Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be cloudy but relatively mild, with a high temperature of thirty. Sunrise is 7:03 and sunset 5:14, for 10h 11m 47s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On February 6, 1778, America and France make formal their alliance, with the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance.

On this day in 1917, a German submarine sinks the S.S. California:

Just three days after U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s speech of February 3, 1917 — in which he broke diplomatic relations with Germany and warned that war would follow if American interests at sea were again assaulted—a German submarine torpedoes and sinks the Anchor Line passenger steamer California off the Irish coast.

The SS California departed New York on January 29 bound for Glasgow, Scotland, with 205 passengers and crewmembers on board. Eight days later, some 38 miles off the coast of Fastnet Island, Ireland, the ship’s captain, John Henderson, spotted a submarine off his ship’s port side at a little after 9 a.m. and ordered the gunner at the stern of the ship to fire in defense if necessary. Moments later and without warning, the submarine fired two torpedoes at the ship. One of the torpedoes missed, but the second torpedo exploded into the port side of the steamer, killing five people instantly. The explosion of the torpedo was so violent and devastating that the 470-foot, 9,000-ton steamer sank just nine minutes after the attack. Despite desperate S.O.S. calls sent by the crew to ensure the arrival of rescue ships, 38 people drowned after the initial explosion, for a total of 43 dead.

On this day in 1967, activist Stokely Carmichael speaks at UW-Whitewater:

On this date nationally known activist Stokely Carmichael spoke at UW-Whitewater as part of a forum series entitled “Black Power and the Civil Rights Movement.” The chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee at Whitewater motivated students in attendance, stating that blacks must reclaim their identity and history, and organize to control local political offices, especially in large cities. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be mostly cloudy with a high of twenty-eight.  Sunrise is 7:04 and sunset 5:13, for 10h 09m 15s of daytime.  The moon is a a waning crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1937, Pres. Roosevelt announces a judicial plan that comes to be seen as court-packing, and falls ultimately to a policy of ‘No haste, no hurry, no waste, no worry’:

The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937^[1] (frequently called the “court-packing plan”)^[2] was a legislative initiative proposed by U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Roosevelt’s purpose was to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deallegislation that the court had ruled unconstitutional.^[3] The central provision of the bill would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70 years and 6 months….

Roosevelt’s legislative initiative ultimately failed. The bill was held up in the Senate Judiciary Committee by Democrat committee chair Henry F. Ashurst, who delayed hearings in the Judiciary Committee, saying “No haste, no hurry, no waste, no worry—that is the motto of this committee.”^[12] As a result of his delaying efforts, the bill was held in committee for 165 days, and opponents of the bill credited Ashurst as instrumental in its defeat.^[5] The bill was further undermined by the untimely death of its chief advocate in the U.S. Senate, Senate Majority LeaderJoseph T. Robinson. Contemporary observers broadly viewed Roosevelt’s initiative as political maneuvering. Its failure exposed the limits of Roosevelt’s abilities to push forward legislation through direct public appeal. The public perception of his efforts here was in stark contrast to the reception of his legislative efforts during his first term.^[13][14] Roosevelt ultimately prevailed in establishing a majority on the court friendly to his New Deal legislation, though some scholars view Roosevelt’s victory as Pyrrhic.^[14]

On this day in 1849, a university opens:

On this day in 1849 the University of Wisconsin began with 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. The first class was organized as a preparatory school in the first department of the University: a department of science, literature, and the arts. The university was initially housed at the Madison Female Academy building, which had been provided free of charge by the city. The course of study was English grammar; arithmetic; ancient and modern geography; elements of history; algebra; Caesar’s Commentaries; the Aeneid of Virgil (six books); Sallust; select orations of Cicero; Greek; the Anabasis of Xenophon; antiquities of Greece and Rome; penmanship, reading, composition and declamation. Also offered were book-keeping, geometry, and surveying. Tuition was “twenty dollars per scholar, per annum.” For a detailed recollection of early UW-Madison life, see the memoirs of Mrs. W.F. Allen [Source:History of the University of Wisconsin, Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1900]

JigZone ends the week with a puzzle entitled, Green Hose:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will give way to sunshine and a high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset 5:12 for 10h 06m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today, not yesterday: Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM, and there will be a Zoning Code Update meeting at 7 PM.

We’ve featured custom built Star Wars woodworking projects before, but nothing like this masterpiece from Martin Creaney, who hand-built the iconic Millennium Falcon over a year using more than 3,000 individually carved pieces of wood.

He had previously built an R2D2, an AT-ST Walker, and an X-Wing Fighter, but wanted to go big on his next project. His initial thought was to build the project using medium-density fiberboard (MDF), an engineered wood project that looks flat, which would require paint. But that would have hidden the detailed woodwork so he decided to leave it natural and make the body from real timber.

On this day in 1863, the 1st Wisconsin sees action:

1863 – (Civil War) Skirmish at Batesville, Arkansas
The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry fought a skirmish at Batesville, Arkansas.

For today from JigZone, it’s a 48-piece Mockingbird puzzle:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will bring snow showers in the morning with a daytime high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:06 and sunset 5:10, for 10h 04m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 27% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this date in 1865, Pres. Lincoln meets with representatives of the Confederacy:

…President Abraham Lincoln meets with a delegation of Confederate officials at Hampton Roads, Virginia, to discuss a possible peace agreement. Lincoln refused to grant the delegation any concessions, however, and the meeting ended within hours.

New York Tribune editor and abolitionist Horace Greeley provided the impetus for the conference when he contacted Francis Blair, a Maryland aristocrat and presidential adviser. Greeley suggested that Blair was the “right man” to open discussions with the Confederates to end the war. Blair sought permission from Lincoln to meet with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and did so twice in January 1865. Blair suggested to Davis that an armistice be forged and the two sides turn their attention to removing the French-supported regime of Maximilian in Mexico. This plan would help cool tensions between North and South by providing a common enemy, he believed.

Meanwhile, the situation was becoming progressively worse for the Confederates in the winter of 1864 and 1865. In January, Union troops captured Fort Fisher and effectively closed Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners. Davis conferred with his vice president, Alexander Stephens, who recommended that a peace commission be appointed to explore a possible armistice. Davis sent Stephens and two others to meet with Lincoln at Hampton Roads.

The meeting convened on February 3. Stephens asked if there was any way to stop the war and Lincoln replied that the only way was “for those who were resisting the laws of the Union to cease that resistance.” The delegation underestimated Lincoln’s resolve to make the end of slavery a necessary condition for any peace. The president also insisted on immediate reunification and the laying down of Confederate arms before anything else was discussed. In short, the Union was in such an advantageous position that Lincoln did not need to concede any issues to the Confederates….

On this day in 1959, bad weather leads to the deaths of three musicians and a pilot:

1959 – The Day the Music Died
Bad winter weather and a bus breakdown prompted rock-and-roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper to rent a plane to continue on their “Winter Dance Party” tour. Icy roads and treacherous weather had nearly undermined their performances in Green Bay and Appleton that weekend, so after a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, they boarded a four-seat airplane. The three performers and pilot Roger Peterson perished when the plane crashed about 1:00 AM on Monday, February 3rd (“The Day the Music Died,” according to singer Don McLean in his song “American Pie”) . [Source: Mark Steuer; Wikipedia]

Here’s JigZone‘s daily puzzle, Straw Rainbow, in a 62-piece tetris cut: