Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have light snow in Whitewater today with a high of thirty-one. Sunrise is 6:32 AM and sunset 7:23 PM, for 12h 50m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 30.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1917, Pres. Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war against Germany:

Washington, April 2 — At 8:35 o’clock tonight the United States virtually made its entrance into the war. At that hour President Wilson appeared before a joint session of the Senate and House and invited it to consider the fact that Germany had been making war upon us and to take action in recognition of that fact in accordance with his recommendations, which included universal military service, the raising of an army of 500,000 men, and co-operation with the Allies in all ways that will help most effectively to defeat Germany.

Resolutions recognizing and declaring the state of war were immediately introduced in the House and Senate by Representative Flood and Senator Martin, both of the President’s birth-state, Virginia, and they are the strongest declarations of war that the United States has ever made in any war in which it has been engaged since it became a nation. They are the administration resolutions drawn up after conference with the President, and in language approved and probably dictated by him, and they will come before the two Foreign Affairs Committees at meetings which will be held tomorrow morning and will be reported at the earliest practical moment….

Before an audience that cheered him as he has never been cheered in the Capitol in his life, the President cast in the lot of American unreservedly with the Allies and declared for a war that must not end until the issue between autocracy and democracy has been fought out. He recited our injuries at Germany’s hands, but he did not rest our cause on those; he went on from that point to range us with the Allies as a factor in an irrepressible conflict between the autocrat and the people. He showed that peace was impossible for the democracies of the world while this power remained on earth. “The world,” he said, “must be made safe for democracy.”

Good morning, Whitewater.

The first day of the new month will be rainy with a high of forty-seven. Sunrise is 6:34 and sunset 7:22, for 12h 47m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 41.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, Americans landed on Okinawa, the beginning of an intense fight to take that island from Japan. The New York Times reported on the landing the next day:

Guam, Monday, April 2 — The United States Tenth Army landed yesterday morning on Okinawa, main island of the Ryukyus, 362 miles from the Japanese home islands. This morning found the invaders three miles inland and holding two airfields, with the defenders retreating all along the eight-mile landing line.

The veteran doughboys and marines met amazingly light resistance from the minute they landed yesterday at 8:30 A.M. They pushed up the steep slopes from the landing beaches with ease, although the shore was dominated by enemy guns on high ground.

Marines took the Yontan airfield at the northern end of the beachhead while Army troops captured the Katena airdrome in the southern area.

In his second communique on the operation Admiral Chester W. Nimitz at 9:30 A.M. today reported:

“United States forces on Okinawa advanced inland rapidly throughout the first day of the assault and by 18:00 (6 P.M.) on April 1 (East Longitude date), forward elements of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps and Marine Third Amphibious Corps had expanded in the beachhead to a three mile depth at several points. Enemy resistance continued to be light.

The Battle of Okinawa lasted over two months’ time, until the few remaining Japanese soldiers on the island capitulated in mid-June, and was the largest amphibious assault of its kind in the Pacific.

On this day in 1970, Wisconsin’s MLB team is founded:

1970 – Milwaukee Brewers Founded
On this date the Milwaukee Brewers, Inc., an organization formed by Allan H. “Bud” Selig and Edmund Fitzgerald, acquired the Seattle Pilots franchise. The team was renamed the Milwaukee Brewers, a tribute to the city’s long association with brewing industry.

A Google a Day asks a question about sports:

The creator of the first fantasy baseball league draft kept track of the players by hand and pulled statistics from what sports magazine?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be rainy with a high of fifty-six. Sunrise is 6:36 AM and sunset 7:21, for 12h 45m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 51.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1889, the Eiffel Tower opens to the public:

The Eiffel Tower (French: La tour Eiffel … is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.[1] The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011.[2] The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.[2]

The tower is 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall,[2] about the same height as an 81-storey building. Its base is square, 125 metres (410 ft) on a side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the aerial atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Not including broadcast aerials, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second. The third level observatory’s upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground,[2] the highest accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift (elevator) to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. Although there are stairs to the third and highest level, these are usually closed to the public and it is generally only accessible by lift.

On this day in 1998, this day in 1998, the Brewers change of leagues –

1998 – Brewers Go National
On this date the Milwaukee Brewers played their first game as a National League Team, losing to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. The Brewers’ transfer, the first since the American League was formed at the turn of the century, was necessary to create a 16-team National League and a 14-team American League. [Source: “Brewer’s Timeline” on the team’s official Web site].

A Google a Day asks a question about a poem:

In the poem that includes the lines, “This is the dead land, This is cactus land”, to what work is the first epigraph an allusion?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday in town will see a likelihood of afternoon showers and a high of fifty-six. Sunrise is 6:37 AM and sunset 7:17, for 12h 42m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 61.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Tech Park Board meets today and 8 AM, and a landscape committee of the Urban Forestry Commission at 1 PM.

On 3.30.1867, Secretary of State William Seward signs a treaty (later ratified) for a large purchase:

U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward signs a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox,” and President Andrew Johnson’s “polar bear garden.”

The czarist government of Russia, which had established a presence in Alaska in the mid-18th century, first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the Civil War. After 1865, Seward, a supporter of territorial expansion, was eager to acquire the tremendous landmass of Alaska, an area roughly one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States. He had some difficulty, however, making the case for the purchase of Alaska before the Senate, which ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote on April 9, 1867. Six months later, Alaska was formally handed over from Russia to the United States. Despite a slow start in U.S. settlement, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory, and Alaska, rich in natural resources, has contributed to American prosperity ever since.

On this day in 1865, Wisconsinites fight in Virginia:

1865 – (Civil War) Battle at Gravelly Run, Virginia
The Battle at Gravelly Run erupted east of Petersburg, Virginia. The 6th, 7th and 36th Wisconsin Infantry regiments participated in this battle, which was one of a series of engagements that ultimately drove Confederate forces out of Petersburg. Wisconsin’s Iron Brigade regiments fought at Gravelly Run, and when ordered to fall back before the enemy, they were the last to leave the field.

A Google a Day asks a question about architecture:

Of what type of architecture is the Paris Cathedral that in 1970 was the site of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of fifty-nine. Sunrise is 6:39 AM and sunset 7:18 PM, for 12h 39m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1929, the president gets a desk phone:

…President Herbert Hoover has a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. It took a while to get the line to Hoover’s desk working correctly and the president complained to aides when his son was unable to get through on the Oval Office phone from an outside line. Previously, Hoover had used a phone located in the foyer just outside the office. Telephones and a telephone switchboard had been in use at the White House since 1878, when President Rutherford B. Hayes had the first one installed, but no phone had ever been installed at the president’s desk until Hoover’s administration.

On this day in 1865, Union soldiers, including many from Wisconsin, near the end of a long war:

1865 – (Civil War) Appomattox Campaign Begins in Virginia
When it became clear that the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, was about to fall, Confederate leaders and troops began moving west toward the town of Appomattox Court House. Union troops, including several Wisconsin regiments, followed close on their heels in a series of battles fought March 29 – April 9, 1865, that became known as the Appomattox Campaign.

A Google-a-Day asks a history question:

What tactics did Germany use in France, forcing a desperate British withdrawal at Dunkirk?