Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will bring partly cloudy skies, isolated thunderstorms, and a high of ninety. Sunrise is 5:24 AM and sunset 6:35 PM, for 15h 11m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets at 6:30 PM this evening.

On 7.6.1775, Congress issues a declaration, almost a year before another, more decisive one:

On this day in 1775, one day after restating their fidelity to King George III and wishing him “a long and prosperous reign” in the Olive Branch Petition, Congress sets “forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms” against British authority in the American colonies. The declaration also proclaimed their preference “to die free men rather than live as slaves.”

As in the Olive Branch Petition, Congress never impugned the motives of the British king. Instead, they protested, “The large strides of late taken by the legislature of Great Britain toward establishing over these colonies their absolute rule…” Congress provided a history of colonial relations in which the king served as the sole governmental connection between the mother country and colonies, until, in their eyes, the victory against France in the Seven Years’ War caused Britain’s “new ministry finding all the foes of Britain subdued” to fall upon “the unfortunate idea of subduing her friends also.” According to the declaration, the king’s role remained constant, but “parliament then for the first time assumed a power of unbounded legislation over the colonies of America,” which resulted in the bloodletting at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

At this point, Congress assumed that if the king could merely be made to understand what Parliament and his ministers had done, he would rectify the situation and return the colonists to their rightful place as fully equal members of the British empire. When the king sided with Parliament, however, Congress moved beyond a Declaration of Arms to a Declaration of Independence.

On this day in 1934, violence strikes a malted milk plant:

Seven injured in riot at Horlick plant

On this day three policemen and five office employees of the Horlick Malted Milk Corp. were injured when a crowd of strike sympathizers stormed a motorcade of employees entering the plant’s main gate. Emerging from a crowd of 500 striking employees, the rioters overpowered police escorts, shattered windshields and windows, and pelted officers with rocks. Police blamed Communist influence for the incident, and former Communist congressional candidate John Sekat was arrested in the incident. Employees of the plant were demanding wage increases and recognition of the Racine County Workers Committee as their collective bargaining agent. [Source: Capital Times 7/6/1934, p. 1]

A Google a Day asks a winding search question about history: “What was the highest political office held by the third husband of the woman who was later married to the first husband of Patti Sacks?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will begin with clouds, give way to sunshine, with a high temperature of eighty-seven. Sunrise is 5:23 AM and sunset 8:35 PM, for 15h 12m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

After a five-year journey, NASA’s Juno probe has arrived and entered orbit around Jupiter:

PASADENA, California — For the second time ever, a spacecraft has slipped into orbit around huge and mysterious Jupiter.

NASA’s robotic Juno probe began circling the solar system’s largest planet tonight (July 4), ending a nearly five-year journey through deep space and becoming the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter orbit since NASA’s Galileo mission did so in 1995.

The milestone came late tonight, as Juno fired its main engine in a crucial 35-minute burn that slowed the probe down enough to be captured by Jupiter’s powerful gravity. That burn started at 11:18 p.m. EDT (0318 GMT Tuesday) and ended on schedule at 11:53 p.m. [Photos: NASA’s Juno Mission to Jupiter]

On this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson enters the Trembling Lands:

On this date, General Atkinson and his troops entered the area known by the Native Americans as “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The area was some 10 square miles and contained a large bog.

Although the land appeared safe, it would undulate or tremble for yards when pressure was applied. Many of the militiamen were on horses, which plunged to their bellies in the swamp. The “trembling lands” forced Atkinson to retrace his steps back toward the Rock River, in the process losing days in his pursuit of Black Hawk. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William G. Stark]

A Google a Day asks a history question: “Who was the former municipal judge that became the source of criminal allegations against the 42nd U.S. President?”

Good morning, Whitewater.

Independence Day in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 5:22 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 13m 24s of daytime. We’ve a new moon today.

On this day in 1863, Gen. Grant wins in the west:

The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, UnionMaj. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennesseecrossed the Mississippi River and drove the ConfederateArmy of Mississippi led by Lt. Gen.John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River; therefore, capturing it completed the second part of the Northern strategy, the Anaconda Plan. When two major assaults (May 19 and 22, 1863) against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4.

The successful ending of the Vicksburg Campaign significantly degraded the ability of the Confederacy to maintain its war effort, as described in the Aftermath section of the campaign article. Some historians—e.g., Ballard, p. 308—suggest that the decisive battle in the campaign was actually the Battle of Champion Hill, which, once won by Grant, made victory in the subsequent siege a foregone conclusion. This action (combined with the surrender of Port Hudson to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict.

The Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, following the siege at Vicksburg, is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Robert E. Lee‘s defeat at Gettysburg by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade and retreat beginning the same day, the turning point of the war. It cut off the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy, as well as communication with Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department for the remainder of the war.

On this day in 1836, a territorial governor takes his oath:

On this date in Mineral Point, Col. Henry Dodge took the oath of office to become the first Governor of the newly created Territory of Wisconsin. The Territory, previously attached to Michigan, encompassed what is now the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and portions of North and South Dakota. [Source:History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers, edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight. Sunrise is 5:22 AM and sunset is 8:36 PM, for 15h 14m 19s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 1.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Sometimes an ordinary dive turns into something more —

On this day in 1863, Union forces repulse Confederates on the third day of fighting at Gettybsurg:

Around 3 p.m., the cannon fire subsided, and 12,500 Southern soldiers stepped from the ridgeline and advanced the three-quarters of a mile (1,200 m) to Cemetery Ridge in what is known to history as “Pickett’s Charge“. As the Confederates approached, there was fierce flanking artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and musket and canister fire from Hancock’s II Corps. In the Union center, the commander of artillery had held fire during the Confederate bombardment (in order to save it for the infantry assault, which Meade had correctly predicted the day before), leading Southern commanders to believe the Northern cannon batteries had been knocked out. However, they opened fire on the Confederate infantry during their approach with devastating results. Nearly one half of the attackers did not return to their own lines.

Although the U.S. line wavered and broke temporarily at a jog called the “Angle” in a low stone fence, just north of a patch of vegetation called the Copse of Trees, reinforcements rushed into the breach, and the Confederate attack was repulsed. The farthest advance of Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead‘s brigade of Maj. Gen. George Pickett‘s division at the Angle is referred to as the “High-water mark of the Confederacy“, arguably representing the closest the South ever came to its goal of achieving independence from the Union via military victory.^[69] Union and Confederate soldiers locked in hand-to-hand combat, attacking with their rifles, bayonets, rocks and even their bare hands. Armistead ordered his Confederates to turn two captured cannons against Union troops, but discovered that there was no ammunition left, the last double canister shots having been used against the charging Confederates. Armistead was shortly after wounded three times.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be partly sunny with a high of seventy-eight.  Sunrise is 5:21 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 15m 10s of daytime.  The moon is a waning crescent with 5.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Yesterday I posted a photo of an aurora on Jupiter, but NASA and the European Space Agency have a video recording, too, of that phenomenon on the solar system’s largest world:

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopts a resolution that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved”:

On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence. In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three-to-two in favor of independence. The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence. The New York delegation abstained once again, since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they would be allowed to do so by the New York Provincial Congress a week later.^[74] The resolution of independence had been adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention. With this, the colonies had officially severed political ties with Great Britain.^[75]

On this day in 1863, a lieutenant from Wisconsin records events from the second day of fighting at Gettysburg:

Fighting at Gettysburg began in the afternoon on July 2 and lasted until after dark as Union forces repulsed a series of attacks. That night, Union Major General George Meade held a council of leaders to decide what to do next. Lieutenant Frank Haskell, of Madison, was present when they voted to “allow the Rebel to come up and smash his head against [their position] to any reasonable extent he desired, as he had to-day. After some two hours the council dissolved, and the officers went their several ways.”