Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-four. Sunrise is 5:37 and sunset 8:24, for 14h 46m 58s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 42.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Downtown Whitewater, Inc.’s board meets this morning at 8 AM.

On this day in 1914, delivery of an ultimatum is a prelude to war:

At six o’clock in the evening on July 23, 1914, nearly one month after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a young Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Baron Giesl von Gieslingen, ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia, delivers an ultimatum to the Serbian foreign ministry.

Acting with the full support of its allies in Berlin, Austria-Hungary had determined in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination to pursue a hard-line policy towards Serbia. Their plan, developed in coordination with the German foreign office, was to force a military conflict that would, Vienna hoped, end quickly and decisively with a crushing Austrian victory before the rest of Europe—namely, Serbia’s powerful ally, Russia—had time to react. As the German ambassador to Vienna reported to his government on July 14, ‘the [note] to Serbia is being composed so that the possibility of its being accepted is practically excluded.’

In New York, residents look back on life in the Big Apple in 1981, and they don’t like what they remember seeing:

A Google a Day ask a question from literature:

What was the drug that Hermes gave Odysseus to help resist the magic of the witch-goddess?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 5:36 and sunset 8:25, for 14h 48m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 33.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets this afternoon at 5 PM.

On this day in 1931, an aviator first completes a solo flight around the world:

Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935) was a famed American aviator during the period known as the Golden Age of Aviation, the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream….

Post wanted to open his own aeronautical school, but could not raise enough financial support because of doubts many had about his rural background and limited formal education. Motivated by his detractors, Post decided to attempt a solo flight around the world and to break his previous speed record. Over the next year, Post improved his aircraft by installing an autopilot device and a radio direction finder that were in their final stages of development by the Sperry Gyroscope Company and the United States Army. In 1933, he repeated his flight around the world, this time using the auto-pilot and compass in place of his navigator and becoming the first to accomplish the feat alone. He departed from Floyd Bennett Field and continued on to Berlin where repairs were attempted to his autopilot, stopped at Königsberg to replace some forgotten maps, Moscow for more repairs to his autopilot, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk for final repairs to the autopilot, Rukhlovo, Khabarovsk, Flat where his propeller had to be replaced, Fairbanks, Edmonton, and back to Floyd Bennett Field. Fifty thousand people greeted him on his return on July 22 after 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes^[2][3]

A Google a Day asks a question about animation:

What comedians were the inspiration for the names of the two hungry cats in the short that marked Tweety Bird’s first appearance?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be sunny, with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:35 and sunset 8:26, for 14h 50m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 25.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

The inaugural Whitewater City Market, situated alongside the Cravath lakefront arch, takes places this afternoon from 3-7 PM. They’ll have nineteen vendors under pleasant skies, offering both produce, goods, and food.

Common Council meets tonight, at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1861, Union and Confederate soldiers fight the first large battle of the war:

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from the city of Washington, D.C. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The Union’s forces were slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops in their first battle. It was a Confederate victory followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces….

Confederate reinforcements under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston arrived from the Shenandoah Valley by railroad and the course of the battle quickly changed. A brigade of Virginians under the relatively unknown brigadier general from the Virginia Military Institute, Thomas J. Jackson, stood their ground and Jackson received his famous nickname, “Stonewall Jackson”. The Confederates launched a strong counterattack, and as the Union troops began withdrawing under fire, many panicked and the retreat turned into a rout. McDowell’s men frantically ran without order in the direction of Washington, D.C. Both armies were sobered by the fierce fighting and many casualties, and realized the war was going to be much longer and bloodier than either had anticipated.

A Google a Day asks a geography question:

The castle that sits on top of the volcanic mound, Beblowe Craig, was founded by what 16th century king?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday will be warm, with a high of eighty-four, and a probability of afternoon thunderstorms. Sunrise is 5:35 and sunset 8:27, for 14h 52m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 15.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth. The third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth.

Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA‘s Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a Command Module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that landed back on Earth; a Service Module (SM), which supported the Command Module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a Lunar Module (LM) for landing on the Moon (which itself was composed of two parts). After being sent toward the Moon by the Saturn V’s upper stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered into lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into the Lunar Module and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. They stayed a total of about 21 ¹?₂ hours on the lunar surface. After lifting off in the upper part of the Lunar Module and rejoining Collins in the Command Module, they returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

On this day in 1976, Hank Aaron hit his 755th home run:

1976 – Hank Aaron Hits Record Home Run

On this date Hank Aaron hit his 755th and last home run at Milwaukee County Stadium against the California Angels. [Source: Milwaukee Brewers]

A Google a Day asks a history question:

For whom was the ship, on which the man who served as governor for 12 of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s first 20 years sailed to the New World, named ?

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be sunny, with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:34 and sunset 8:28, for 14h 54m 12s of daytime. The moon’s a waxing crescent with 11.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked whether readers would go for bacon-flavored seaweed. Among respondents, it was a close vote: 51.8% of respondents said they wouldn’t, but 48.15% of respondents said that they would.

On this day in 1799, Michel Ange Lancret, a member of French technical commission, reports on the French discovery of the Rosetta Stone:

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Although it is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at nearby Sais, the stone was probably moved during the early Christian or medieval period and was eventually used as building material in the construction of Fort Julien near the town of Rashid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta. It was rediscovered there in 1799 by a soldier, Pierre-François Bouchard, of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt. As the first Ancient Egyptian bilingual text recovered in modern times, the Rosetta Stone aroused widespread public interest with its potential to decipher this previously untranslated ancient language. Lithographic copies and plaster casts began circulating among European museums and scholars. Meanwhile, British troops defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, and the original stone came into British possession under the Capitulation of Alexandria. Transported to London, it has been on public display at the British Museum almost continuously since 1802. It is the most-visited object in the British Museum….

The find was announced to Napoleon’s newly founded scientific association in Cairo, the Institut d’Égypte, in a report by Commission member Michel Ange Lancret noting that it contained three inscriptions, the first in hieroglyphs and the third in Greek, and rightly suggesting that the three inscriptions would be versions of the same text. Lancret’s report, dated July 19, 1799, was read to a meeting of the Institute soon after July 25. Bouchard, meanwhile, transported the stone to Cairo for examination by scholars. Napoleon himself inspected what had already begun to be called la Pierre de Rosette, the Rosetta Stone, shortly before his return to France in August 1799.[9]

On this day (or perhaps the day before), American militia pursue the British Band (so called from Black Hawk’s earlier alliance with Britain):

1832 – Dodge and Henry pursue the British Band
On this date General James Henry and Colonel Henry Dodge found the trail of the British Band and began pursuit of Black Hawk and the Sauk Indians. Before leaving camp, the troops were told to leave behind any items that would slow down the chase. The troops camped that evening at Rock River, 20 miles east of present day Madison. Some sources place this event on July 18, 1832. [Source: Along the Black Hawk Trail by William F. Stark, p. 119]