Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of fifty-seven. Sunrise is 5:26 and sunset 8:16, for 14h 49m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 6.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s CDA Seed Capital Committee meets at 4:30 PM, and the CDA Board meets at 5:30 PM. The Fire & Rescue Task Force has a working session at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1873, a United States grants a patent for pants:

…San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.

Born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria, in 1829, the young Strauss immigrated to New York with his family in 1847 after the death of his father. By 1850, Loeb had changed his name to Levi and was working in the family dry goods business, J. Strauss Brother & Co. In early 1853, Levi Strauss went west to seek his fortune during the heady days of the Gold Rush.

In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West Coast representative of his family’s firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.

Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss’ regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points–at the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly–to make them stronger. As Davis didn’t have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent for “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings”–the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them–was granted to both men on May 20, 1873.

Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for “waist overalls,” as the original jeans were known. At first they employed seamstresses working out of their homes, but by the 1880s, Strauss had opened his own factory. The famous 501 brand jean–known until 1890 as “XX”–was soon a bestseller, and the company grew quickly. By the 1920s, Levi’s denim waist overalls were the top-selling men’s work pant in the United States. As decades passed, the craze only grew, and now blue jeans are worn by men and women, young and old, around the world.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Wednesday game:

This Week’s Game — May 18-22

Prhymetime

For your viewing pleasure this week, we’re airing a series series every day. Each day’s clues lead to a series of answer words that, in order, rhyme with the title of an Emmy-winning TV series (comedy or drama).

Example:

Pretending to be sick; tartan pattern

Answer:

Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)

What to Submit:

Submit the series title and the rhyming words (as “Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)” in the example) for your answer.

Wednesday, May 20

Arid; bird of peace; really wet, as a tasty orange

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of fifty-six. Sunrise will be 5:27 and sunset 8:15, for 14h 47m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1649, Parliament passes an Act Declaring and Constituting the People of England to be a Commonwealth and Free-State:

Be it Declared and Enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same, That the People of England, and of all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging, are and shall be, and are hereby Constituted, Made, Established, and Confirmed to be a Commonwealth and Free-State: And shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free-State, by the Supreme Authority of this Nation, The Representatives of the People in Parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers under them for the good of the People, and that without any King or House of Lords.

On this day in 1675, Father Marquette passes away:

1675 – Fr. Jacques Marquette Dies

Fr. Jacques Marquette (1636-1675) died on this date in 1675 near Ludington, Michigan, at the age of 39. After the famous voyage down the Mississippi that he made in 1673 with Louis Joliet, Marquette vowed to return to the Indians he’d met in Illinois. He became ill during that visit in the spring of 1675 and was en route to Canada when he passed away. His diary of the trip is online in our American Journeys collection.

Here’s Puzzability‘s Tuesday game:

This Week’s Game — May 18-22

Prhymetime

For your viewing pleasure this week, we’re airing a series series every day. Each day’s clues lead to a series of answer words that, in order, rhyme with the title of an Emmy-winning TV series (comedy or drama).

Example:

Pretending to be sick; tartan pattern

Answer:

Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)

What to Submit:

Submit the series title and the rhyming words (as “Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)” in the example) for your answer.

Tuesday, May 19

Chirping insect; taste and touch, for example

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset is 8:14, for 14h 45m 50s of daytime. It’s a new moon today.

On this day in 1863, Gen. Grant begins the Siege of Vicksburg:

On this day, Union General Ulysses S. Grant surrounds Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, in one of the most brilliant campaigns of the war.

Beginning in the winter of 1862-63, Grant made several attempts to capture Vicksburg. In March, he marched his army down the west bank of the Mississippi, while Union Admiral David Porter’s flotilla ran past the substantial batteries that protected the city. They met south of the city, and Grant crossed the river and entered Mississippi. He then moved north to approach Vicksburg from its more lightly defended eastern side. In May, he had to split his army to deal with a threat from Joseph Johnston’s Rebels in Jackson, the state capital that lay 40 miles east of Vicksburg. After defeating Johnston’s forces, Grant moved toward Vicksburg.

On May 16, Grant fought the Confederates under John C. Pemberton at Champion Hill and defeated them decisively. He then attacked again at the Big Black River the next day, and Pemberton fled into Vicksburg with Grant following close behind. The trap was now complete and Pemberton was stuck in Vicksburg, although his forces would hold out until July 4.

In the three weeks since Grant crossed the Mississippi in the campaign to capture Vicksburg, his men marched 180 miles and won five battles. They took nearly 100 Confederate artillery pieces and nearly 6,000 prisoners, all with relatively light losses.

On this day in 1964, Milwaukee students protest:

1964 – Milwaukee Students Participate in First School Boycott

On this date, the 10th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, students from Milwaukee schools participated in the first boycott of the city’s public schools, a critical moment in civil rights and desegration movements in Wisconsin. Two months earlier, in March 1964, the NAACP, CORE, and other civil rights organizations formed MUSIC — the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee. Its purpose was to implement mass action to highlight the issue of educational inequality. For two years, sit-ins, picketing, prayer vigils, marches, and boycotts had raised public awareness about segregation but failed to move the school board to action. In December of 1965, Wisconsin civil rights activist and attorney Lloyd Barbee filed a formal desegregation suit in federal court on behalf of 41 black and white children, eventually decided in their favor in 1976. [Source: Rethinking Schools].

Puzzability begins a new week with a set of games, entitled, Phrymetime:

This Week’s Game — May 18-22

Prhymetime

For your viewing pleasure this week, we’re airing a series series every day. Each day’s clues lead to a series of answer words that, in order, rhyme with the title of an Emmy-winning TV series (comedy or drama).

Example:

Pretending to be sick; tartan pattern

Answer:

Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)

What to Submit:

Submit the series title and the rhyming words (as “Breaking Bad (faking; plaid)” in the example) for your answer.

Monday, May 18

In the clothes hamper; group of sheep

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will bring an afternoon of thunderstorms and a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 5:29 and sunset 8:13, for 14h 43m 53s of daytime. We’ve a new moon.

Friday’s FW poll asked readers if they thought Australian filmmaker Dave Riggs was too close to a shark when he took a picture of a great white. Just under fifty-four percent (53.85%) of respondents said that they thought he was too close, and 46.15% said that being near the shark was worth the shot.

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Here are the opening paragraphs of a New York Times story on the decision:

Washington, May 17 — The Supreme Court unanimously outlawed today racial segregation in public schools.

Chief Justice Earl Warren read two opinions that put the stamp of unconstitutionality on school systems in twenty-one states and the District of Columbia where segregation is permissive or mandatory.

The court, taking cognizance of the problems involved in the integration of the school systems concerned, put over until the next term, beginning October, the formulation of decrees to effectuate its 9-to-0 decision.

The opinions set aside the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court in 1896.

“In the field of public education,” Chief Justice Warren said, “the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

He stated the question and supplied the answer as follows:

“We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.”

On this day in 1673, an expedition begins:

1673 – Jolliet and Marquette Expedition Gets Underway

On this date Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, and five French voyageurs departed from the mission of St. Ignace, at the head of Lake Michigan, to reconnoitre the Mississippi River. The party traveled in two canoes throughout the summer of 1673, traveling across Wisconsin, down the Mississippi to the Arkansas River, and back again.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will have a high of seventy-seven and see an even chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Sunrise is 5:30 and sunset 8:12, for 14h 41m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s the anniversary, from 1929, of the first Academy Awards ceremony:

The official Academy Awards banquet took place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Some 270 people attended, and tickets cost $5 each. After a long dinner, complete with numerous speeches, Douglas Fairbanks, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which had been formed in 1927, handed out 15 awards in a five-minute ceremony. The awards presentation was somewhat anticlimactic compared to today’s Academy Award ceremonies, as the winners had already been announced in February.

In 1929, movies were just making the transition from silent films to so-called “talkies,” but all the nominated films were without sound. For the only time in Academy history, Best Picture honors were split into two categories: Best Picture – Unique and Artistic Production, and Best Picture – Production. The winner in the first category was F.W. Murnau’s romantic drama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, starring George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor. William Wellman’s film Wings, set in the World War I-era and starring Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen, won in the second category. Other winners of the night included the German actor Emil Jannings as Best Actor for two films, The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh; and Gaynor as Best Actress. She had received three of the five nominations in the category, and was honored for all three roles, in Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel. The Academy also presented an honorary award to Charles Chaplin; it would be the only honor the great actor and filmmaker would receive from the organization until 1972, when he returned to the United States for the first time in two decades to accept another honorary award.

Starting with the following year’s awards, the Academy began releasing the names of the winners to the press on the night of the awards ceremony to preserve some suspense. That practice ended in 1940, after the Los Angeles Times published the results in its evening edition, which meant they were revealed before the ceremony. The Academy then instituted a system of sealed envelopes, which remains in use today.

On this day, in 1913, Woody Herman is born:

On this date Woody Herman was born in Milwaukee. A child prodigy, Herman sang and tap-danced in local clubs before touring as a singer on the vaudeville circuit. He played in various dance bands throughout the 20s and 30s and by 1944 was leading a band eventually known as the First Herd. In 1946, the band played an acclaimed concert at Carnegie Hall but disbanded at the end of the year. The following year, Herman returned to performing with the Second Herd that included a powerful saxophone section comprised of Herbie Steward, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Serge Chaloff. He died in 1987. [Source: WoodyHerman.com].