft became president, La Follette forged the progressive Republican opposition to the Payne-Aldrich Tariff and became a persistent critic of the administration. In 1909, he founded La Follette’s Weekly Magazine (later known as The Progressive) to promote his ideology.

In 1911 he was chosen as the progressive Republican candidate to displace Taft, but he was superseded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. La Follette supported most of the policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson until the question of U.S. entry into World War I arose. Vigorously opposed to entry, he was the victim of an unsuccessful attempt to expel him from the Senate for an antiwar speech.

In the postwar period La Follette resisted the anti-Communist scare and fought for the interests of workers and farmers against the business-oriented Republican administrations. He initiated the investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal in 1922. In 1924, he ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket but lost to Calvin Coolidge. He died on June 18, 1925, still a fervent believer in democracy…. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, SHSW 1960, pg. 217]

A Google a Day asks a baseball question: “What was the jersey number of the center-fielder who led the Phillies to their fifth National League pennant in 1993?”